FAMILY SOJOURN - US TOUR (PART 3 - SAN FRANCISCO / NEW YORK)

Napa Valley

A story by Stiff Lu – Night watch for Kasbah Boracay, proprietor at Loudhouse Music Enterprise, lead vocalist of the Rockoustic Blues Experiment, gatekeeper of The Rizal Underground and a musical voyager/dad to some of the most beautiful destinations of the World)

The third part of this series brings us to an unfamiliar territory and thus making it more exciting. I have personally been to San Francisco & New York a few times as a tourist but with the little ones in tow, make it foreign altogether. Luckily, thanks to family, friends, rental cars, trains & taxis, mobility is manageable. We head out for the 6 hour drive to San Francisco from LA right before lunch so we can have a relaxed trip. It was really nice as the weather was warming up in LA but slowly going down as we reached farther north. Something we really like, comparable to Baguio weather, only colder.

Twin Peaks Summit w/Dennis & mom

We met up with comrade DENNIS CHAN, along with mommy DOLORES CHAN, treated us to Thai dinner, followed by the compulsory tourist drive up to TWIN PEAKS SUMMIT, that afforded us only a quick peep as the cold Bay Area wind took us by storm. Soon after we headed out to meet family, who lent us a really cool place to stay in the city proper, with a community dimsum place flanked by a Chinese & Vietnamese restaurant.

The SF Crew Beyond Daydream

The next day we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge bound for rehearsals with the SF Crew, the coolest cats of Concord, CA – BEYOND DAYDREAM - they got us a place to stay in Napa Valley. After rehearsals, we enjoyed a night at the Marriot and did some wine tasting the following day. After another day of rehearsals we head back home to our city pad to wind up for show day. This setup in a proper venue called NECK OF THE WOODS, care of cool cat SHIKES BARBERO of JUNGLEBOLO ENTERTAINMENT.

US Tour main man Shikes Barbero

As the cool summer wind blowing in our faces, we managed a good sound check and soon enough people started flocking in. With the support of local Bay Area bands like MONUMENTAL BY FAR, SUNSET REPUBLIC, HYPHENS & FLEERBOX, it turned out to be an awesome evening with a lively crowd and hangin' with a few familiar faces in the audience; twas a truly magnificent second show! You can see Dennis Chan’s PHOTOS HERE and my selfie files HERE.

Family

The succeeding bright and sunny day, we were treated to lunch with family in beautiful Pacifica; We then drove around the city through the famous zigzag Lombard Street then stopping off at Fisherman’s Wharf to commemorate Father’s Day with ice cream. Later that night, we hooked up with Dennis Chan to check out his plants and took a short detour to Castro District to expose the kids. As darkness fell, we called it the night to prepare for our New York flight the next day. We did some packing, followed by a dinner meet with my long lost high school mates in town, always nice to catch up, but soon after we had to head out to the airport for our red eye flight to NYC.

Not quite New York City with Oca 

And we arrive at Newark Airport at 10am ET the next day, booked a hotel room for our first day to catch our breath; have a whole week ahead of us. Our gracious host is my UP football & former room mate OCA BRIONES took a day off to give us a bite out of the Big Apple! 

VIP United Nations Tour 

At 9am the next day, he picked us up from the hotel, took our stuff to Livingston, New Jersey before heading out to NYC. We parked at his conveniently located workplace, in the heart of the City and were nice enough to give us a special access tour around his prestigious office overlooking Brooklyn, he also took us to some of the most iconic tourist spots in the City and taught us how to get around as we had plenty of alone time the next couple of days. Luckily, with a little bit of research, Stephanie booked us to the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tours, highly recommend to all you travelers to the Big Apple, especially if time is tight. In just a couple of days, you can actually see most attractions in New York City

The rockinest cats of NYC - Rubberband

Those will be featured in the next chapter, along with the other stuff we did in New York & Boston. By late afternoon, I had to take off for Queens, to jam with New York’s finest Pinoy rockers – RUBBERBAND. I had luckily had a chance meet up with lead guitarist WARREN DAYA, before leaving the Philippines when he came for a visit. We caught up and rehearsed with the rest of the boys, that was really goood! Unfortunately though, I missed the bus to New Jersey but Warren was nice enough to provide me with a place to crash for the night.

Grand Central Station

This episode ends here at Queens in the meantime. The next episode will open from the day after when we take you through our Hop-on, Hop-off experience, which came cheap and convenient. We will take you through New York City and our continuing adventures to Boston & that happy show at UGLY KITCHEN to cap off the wek. Please LIKE my facebook page STIFF LU for more info and check out this episode's PHOTOS HERE

Our gracious hosts

This story is dedicated to all those who made it possible. Sofia, Stephanie and I are truly grateful to y’all and these PHOTOS are testimony to how much fun we had during this trip. THANK YOU!!! Stuff dreams are made of – travelling, touring, bonding and parenting all in one!

MORE PHOTOS HERE, ENJOY!!!