San Francisco - To Do 06May2014 Single Day Road Trip Down South(Golden gate lookout point, Cliff house, Facebook, Stamford University, Googleplex)

San Francisco - Where Crew Stays
San Francisco - To Do
San Francisco - To Eat

San Francisco - To Do
06May2014

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 Single Day Road Trip
(Golden gate lookout point, Cliff house,
Facebook, Stamford University, Googleplex)
Getting a Car
Enterprise Deal with Parc55.

*Rented the white Toyota Carola pictured left for USD50++ with all insurance in. FYI Red Ferrari goes for USD1000 a day with own insurance.*

Enterprise car rentals only deals with credit cards. Any tolls incurred on the road trip will be automatically charged to the credit card, making payment a huge convenience.
- Parc55 provides free return of vehicle and overnight parking. Basically you can drive the whole day and just return the car to Parc55's valet and you're done. You'll be given a valet slip for proof of returning the vehicle.
An Incredibly convenient return policy Parc 55 has with enterprise cars.

Make sure you get the crew rates. A Compaq car, like the Toyota carolla we got on our trip, went for USD50. With insurance all in and half tank gas, total went for about 75USD for the trip.
ABBATIP:- There is no cost to register additional drivers aged 25 and above.
- It maybe cheaper to go with the self top up option of gas, although packaged deal fuel maybe cheaper by the gallon, but you may fall short of fuel usage.
- Always get full insurance coverage when renting a car whilst in the USA.

One Day Road trip: Departed 830am from Enterprise Car Rental

Golden-gate Lookout Point

Click here for ABBA drive route form Parc 55 to Golden-Gate Lookout Point
Take note: The filter lane to the lookout point is on the right and it is located just before the entry onto the golden gate. There is a toll charge of USD9 for crossing the Golden-gate bridge. Don't miss it.

A nice lookout point to get great shots of the majestic Golden Gate bridge. The place also has an outdoor Museum/display giving the history and science behind this mega structure. There's also a gift shop on site. 

Due to a wrong turn, we had ended up crossing the golden gate bridge, but that really gives you the opportunity to see how massive this structure really is.

Click here for ABBA drive route form Parc 55 to Golden-Gate Lookout Point

Cliff House

Although The Cliff House is a - To Eat, I really felt that this place is a must stop place before setting of on your journey.

 

An incredibly picturesque view, sitting cliff-side. One gets to enjoy from choosing
between two bistros for dining at the Cliff House. Definitely, a not to be missed view and dining experience, with large window panes to maximize the postcard scenery which stands before you.

There are loads of pictures in the restaurants, reflecting the long history of Cliff House, depicting how it had been standing for many years and even survived a fire.

*Bistro downstairs with similar prices to upstairs joint*

*The remnants of the public pool back in the day.*

From the pictures and as seen in the video, one can still see the remnants of the once public pool during the golden age.

Dined at Cliffhouse's Bistro for Brunch

Something a little different about this place is the type of bread they serve up. The bread's here are more like profiteroles. Served light, hot and the accompanying jams are amazing. Especially the marmalade, which in most cases have a bitter taste to them, but not so with this here. Sweet with a refreshing, zesty lemon flavor, Amazing! Definitely try their marmalade.

Ordered:
Went with staff's top three recommendations
The Ben Butler - Warm Open-Faced Dungeness Crab Sandwich, melted cheddar cheese, sourdough bread, baby greens USD28.50
*The winner amongst all the dishes, and definitely worth is weight in Dungeness Crab. You really get to taste the natural sweetness of the crab and all it's accompanying components do not disappoint. Well worth the order.*

Ocean Beach Sandwich -
Shrimp Salad, open-faced Dark Rye with Tomato, Avocado, Baby Greens
USD18.95
 
*Nothing really special here. In fact, it feels a like cheap frozen shrimp that got mixed with mayonaise and slapped onto a rye bread.*

Eggs San Francisco - Two poached Eggs with Dungeness Crab, toasted sourdough bread, brandy cream sauce USD18.95 

*Eggs done well and to standard, although the Dungeness crab was a little over powered by the creaminess of the perfectly poached eggs.*

Total USD72.21 Fed:3

Cliffhouse and it's accolades

For the dining experience, good food at reasonable prices and its deep history, a definitely not-to-be-missed location that I would make it my, must-go to pit stop before setting off for another road trip. Two thumbs up!
Click here for ABBA location of Cliff House Terrace Room, 1090 Point Lobos Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121, United States

Facebook HQ

Click here for ABBA location of Facebook Inc.1 Hacker Way, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States

Probably the most successful social media at this time, the home of Facebook. Some puns, "Never been so close to Facebook/Checking into Facebook now." There's really nothing much around the buildings other than the iconic 'like' sign.

We now know the secret behind Facebook =). And yes, as expected, Internet is available for you to Check-In. Cheap thrill, but definitely memorable =D
Click here for ABBA location of Facebook Inc.1 Hacker Way, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States 

Stamford University

 

Click here for ABBA location of Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
*Wikipedia* Stamford University has produced the second highest number of billionaires of all universities, behind Harvard. Companies founded by Stanford alumni include Hewlett-Packard (William Hewlett and David Packard), Cisco Systems (Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack), Nvidia (Jen-Hsun Huang), SGI, VMware, MIPS Technologies, Yahoo! (Chih-Yuan Yang and David Filo), Google (Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page), Wipro Technologies (Azim Premji), Nike (Phil Knight), Gap (Doris F. Fisher), Palantir Technologies (Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen), PayPal (Peter Thiel and Elon Musk), Logitech, Instagram, Snapchat, and Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla). The Sun in Sun Microsystems originally stood for "Stanford University Network."Other companies and organizations founded or co-founded by Stanford alumni include the Special Olympics, LinkedIn (Reid Hoffman), Netflix (Reed Hastings), Yammer (David O. Sacks), Varian Associates, Pandora Radio, Electronic Arts, Trader Joe's, Dolby Laboratories, Capital One, Renren (the Chinese version of Facebook), TechCrunch, IDEO, Kiva.org, Acumen, Victoria's Secret, Firefox, Match.com, WhatsApp (Brian Acton)^[208] and Participant Media. *wikipedia* with notable Alumni such as .

One can take a stroll on its grounds and admire the architecture and beautiful grounds where greats have walked.

Probably the most impressive was their gift/book shop which dwarfs anything and everything seen back home. It probably more apt to call it a self-contained mini-mall with its own coffee shop on the upper level to boot. Huggeeee. Free Internet available to the public all over campus. 
Click here for ABBA location of Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States

Google

Vern's first solo, left hand drive getting us safe to Google.

Click here for ABBA location of Googleplex, Googleplex, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Thanks to Google for helping countless students come up with material for tons of thesis papers and much more. This is the same location where which they filemed the movie, "The Internship."

 

The best place to work with amazing perks for company Staff. Google bicycles and cars on hand to get you everywhere, a beach volleyball court and football field even. Theres also a Google shop which, requires passing staff members to grant you access into the shops, which isn't really difficult for anyone to help you out.

Lastly not to be missed, are the Giant life size Android figurines located outside one of its office buildings. For Android users, they would recognize all the past operating systems.

All of Google complexes aren't accessible to the public (as seen in footage below), but the grounds themselves are a beautiful pace to work, promoting movement and I guess creativity. Yes there is Internet here to check-in as well.

Click here for ABBA location of Googleplex, Googleplex, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

We had planned for Apple HQ and one of red woods park down south but the day was late and everyone was totally shagged out. Dinner was at Pier39's Fog Harbor Restaurant where we went for their Signature Ahi Tuna, and later continued the gastronomical journey, with dessert at the Stinking Rose.
Click here for ABBA food review and location of Fog Harbor Restaurant (Seared Ahi Tuna. Third time home run order!)
Click here for ABBA food review and location of Stinking Rose (Signature Garlic Ice-cream, two time hit!)

Returned car rental at Parc 55 valet at 2130hrs

A large majority of the route itself didn't have much of a scenic quality to it. The only exceptions were the first two legs from Golden Gate Bridge Lookout point and the drive toward the Cliff House. 
Click here to see the entire driving route we took for the day trip
Total distance covered with backtracking and detours, approximately 180km total.