During my stay in Fresno, we spent a night in Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, 3737 N Blackstone , Fresno, CA 93726 Phone: 1 559-226-2200. Its room was very spacious, modern and nice, unfortunately we didn't have much time to stay longer. We stopped by at a chinese restaurant to have lunch, its garden were very beautiful with some sculpture stones and small pool surrounding with beautiful gardens, the gate also showed Chinese decoration dominant with red color. 
On the journey by bus to San Francisco the driver brought us to stop by at traditional market, it's called Casa de Fruta. He said that the market sold directly from the farmer around the place, so the fruit was still fresh. They had a wonderful selection of fruits, dried fruits, nuts, pumpkins and so much more. I bought a full basket of big sweet strawberries, it only costs around US$2.99. 
It's October, so there were many pumpkins at the yard, they put it with nice decoration. Everywhere you could find the orange pumpkins, there were a train and hays, some scarecrows adding the decoration. You also could take picture behind a farmer picture with a hole for your face and hand, as if you are the farmer. It's fun and beautiful. I thought the pumpkin in the yard were real, in fact it made of stone, the real one is in the stand to be sold. They also displayed grapes, jam (home made), oranges, etc. on an old truck inside the store.
There was also Casa de Wine which sold wine, you could taste the wine before you bought it. There was a fish pool beside the store, also a playing ground near to the pool for the children. All the part of this place called "Casa de ...", you could also find Casa de Choo Choo which sells chocolate. The staff was usually so friendly, chatty, charming and fun. Great to get out from the bus and stretch our legs on the long drive to SF from Las Vegas.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Awesome Casa de Fruta, Fresno
Monday, November 17, 2008
Classical Roman Palace of Fine Arts
Have you heard about Palace of Fine Arts? During my tour to US last Oct 2007, the guide brought us to visit it. It’s very fresh and idyllic with its beautiful lagoon, fountain, birds and swans. The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture. 
A single dome remains from the eight identical structures that were originally constructed. Towering colonnaded walkways linked the buildings on the site, but only a few remain intact. The dome of the Palace of Fine Arts just outside the Exploratorium and the adjacent lagoon has often been used as backdrops for movies, even Indonesian movie (Eiffel, I’m in Love) used this place too when they took picture for meeting point of Tita (Shandy Aulia) and Adit (Samuel Rizal) in San Francisco.
The lagoon was intended to echo those found in classical settings in Europe, where the expanse of water provides a mirror surface to reflect the grand buildings and an undisturbed vista to appreciate them from a distance. In many places the edges are subsiding into the water, forming uneven and dangerous surfaces that are fenced off from the public and used by turtles to sun themselves. Australian eucalyptus trees fringe the eastern shores.
My friend and I ran to go to the other side of the lagoon to get a better picture, we had to rush, because we only got half an hour to enjoy the place. It’s a pity because the weather was very nice, unfortunately we had a very tight schedule. Of course we could not enter by the Exploratorium, the public science museum founded in 1969 by the physicist Dr. Frank Oppenheimer. It’s dedicated to teaching science through hands-on exhibits. Many of its exhibits are created by visual and performing artists as well as scientists and educators.
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123