guests

The next morning we took Phung, Vu and Kevin to San Francisco to visit the Golden Gate Bridge but before that we stopped by a popular Thai restaurant for lunch. Hoa used to eat there all the time when he worked in San Francisco many years ago....

The restaurant is really a little hole in the wall but they have authentic Thai food. They cook the food right in front of you..

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension Bridge from the San Francisco Bay onto the Pacific Ocean, connecting the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge span in the world from 1937 to 1964, and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and California. Since its completion, the span length (length of suspended roadway between the bridge's towers) has been surpassed by eight other bridges. The span of the bridge is 4,200 feet = 1,280 meters long. It still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

Walking from the parking lot to the bridge... Half of the bridge in under the fog. This area is know to be foggy.

This is the beginning of the bridge.

Lots of tourist and cyclists....

View of Alcatraz island. Alcatraz is a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It used to be a military prison, and then a federal prison until 1963. Today, the island is a historic site and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry. Alcatraz has been featured in many movies, TV shows, cartoons, books, comics, and games. the most famous movie made was with Clint Eastwood, the movie was named Escape from Alcatraz.

We are now on the bridge looking down. The height of the bridge is 746 feet = about 227 meters.

You can see the city (San Francisco) at the end. Lots of cyclists around this area.

By the way, the Golden Gate Bridge is the most popular place to commit suicide in the United States. The deck is approximately 245 feet (75 m) above the water. Jumping from the deck of the bridge to the water takes only about four seconds of fall, but once the jumper(s) hit the water at about 86 miles per hour (138 km/h), the impact is so strong that it is the equivalent of hitting concrete, so the jump is often fatal by itself but if a lucky jumper happen to survive the initial jump, he will not make it in the water and will either will drown or die of hypothermia because the water is freezing cold. Basically, if you choose to commit suicide at the Golden gate it is pretty certain that it will be fatal.

After Golden gate we drove to China town. China Town used to be really exciting but now I think Little Saigon in Orange County is a lot bigger and more exciting to see.

Today is the last evening for Phung in California so we took him to St. John Bar and Grill. This place has the best burgers in town and on Wednesday all the burgers are half off so the place is full of people. Definitely a fun place to be and the burgers are very good.