My Bay Area Stay In Five Pictures

... one for each day I was there.

The iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

It's hard to believe this is just 10 minutes from downtown SF.

Possibly my favorite picture from the trip.

Fame and historic Castro Theatre on Castro Street.

Of course, the wine caves. Oh, the wine...

My FSU Campus Walk

It's always weird going "home". Here's my observance of an empty campus.

Former location of my last residence. They've since bulldozed that building and constructed this fortress.

Also, renaming the street to "Learning Way". It'll always be Wildwood Drive to me.

There's actually a bus service that circulates the campus now. You can tell because there's a confusing map every 20 feet.

Wescott Building is still as gorgeous as ever.

I always thought Circle K was just a gas station.

It was as if the loner flyer on the empty bulletin board was summoning me.

My first Tallahassee home- Gilchrist Hall

Landis Green aka 'Lawn Where Girls With Low Esteem Sunbathes in Bikinis'

My Hong Kong Flight Photos

Ah, the luxury of having a sibling who can get you first class seats on an international flight....

Yes, LEG room!

Not even two hours into the flight, I was offered to booze up. Yes, they're all mine.

The pre-meal snack.

I scoffed down the soup and appetizer so I didn't

get the chance take that picture, but the main course... beef.

To cap it off, a nice little vanilla ice-cream dessert

with a chocolate swirly stick. All the above

was just the FIRST meal.

Dinner and a movie? I was ecstatic that Peterio Award

nominee for Best Picture "The September Issue" was showing.

I've never seen a plane flying under another one

ten hours into a flight. Object was definitely closer

than they appear in this picture.

The beautiful Alaskan landscape,

sans Levi Johnston or Sarah Palin.

I can definitely get use to this "lifestyle".

My New York City Transit Museum

With a Sunday afternoon slowly wasting away, Wendy and I decided to make an impromptu visit to the New York Transit Museum. I haven't been there since I won a drawing contest in junior high school (don't laugh), and have always wanted to go back to ride some old subway trains and buses.

Thank goodness they got rid of the wicker seats. I hate wicker.

If Wendy's that terrified of driving a bus, wait til she sees the faces of the pedestrians.

This car reminds me of jail.

Missing a stationed train.

I prefer this price for a train ride.

Also, this ad in one of the train cars definitely got its point across.

My Santa Rosalia

Taking a note from Brian over at BK Southie, I went to this year's Santa Rosalia fair in the neighborhood for the first time in years with a few friends. Though there seems to be plenty to do, the main themes are food, games and very loud music.

Street festivities are a lost art.

The Greeks came out to celebrate as well.

No, I didn't bet my rent money.

A rotating meat grill. Intense.

We lost skeeball race derby... to a five year old girl.

Trying my first deep fried Oreo cookie... I spit it out right after.

My Po Lin Temple Pictures

Forget what I said about the cable car at Ocean Park being the best I've ever seen, the 5.6 kilometer ride to Po Lin Temple is by far the most breathtaking cable car ever. It even has a glass bottom! Once you're up there, you're treated to a giant Buddha on top of 400 or so stairs and a Buddhist temple where you can only eat vegetarian foods. 

View from the top.

Me and my veggie platter. True story- a child was complaining how he wanted chicken nuggets and his parent's response was "If you have chicken nuggets, the buddhists will kick you down the hill." The child was then content with his honey tofu, which was actually quite good.

My Hong Kong Disney Adventures

One of the two places I wanted to visit during my stay in Hong Kong was the spankin' new Disneyland Theme Park. While there are A LOT of criticism surrounding the lack of entertainment value from locals, I couldn't help but get caught up in the nostalgia of it all. As soon as the 'A Whole New World' played through the speakers, it was as if I was transformed back to my childhood. Blame the magic of Disney.

The very spacious entrance to the park.

The railroad staple to every Disney park.

'The Lion King' done to Broadway-esque perfection AND in under 30 minutes!

Highlight: 'The Golden Mickeys' combine my love of award shows and live theatre from various Disney musicals.

Apparently, it's Sleepy Beauty's castle that lies in Hong Kong, not Cinderella's.

First "ride"- Dumbo.

I'm actually going a lot slower than this picture might indicate.

The park even has its own state of the art subway station...

What a magical day.