San Francisco

"The coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in S.F." Mark Twain

Well, that definitely held true. Getting here we went by Mt. Shasta, and I've posted that elevation. It's a little shorter than Mt. Rainier, 14,411 but not as tall as Mt. Whitney in Yosemite, which we may or may not see pending the time we have to get to Vegas.

Once we got to the hotel we had to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which makes NJ Transit look archaic. It's just incredibly fast. In the city we HAD to take the trolly. The girls absolutely loved "hanging out" although I have to admit it was fun but very scary when the girls are out there.

We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf - Pier 39, the kids got to see the sea lions, and then I had us walk up Lombard, through North Beach up to the top of the "Crookedest Street". Again, they were troopers and so was Roger. His feet held out, although he wasn't exactly enjoying it. We took the trolly back to the BART, past China town - the girls got a great perspective of the city, and enjoyed it all.

Now, for us, the city has changed. It was very crowded, much more like NYC foot traffic than we've seen anywhere else. Could be the holiday weekend, so we'll give it another chance on Monday. But just getting in, riding on the trollys cost us more than $100, so we should have considered staying in the city this time. It was really cold, the girls ended up buying sweatshirts because of it, and some of the restaurants were outrageously priced.

All of this could have been that we were tired from the drive, didn't expect the weather or the traffic and crowds. We're going down to Monterrey / Carmel today and we'll be back in the city tomorrow. Monday we're going to Napa / Muir woods and then the city one last time. Amazing sites, but we're missing home a little bit - we're half way through the trip. But this next half will be less moving from place to place, so we should rebound well. It's an incredible country.

Wish you all a very HAPPY and safe 4th of July. Thanks for the posts too - not easy to do, I had trouble posting too - think you need an account or something.