San Francisco with Mom

We took Mom on a tour of San Francisco and enjoyed walking around to see many sights.  It was nice being early at Pier 39 so we could gawk at the sea lions - lots of sea lions, not many people.  We even had a personal "mini ranger talk" with a lady from the upstairs Sea Lion Center.  Very cool.

A lovely clear day with a good view of Alcatraz:

We found something that someone had left:

Entertainment at the Musee Mechanique:

One of the highlights was our cable ride up the steep streets:

The experience was even better than bargained for, because at one point the trolley stopped on a steep uphill and the brakeman looked out and yelled, "We're not gonna make it!" - what??

Turns out a van was jutting out in our lane, the driver was off delivering something, and we had to back down into the previous intersection to wait until the trolley men could find the guy so the van could be moved out of the way.  A cable car going the other direction while we were waiting:

Next up - a walk through the busy streets of Chinatown to the gate on Grant Street:

We popped into the Ferry Building Marketplace for lunch at Frog Hollow (delicious), then took a tram along Embarcadero to the base of Coit Tower.  As we were starting up, a woman coming down told us "God speed" (!) and suggested we stop to smell the flowers along the way.  An excellent suggestion, there were lots of great flowers to admire:

Fun stairs to follow up the hill:

It was worth it for the views, and the day was so clear that we decided to take the elevator all the way to the top of the tower.

Alcatraz and Angel Islands:

For a less-urban experience, we drove over to Land's End and enjoyed watching the surf and the sunset:

To finish the day we stopped at Philz Coffee (most excellent) and then drove up to Twin Peaks to admire the city lights (beautiful!).

And finally, a local Mountain View "attraction" that John recently found:

A nice start to some fun times with Mom!