Grieving Trip: Day 4 – 07/25/07

Oakland:
Oakland Chinatown Mall

Oakland Chinatown Library
It was an Asian library in the Mall. We visited this mall a few times.

Peony Restaurant
Shirley and I went to this dim sum restaurant a few times. I remember we went there once with Connie and Rene, and once with Desmond. We had also joined the CUHK OAA Chinese New Year dinner gathering there in 2005.

Oakland Chinatown Mall, Photo I-III
The pictures show the outlook of the mall.

Oakland Chinatown

Oakland Chinatown Grocery Store
When Shirley and I lived in Santa Rosa before, sometimes we chose to go to Oakland instead of San Francisco on the weekends. If so, we bought groceries from these stores.

Oakland Chinatown Restaurant
This is another (oldest?) branch of D&E restaurant. Very good deal on afternoon tea (3pm – 6pm) food and drink.

Emeryville:

Ikea Furniture
Shirley and I liked visiting Ikea even though we ended up did not buy much from there every time.

Emeryville Highway Entrance
This was a semi-hidden highway entrance that we always drove through when we went home after visiting Ikea.

El Cerrito:

Saigon Seafood Restaurant
Shirley and I went to this dim sum restaurant a few times. We also enjoyed having dinner there. We liked their food because they were delicious and had great variety. Unfortunately, the restaurant was burnt down by fire and it never recovered.

Pacific East Mall

Pacific East Mall, Photo I-III
The pictures show the outlook of the mall.

Coriya Hot Pot City
They had restaurants in El Cerrito, Richmond district and Milpitas. Shirley and I had been to all of them. The food served by this Taiwanese hot pot restaurant was not impressive. They did not serve any seafood anymore. They used to serve better food.

168 Restaurant
Shirley and I had been to this Taiwanese restaurant a few times. The food was OK. The restaurant was spacious and comfortable, and usually we did not need to wait for the table. We had been there with Frank and Sharon once.

Macau Cafe
We liked this Hong Kong style restaurant, and had been there quite a few times. They had different variety of food, and the curry was tasty. We went there with David and Alesia once.

Asian Pearl Restaurant
It was a relatively new dim sum restaurant opened in 2006. It has grand decorations and good chef. Shirley and I had dim sum with Prof. Wong and Catherine. We also had dinner with Yuchih, Steve, and his girlfriends.

Range 99 Supermarket
Shirley and I went grocery shopping in this supermarket a lot. It was clean and tidy. It was also very big and had all variety of food that we needed.

Kingstone Book Store
We went inside the store once and spent a whole 15-20 minutes looking at the books and CDs.

Sheng Kee Bakery
It was a franchise Taiwanese bakery store. There is also another one in Sunset district that we visited. Shirley liked to buy bakery there.

Richmond Bridge

Every time we went to East Bay, we would drive past the Richmond Bridge. When we went home, it was usually dark at night.

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Grieving Trip: Day 3 – 07/24/07

San Francisco Chinatown:

SF Chinatown Landmark
A traditional landmark where we had taken photos together when we first visited SF Chinatown in 2000 (or 1997?).

SF Chinatown Library
Shirley and I went there to apply for library cards. We borrowed some books in order to come up with some idea on the baby’s Chinese name, and we also borrowed some English and Chinese story books. She read the story books to the baby inside the tummy at night.

SF Chinatown Bookstore
We went there to buy a baby poster. Shirley believed that if she looked at the baby poster every day, our baby will be as cute as the baby in the poster. It turns out to be true.

SF Chinatown Supermarket
We liked to shop in this supermarket as this is close to her Citibank. It has a good variety of goods, and the price is right.

Some grocery stores that we visited frequently on Stockton Street.

Some bakery stores that we visited frequently in SF Chinatown.

SF Chinatown Bakery Store, Photo I
They had $1 for 4 buns and also a lot of variety. Shirley liked to buy different types of cake pieces there.

SF Chinatown Bakery Store, Photo II
One of the staff there was Citibank customer. She knew Shirley and she would give her extra egg tarts when we bought there. That’s why I always wanted to buy from there, but Shirley was shy and felt embarrassed.

SF Chinatown Bakery Store, Photo III
It was right opposite Citibank and was tourist famous for their egg tarts. There was always a long line waiting.

Shirley had worked in this Citibank for her last 2 years.

Some restaurants that we visited frequently in SF Chinatown.

SF Chinatown Restaurant, Photo I
This one was close to Citibank. Shirley did not like to eat there, but she would buy takeout from the restaurant.

SF Chinatown Restaurant, Photo II
This restaurant was opened in 2006 (or 2005). They had branches in Oakland and Richmond district. They had $1 red bean drink and $2 noodle soup at afternoon tea time. Shirley was so-so about this restaurant but I liked to go there a lot.

SF Chinatown Restaurant, Photo III
This restaurant opened until very late and had a lot of variety of dishes. We had dinner with Frank, Sharon, Yuchih, and Steve here.

Grieving Trip: Day 2 – 07/23/07

Santa Rosa:

Pho Vietnam
This was our most favorite weekend lunch restaurant in Santa Rosa. Their noodle soup, especially Bun Bo Hue, was very delicious. Shirley and I had been there many times. Before we married, Yuchih and I went there a lot too.

McDonald
This was one of our frequent weekend lunch places when we could not think of anywhere else to go in Santa Rosa.

ARCO
Our frequent gas station as it was right off our highway exit.

Our House in Santa Rosa, I
It still looked the same from the front view.

Our House in Santa Rosa, II
The side bushes had grown so tall that it essentially blocked outsiders from viewing the house and backyard.

Our House in Santa Rosa, III
It was Shirley’s proposal to put flat stones at the front door. It made the house entrance look more elegant.

Rohnert Park:

Home Depot
We went to Home Depot in Rohnert Park almost every day in the first month after we bought our house in Santa Rosa.

Next Level Communications
The main building, soccer field, and volleyball court remained there even though the site is now closed.

Petaluma:

Calix Network
I hadn’t got time to drop by the company, so I just took a picture when I was driving on Highway 101.

San Rafael:

San Rafael Kaiser Hospital
This was the hospital where Shirley had her pre-natal checkup before the pulmonary artery dissection incident happened. We went to this ER where they performed a CAT scan and claimed that Shirley had a pulmonary artery dissection.

4th Street in downtown San Rafael

House of Lee Chinese Restaurant
This is the closest dim sum restaurant in North Bay (especially when Shirley and I lived in Santa Rosa) without crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We agreed that the quality of dim sum and fried noodles were quite acceptable. We had dim sum with Yuchih and Kenn when we lived in Santa Rosa. We also had dim sum with Frank after we moved to Mill Valley. I remembered I got a parking ticket because the meter expired.

My Thai Restaurant
Shirley and I had been to this Thai restaurant a couple times.

Rafael Jewelers
We once spent a long time in this shop looking at the brand name watches.

San Rafael downtown Church
This was a landmark in downtown San Rafael.

Philly Cheese Steak Fish and Chips
Shirley loved the philly cheese steak and potato chips here. If we were not crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for our weekend lunch, she would like to go to this restaurant.

Beauty Expo
Shirley liked to buy hair beauty products from this shop which had a lot of variety.

Borders Book Store
We occasionally went to this book store together to spend our time.

Toysrus
We bought toys here when we attended others’ baby showers and kids’ birthday parties.

Mill Valley:

Mill Valley Plaza at East Blithdale Avenue

Peking Wok Chinese Restaurant
We went to this Chinese restaurant once when we were looking for apartments in Mill Valley. This is the one and only one Chinese restaurant we ever went in Mill Valley.

Bank of America
We went to this BoA to open a bank account on the first weekend we moved to Mill Valley.

Rite Aid
There were sometimes some good rebate stuff in this drugstore.

Mill Valley Apartment Neighborhood

Safeway
We bought milk, ice-cream, and occasionally groceries in this supermarket. It was right across the street from the apartment. When Shirley became pregnant, I picked her up here when she took the bus home from work.

Tamalpais High School
This high school is right next to the apartment. I joked about letting Carina study in this school. Shirley said that it will be many years and we won’t know whether we will still live in Mill Valley.

Gomez Way
The road Gomez Way was very steep. When Shirley became pregnant, she could not walk up the steep road. I picked her up at Safeway when she returned from work.

Mill Valley Apartment
Shirley and I moved to this apartment on December 10, 2004.

Grieving Trip: Day 1 – 07/22/07

19th Avenue:

19th Avenue in San Francisco, Photo I
This is the road that Shirley and I drove past a lot whenever we went to Daly City, SFO Airport, Peninsula, and South Bay.

19th Avenue in San Francisco, Photo II
This was the area where we stalled the Porsche in the middle of the road when we first bought the Boxster.

South Sea Seafood Village:

This was the restaurant where Shirley had her last dim sum lunch before we went to Kaiser.

Clement Street:

Ocean Restaurant
A dim sum restaurant where Shirley and I went for lunch, afternoon tea, take out, and dinner occasionally.

Richmond New May Wah Supermarket
We went grocery shopping at this supermarket a lot because it is the closest one when we came from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Shirley’s graveyard:

Shirley had a new neighbor. They were a Caucasian couple who were just buried there last week. I met their daughter and grandson.