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I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Chilling in one of my favorite American cities

By Kin Mun "mrbrown" Lee

July 13^th, 2015

This was a short trip to San Francisco (a good 18-20 hours from Singapore) for Apple‘s 2015 WWDC.

I wish I had the time to stay longer but a family vacation to another island resort was already planned after this event, so I made the best of it and stayed in San Francisco for seven days.

I took an under-packed Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30 (A30) with me for the clothes and new MacBook 12-inch, and the Tom Bihn Night Flight Travel Duffle (NFTD) for my camera gear, which consisted of a Fuji X-T1 with the 10-24mm, the 16mm f2.8, the 56mm f1.2, and an X100T. This was my first time taking the NFTD on an intercontinental trip.

The bags were awesome for the trip. I backpacked the A30 and carried the NFTD with the Absolute strap. The NFTD fit under the seat in front of me on the plane and provided easy access to my stuff, and the A30 had no troubles in the overhead bin. Though most of the time, the bags were placed above because I was flying Business this time. Both bags fit into the United sizer for cabin bag and personal item. I put the bags in the sizer to satisfy my own curiosity.

I stayed mostly in the Mission District, in a lovely AirBnB loft apartment, and just spent long hours walking and eating there, since I have already visited all the traditional touristy places in previous trips to SF.

It was lovely to have a Cubano and Cappuccino at La Taza‘s for lunch, or just chill out at places like Philz Coffee on Folsom for breakfast.

And yes, that’s the famous Phil in the photo. I said hi to him on my last day in Mission, thanking him for the great coffees I have had all those mornings, and he asked me where I was from. “Singapore,” I said.

“I will come to Singapore, when I am done conquering the US,” he quipped good-naturedly.

Phil Jaber of Philz Coffee, at the Folsom Philz.

I was directed to La Taza‘s by the AT&T salesman on my first day in SF. I asked him where HE got his coffee, and he said, “La Taza’s, go to La Taza’s.” He said he doesn’t start the day without his coffee from this restaurant. And since I heard so much about Cubanos from the movie Chef, I thought I’d order one too. No regrets. All good.

Another great coffee joint I enjoyed in Mission was Sightglass at 270, 7th St.

Coffee and cake at Sightglass Coffee, on 7th St

Mission isn‘t as scary as it used to be many years ago when I was here as a teenager, and it has become a gentrified hipster place, though it still has tons of attitude.

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I enjoyed walking around San Francisco and finding random things like bands performing at street corners, or DJs spinning at a street market.

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I also loved the friendly staff at Bi-Rite Creamery at 18th St, and could not resist a Banana Split with their popular salted caramel ice cream. That ended up being my dinner, because I was too full to eat any more after that.

Don’t ask me how many calories this Bi-Rite sundae was. I don’t want to think about it.

Breakfast at Brenda‘s French Soul Food at Polk St was a filling affair. I got there early on a Sunday morning and avoided the queue that came soon after.

I ended up at Sausalito one fine Saturday, simply because I was at the Ferry Terminal to visit the weekend market and decided to jump onto a 11.55am ferry just for fun.

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Then while in Sausalito, I noticed they had a weekend-only shuttle bus to Muir Woods for only $5, so I thought, why not? I remember coming here as a kid, and later on my honeymoon. Muir Woods and her giant redwood trees are still as lovely as ever.

Back at the Ferry Terminal, three young siblings who call themselves The College Fund Street Band were performing. I stayed and listened to their set, and bought their CD. A very talented family, the Fongs.

I also wondered around Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and spent a fair bit of time hiking and soaking in the sights at Land’s End. You can see the Golden Gate bridge from here. There was a outdoor play being performed that day too, at Land’s End.

I took the BART sometimes. And sometimes, I ended up in places I didn’t expect, like Oakland, which had a different vibe from San Francisco.

I told the wife about my little adventures and she made me promise to take her back here. Next time, I shall try to stay longer than a week, for sure. The Tom Bihn A30 and NFTD travel combo was perfect for this trip, and would have been more than enough for two or more weeks as well. I managed to squeeze a pair of San Antonio Shoes (SAS) that my mom loves and asked me to buy, into the A30 too. Having no checked luggage also meant breezing through all my airports like Singapore, Narita and SFO.