Boarding Gate 101

Originally I wanted to go to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art but I learned that it was closed for repairs. With that option unavailable I thought I would not be able to visit any museums in the city, but I found two of them while exploring the South of the Market area, the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Cartoon Museum. The main hall of the museum What drew me to the Contemporary Jewish Museum was the striking architecture of the building that currently houses it. Designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the building is a fusion of the old and new. The "old" part of the museum is the brick Jessie Street Power Substation building, from which the "new" part, a dark-blue steel cube, dissects at an angle. The effect is breathtaking. Aside from the fact that this museum curates works related to the Jewish culture and history, this is unique in that it has no permanent collection. The exhibitions are borrowed from other cultural instituti...

I was already figuratively kicking myself in the head for not bringing a bottle of water when I started climbing the steps of the Aztec pyramid that loomed in front of me. It was already high noon, the sun beating down behind me, with the humidity adding clamminess to the heat. Still I trudge on, not wanting to miss my first chance to climb up the magnificent monument before me. That monument was the Pyramid of the Moon, the first of the great pyramids that we visited in Teotihuacan, Mexico. I was in a group that traveled from Mexico City to Teotihuacan in a bus, on my second day in Mexico. We entered the complex through a small building from which the guide told us stories about the Aztecs and how Teotihuacan was established around 100 AD and how it grew into one of the greatest cities in Mesoamerica. The Temple of the Moon As we weaved through the pathways and corridors of the stone building, we were able to see up close the material and style that the Aztecs u...

The cruise wasn't really planned. Originally I wanted to go to the Presidio, a park in San Francisco, so I can get a closer look at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, but in my exploration of the city on my second day , I somehow ended up in the Fisherman's Wharf after taking the cable car. As I explored the wharf, I chanced upon the the red and white boat in Pier 43 1/2. I saw a billboard advertising a cruise around the bay, and upon checking, I was informed that they still have one more journey in late afternoon. I signed up, paid for the ticket and went around the wharf until 30 minutes before the voyage. The Red & White fleet The boat was to sail around San Francisco Bay for about two hours, until sun down. I was kind of excited as I haven't been on a boat since Boracay , and it is my first time to take a boat in the United States too. I was in line to board the boat early, since I was already in the wharf, but it didn't take that long for us to get ins...