A lot of things happened last week so this might be a bit lengthy. The entire week was lovely and sunshiny (by that I meant to say, just plain sunny) so Amarind and I decided to roam around, not that we really had to, but we thought it was the perfect time to go out and, as the saying goes, “smell the flowers.” So we did, on Tuesday last week, in San Francisco — just like what we had discussed and agreed upon the night before we hopped on BART. Actually, we didn’t really discuss anything. We just, sort of, preempted what each other had in mind and, true enough, we both thought of going to San Francisco.

The truth is, we went to San Francisco because we had to be along Market St. at 5 PM Tuesday for a forum about search engine and social media – topics that comprise 40% of our daily conversation (that’s a lot, considering we also talk about our family, places to go, what to eat, future plans, what to wear, ad infinitum.) And while we didn’t have to be part of that event, we chose to go because we love updates and innovation – things that excite and inspire us. The food was great, but I wasn’t really hungry to try anything major. Amarind offered me a glass of wine and then a bottle of beer. I guess I had four rounds of strong, ice-cold beer and it was one of the engineers from Kenshoo who said, “Hey, that’s strong,” just before my face turned warm from the subtle kick of alcohol.

But that’s another story.

You already know by now, I guess, that I love to devour as much information as I could about a place that I’d like to visit someday, so when I’m already in that place, I will have a sudden rush of déjà vu and let out “oohhs” and “aahhs” as I try to reconcile my experience with what I read. So you can just imagine the level of research that I did on San Francisco — or the Bay Area in general — before I moved here. And, inspite of that, I’m still learning new things and what I thought were gonna be “oohhs” and “aahhs” countenance turned into “oh, really?” and “oh, wow!” sometimes with more !!! at the end.

I’ve been eyeing the Japanese Tea Garden for almost two weeks now or maybe, unknowingly, for a few months now since I first read about it somewhere — in a Lonely Planet guide, most probably — so I was ready and eager to go. It was just a matter of getting there, or at least planning to get there. I thought it would be a great place to take pictures and marvel at the beauty of Zen landscapes and bonsais. And, to tell you the truth, I have never seen cherry blossoms in person so taking pictures of these beautiful pink flowers up-close would have been a treat. [Read more...]

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