1 April 2013 - Let's go to the Mall!

Since my Taiwan trip 2 years ago, I realized that it MUST be possible to take public transport within any city to anywhere. Because, if not, how the locals get from place to place? Of cos in SFO, a lot of places are pretty inaccessible without car, especially if you live a little off from the city and not near any BART (their MRT). BUT I was determined that I could find a way to get to the supposedly near-by-if-you-drive mall by public transport.

I did some research and after a delightful pizza bread & campbell soup meal prepared by my sister & sis-in-law, Sheena & I, finally were able to give our SIL a breather from us (haha) as we departed on our Mission Get To Hillsdale Shopping Mall. 

I have a travel journal & I try to write as frequently during my trip as possible to capture my emotions &  put my memories into words. So I'd like now to take an excerpt out of my travel journal about how I researched & made my way to Hillsdale Shopping Mall. 

Excerpt from 1 April 2013, 2359 Entry:

"...Thank God for maps on iPhone (I didn't upgrade to iOS 6, so my maps still provides directions including public transport timing etc). We used that to navigate & successfully took Samtrans 251 to Hillsdale Shopping Mall. It is only abt 15mins bus ride away."

Some of their bus-stops are just a pole like that. We nearly missed it cos we weren't looking up. 

What is there to complain, when the view from the bus stop is as above... 

We were probably too anxious to board the bus, we didn't manage to catch a pic of the exterior of the bus. 

That's me... A proud navigator!

And a short ride later...

Arrived at destination!! :) 

We did a little shopping & were very excited about trying Cheesecake Factory!

They have like 20 over cheesecakes!!! Truly a cheesecake factory!!! Sheena couldn't pass up trying their mains, so we ordered a steak & a fried zucchini to share.

You know you're in the right place when there's a salad on the menu name after you. 

What makes my favourite food (if you don't know me: bread) even more wonderful? When it comes free & warm & with large serving of butter!

I am never a milkshake girl. But I thot since i'm in America... I ended up only sipping like 2 sips & packed it back. My foodology is that, how can you drink something that's almost just cream when you're eating a meal. Drinks should ideally be liquid. Hence my aversion to frappe & ice-blended drinks. anyway.... 

Presenting... Fried Zucchini. When Sheena & I were looking at the menu deciding on the side, we saw zucchini & we were like, this word is so familiar, it sounds nice, let's go with our instincts. So without googling, we ordered. We were like almost positive it was some kind of mushroom. So when it came, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is small crunchy cucumbers. But it was yummy and we learn a new word.

We ordered the steak & salmon combo with mashed potato. We were so full that we had to takeaway the cakes we ordered & also brought home some zucchini (newly learnt word).

And finally at night we shared these two cakes - Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake & Carrot Cheesecake (i'm sure they had fancier names which i can't recall) & calories with our chocolate-junkie SIL & scared-of-extra-calories Kor.