Stylesipped with Chictopia in San Francisco

I really don't know what to say. San Francisco was just pure awesomeness. The weather was fantastic, and everyone kept telling me I came on the perfect weekend; sunny and 68 degrees Fahrenheit! I won’t argue on that! I've always dreamed of going to the US; ever since I first started learning English. It's just something about the American way that is so appealing to me; and it was just how I thought it would be, maybe even better!Friday the 4th was the day of our Chictopia and Stylesip experience. We kicked of the day by having coffee and breakfast at the Chictopia office in downtown San Francisco at 9:00 am; where I got to meet the stylish founders of Chictopia: Helen and Corinne, Kmart representatives, the other two winners; Frenchy and Jenny - as well as Liz from Late Afternoon.
After breakfast, we headed over to Kmart in Hayward where we were taken on a tour of the facilities. We got some insider tips on how they created specific looks for the ad-campaigns and learned about the different lines within the Kmart clothing collection; i.e. (my favorites) - Route 66 and Jaclyn Smith.After a little tour, we received our gift certificates; and since Kmart doesn’t ship to Norway (yet), I just had to spend it all at once. Let me put it this way; I had NO trouble finding stuff to bring back home! Time flies when you’re having fun, and before I knew it – hours had passed. I ended up with two giant bags of goodies, which I’ll show you guys in the weeks to come! I think some of the girls were kind of surprised of my shopping “techniques”, as I don’t particularly stick to just one style or size. I like walking through maternity sections, plus sizes sections and don’t like wearing size 4 clothes just because I can drag it across my bum. Comfort is so important to me!
After our shopping-spree, we drove back to the office to leave our bags and go for lunch. I posted a few of these pictures earlier, but I wanted to have them in this post as well.When we finished stuffing ourselves with the best Chinese food I've ever tasted, we had three hours downtime before dinner at 6 p.m. I chose to spend that time relaxing with some coffee; I was just so tired from hours on planes and airports. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out the way I planned. I was totally jetlagged: which led me to almost faint several times. I actually had to leave in the middle of dinner because my body just said no. I hope I wasn’t too rude; but I guess the alternative would have been much worse. I did however have time to share some thoughts on the blogging world and provide some inputs regarding possible upgrades within the Kmart world. Everyone was so sweet and welcoming; as well as understanding when I had to leave.
I learned so much about the local San Francisco history; both from Chictopia and my wonderful friend Patti, who was so awesomely kind to let me stay with her for the weekend - AND show me around the city. After nine hours of rest, I woke up Saturday morning feeling much better. Patti warned me ahead of time that she was going to take me for some serious sightseeing.
We started by taking public transportation across the city; where I got to see China Town, the financial district and various buildings; including the giant construction known as the Bank of America. She took me down to Fisheman's Wharf for coffee where we walked amongst a culinary explosion of free tasty treats, took a calming walk by the sea and around to the piers for the ultimate vegan experience.
We drove over the Golden Gate and up Conzelman Road where we had the perfect view of the city. She took me through the wonderful parks of San Francisco all the way to the beach in the east where we walked down to the waves so that I could touch the Pacific Ocean. Then we went up to Twin Peaks for another amazing view of the city, and finished it all of by having dinner downtown at a lovely Thai restaurant.
I woke up bright and early at 5 a.m. to catch my domestic flight to Newark. Luckily there was no other layovers on my way back to Norway! With clear skies and an amazing view of the whole U.S, I of course had to take pictures of everything. Look how beautiful it is out there!
I really tried my best to just live in the moment and let the city lead the way; and I think I'll always remember the salty smell down by the bay, the fresh breeze up at Conzelman Road - the sweet taste of Vietnameese dumplings and the way the heated asphalt smelled at noon.
To give you a little insight into how long my trip actually was, take a look at this map from google. I actually traveled to the other side of earth; and all together that is about 13452 miles / 21648.895 km. Not bad for a weekend getaway! If you’re curious about what the prizes actually included; it was the trip to San Francisco itself, breakfast at Chictopia, Kmart gift certificate worth $300, Chictopia tote, lunch at Fang Restaurant, Cisco flip cam, Lula magazine, buttons and lip-stain; as well as dinner with Kmart representatives.

I don’t know how to thank you guys, Chictopia and Stylesip for making it all happen. The days in San Francisco was just amazing; THANK YOU so much for the experience! Read the Stylesip article of our day here, the Chictopia report here, Frenchys blog and Jennys blog !

The groups shot in the restaurant and all seven of us together on the streets are borrowed from Frenchy.

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12 comments:

  1. OMG, I'm so glad you had a WONDERFUL time, honey!!! :)))

    Those photographs are AMAZING!

    Missed you! Welcome back! :)))

    http://myfashioninsider.blogspot.com/

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  2. These photos are so amazing. It looks like you had a great first trip here.
    My Heart Blogged

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  3. What are such beautiful photo. So adorable. the food look so much delicious!!. Happy with all of this!!

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  4. Anonymous8:05 AM

    Great post ;)
    http://mademoiselleandcomag.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/les-derbies-signent-et-persistent/

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  5. That sounds like an incredible trip :D I'm so happy for you. My favorite part of this post is the pictures of the sky...they're beautiful.

    Yasmeen
    Castle Fashion

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  6. Anonymous9:49 AM

    wow, amazing images lovely! you had a fabulous time, as i can see and made new friends! xoxo

    http://some-kind-of-style.blogspot.com/

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  7. Amazing! I'm so happy for you that you won all of this, and that you had a great time. AND that you took loads of pictures. Omg. I wanna travel over there. Can we do it, but maybe for a bit longer? ;)

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  8. terrific! gorgeous photos and sounds like you got a fantastic time there!

    www.elekonchicboutique.com

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  9. Så artig! Du tar kjempe klare bilda. Litt småsjalu sia du fækk fær te sf... Har hørt at da e finar der enn california og e falt jo helt pladask for cali...

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  10. Aww, this was such fun to read and your photographs are amazing! It's so nice that you were really excited to visit the States, too. I've heard so many people from other countries say that they're not really interested in visiting the US, but it's difficult when you see the sorts of things we have in television and music representing our culture and society. There's a lot more than just Jersey Shore here, haha. I love the little things about San Francisco, like the buskers playing music at Fisherman's Wharf. It's a lovely place. And the hills are like a work of art! I'm afraid of heights so that wasn't easy to deal with.

    Anyway, I'm so glad it was such a nice experience. I hope you get to come back soon!

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  11. Oh great pictures !! You are so gorgeous !
    XOXO

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