Travelog Day 4: The Great Mall of the Bay Area

I woke up early again. Well, I slept at 2am last night, but woke up today at 9:30am. My shoulder blades ache. Ugh. I think it’s an “almost” old-age sickness… Arthritis! *bawl!! I’m not yet that old though 🙁 *

I went to my bank yesterday to check on my account *if I had wiped it out yet hahaha*, and woohoo thank goodness all intact *pffft all US$100 of it hahaha*. After which I went to have the car gassed up and washed. I didn’t realize our car was SOOOO dirty (inside and out)! Geez, if this were a bag, it would never have gotten this dirty! Yeah well, so what if it’s a ratty car, what’s inside is more important– in other words, ME *muwahahaha PUKE CHOKE GAG*. (Trailer trash driver– haha) Then I had to pass by the post office to get some more stamps for DM. Uh-oh I still haven’t gone to Kinkos. I should get this done today before I head off with DM to the City to meet LPT and her DH, who are both due to come into the City by the Bay around 2pm 😀 *hahaha yeah baghag royalty summit… I’m LPT’s handmaiden :-D*

*Thebaghag’s VIP removal status alert*: So I spoke with my kind SA at Goyard yesterday. He had to be the bearer of unfortunate news (unfortunate for me!!!)– Goyard can no longer get any of my custom handpainting for free. *BAWL* See, now I am telling you peeps, I AM NOT VIP 🙁 *sniff* Ok so I had 2 done for free in the past. (Remind me to quit being such a whining freeloader! hehe). I guess Goyard is becoming very popular now, that’s why no need to give away freebies anymore 😀

Ok so anyway after all those errands, we proceeded to the Great Mall of the Bay Area. This is the grandmama of outlet stores. I was looking forward to this. I was hoping to score some neat and cheap finds at the Saks Fifth outlet. They usually get cheap shoes. In the past, I scored a pair of Jimmy Choos stacked heel mules for US$190!

After an hour of driving (yes, an hour on the freeway!), we arrived. Thebaghag and DM will go far places just to shop 😀 First order of “business” was to get something to eat at the food court. I mentioned to DM earlier that I was on “diet”, and when we got to the mall, she said “let’s get some crepes”.

My diet went down the toilet. I ended up with this huge and tasty lump of sugar 😀 Crepe with nutella, banana, and coffee ice cream!!

Post sugar overload, we began our bargain hunt. DM went her way and I went mine. First though, I had to go get shoes for the kiddies. Moms loooove PAYLESS 😀 *woohoo!!* I got black shoes for DT for school. Cost me US$14.99 + tax 😀

Charlotte Russe outlet: Woohaa this is a huuuge store. I hoped to find some good stuff here. And I was rewarded. Truly. See the white denim rack that says US$11.99 Buy one get one free? There was ONE pair of white denims, size 7 left. The others were gauchos in white denim. I grabbed the size 7 jeans and a pair of white gauchos at size 5 and went into the dressing room. WOOOHOOO both fit me like a glove!!!

GOOD FIND: TWO pairs of white denim pants for only US$13.01 (Php 657.00!! That’s only Php 328.50 a pair!!)

There were also all these white jumpsuits (short skirt style, not short shorts though) for only US$1.99 each!!! No, I didn’t get one of these because they were too short. But holy crap, now I realized I should’ve! Wouldn’t they be perfect for the beach to wear with your bikini? *grumble*

Burlington Coat Factory: I bought most of my baby things in this store. They have a HUGE baby depot all the way in the back of the store. I was even thinking of getting another Peg Perego stroller last January but just decided against it. Maybe I should get one… If I get the chance to go back again to the Great Mall, I probably would get one… Methinks some more.

Marshalls: I will hold off going to this store until after I go to Off Fifth. Marshalls is another place to buy kids stuff. You are a smart shopper if you get stuff from Marshalls. Why pay full price for kids’ stuff? They outgrow it so fast. Wait til they’re older and they’ll be shopping alongside you at Saks Fifth Outlet *hehehe*

Oh crud, the Gap Outlet is currently being renovated 🙁

BCBG Max Azria: There was nothing here that was worth getting. Absolutely nothing 🙁 Some 5 years ago, I remember buying tons of clothes from this store. But today? NONE.

Nautica: Hmmm made me wonder. Do guys still buy stuff from Nautica? Or is this a passe brand? Can someone answer that for me? I am clueless when it comes to guys’ stuff. I like Abercrombie and Fitch more somehow 😀 (by the way, there is an Abercrombie outlet here in this mall too!)

Calvin Klein: Underwear, anyone? *hehehe* What else do you get at CK apart from their underwear? Some years back, their jeans were hot too. 😀

WOOOHOOOOO!!! Neiman Marcus will soon have an outlet in this mall as well! LAST CALL CLEARANCE CENTER? Holy cow, I am SOOO there if it opens before I leave for Manila!! *jumps up and down*

Off Fifth- Saks Fifth Outlet: Ahhh now we’re talking! First stop, BAGS! I spied a few Marc Jacobs leather bags (still pricey at US$599.99), though there were the smaller pochettes for under Php 10,000 (about US$175+). They have them in pistachio and indigo colors.
(Sorry I couldn’t take photos inside the store. This is the exact bag. Photo credit: ebay) There are very small dirt marks/ scratches on the bottom/ back of the bags (flaws vary haha), hence the huge markdowns. (They originally retailed for US$650!) But hey, the bag is already cheap! Anyone want one? Let me know and SMS me at (+1415) 2835591. Hopefully I get to go back to this mall again!

I headed over to the shoes section afterwards. Found a pair of Sigerson Morrison flats that I sorta like (not too decided yet because they showed far too much foot decolletage hehe). They were going for US$150. There also was a pair of Jimmy Choo gold thongs but sized 8. It just fits my feet right, but felt uncomfortable, so I was not getting these. I went to look for a size 7.5 for my sister-in-law. There weren’t any 🙁 I reckon these size 8 thongs would be a bit too big for her feet since she is about a size 7. There weren’t anymore nice shoesies 🙁 *sob*

So finally I hit the racks. Headed straight for the designer racks that held Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Prada, Pucci, Chanel, Marni, Temperley, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, St. John, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcons, Missoni, Michael Kors, Dior. After all, who knows, my luck could be there instead of the shoes or bags.

I pulled out 3 outfits. A Balenciaga top (suuuuper nice), and 2 dresses– an A.McQueen (celadon) and a Michael Kors (brown). I tried on the Balenciaga top first when I decided to take photos of the dresses, so you don’t see the Balenciaga here. The 2 dresses did not fit me. *Sob* I am too fat for them 🙁 *major sob* They were sized 38 too 🙁 And here I thought I had already lost some weight. Drat. Maybe it was because of that super fattening crepe 🙁 *tsk tsk*

The one that got away: So I thought I already wanted this super nice Balenciaga lacey top from the S/S06 collection. It was very very nice, very signature Nicolas Ghesquiere, and very “couture”. It was priced at US$499.99 (originally marked at US$1,200!). It was not really a top-top because you still need to wear a tank top underneath this. It was more a “shell”. I hate myself for not having taken photos of it. Anyway, so I tried it on, and liked it. But I was still reeling from my old Balenciaga dress expense (hahaha see it still haunts me to this day). *Psst note though that This Balenciaga top had all the tags intact hehehe* So I just set the top aside and sorta hid it in the Missoni dress rack area (nobody really looks at the Missonis here- they’re all just frumpy. Nothing nice). I was thinking I’ll come back for it later, if I can really justify the price for it and still like it after an hour of walking. Guess what, when I decided I wanted it, IT WAS GOOOONE!!!!!!

Other outlet stores here in this mall include St. John, Bebe, Guess, Hollister, Old Navy, Children’s Place, Forever 21, Mikasa, Nine West, Nike. Before I knew it, stores were already closing! Ugh, we came to the mall too late. We only stayed here for a good 2 hours. We got to Great Mall at 6:45pm already and it’s already 8:45pm. Time to eat. DM and I decided to just head back for dinner. We didn’t want the mall closing down on us as we ate *hehehe… trapped inside the mall… tsk tsk*.

We drove back to Oakland for dinner. Finally. We were going to eat at my sibs’ old college haunt, that chinese restaurant which was open til 3am *hehee*. Sun Hong Kong. When we got there, I was shocked. Since when was the restaurant renamed New Gold Medal? *Snort, what a cheesy name!* We walked in (look at all that meat…) and asked if the chef was still the same. It was. So we sat down and ordered. The menu was the same, but heyy, I didn’t see this before– FROGS porridge… YUCK. (see bottom line of the menu)

I ordered my usual– Roast Duck wonton noodle soup.

DM ordered Abalone and Chicken porridge.
And we shared an order of the beef tripe with bell pepper and onions in black bean sauce. This dish was so delicious! And I know how hard it is to cook beef tripe too– if you don’t cook it thoroughly, it’ll be like chewing rubber. The beef tripe of this dish, is crunchy and really, really good.. *salivate*

Hehe while we ate, check out the restaurant atmosphere. See that amah (grandma) sitting by the corner on her own? She is wearing PJs 😀 This was how laid back the restaurant was!! 🙂

Our meal cost us US$18.00 😀 Not bad! It was a great night with the cheap jeans purchase, but it was also a sad one since that Balenciaga top got away. Some lucky hag got to take it home and be all “couturey”. Tsk 😀 hehehe I’m so mean.

I gotta get ready now. Gonna head over to the City in an hour.. Woops.. I think I need to do the Kinko’s already 😀

xo