[MRM]

Now that the trip is over I thought I should come back and give a trip report and say thank you to all who gave us such good advice. It was all too short but we really had a nice vacation.

We ended up having less time than anticipated. We booked tickets only Saturday to Saturday, not Friday to Sunday, in deference to busy schedules and the need for the body to sleep some time, even during vacations. Unfortunately, we selected a favorably priced outbound flight that was at 8 PM, rather than 8 am, which pretty much blew Saturday and made Sunday morning a later exercise than planned, but that turned out OK. The boys and I were able to sleep in a bit and still see the Minneapolis Auto Show with relatives on Saturday before heading off to the airport in the evening. The flight was eventless and we taxied to the hotel because my wife irrationally fears Uber after dark. Taxi fare was about twice as much as Uber would have been, but it was a small rounding error in a long trip, so no harm no foul.

We stayed at the Argonaut Hotel right in Fisherman's Warf. I chose it because it was the most centrally located hotel to the touristy areas we wanted to see. It turned out to be mostly perfect for our purposes. The upside was that it is right in Fisherman's Warf, but it abuts a beautiful park and beach, Buena Vista Irish bar is kitty corner to it, and the end of the cable car line, complete with turntable is right across the street. Add an In and Out Burger joint and ten thousand wonderful restaurants within walking distance, and you have a good hotel selection. Even better, they gave us a room on the park side that had a vie of the Golden Gate Bridge. All in all the hotel selection was awesome. On the downside, it was expensive. And then then charged more on top of expensive and then they added in the extras and finally, to make matter complete, they charged a $35 a day resort fee. Parking was valet only and they charged $70 a day. The local municipal ramp was on the back side of the building and cost $40 a day. The $30 difference pays for tourists' ignorance and the convenience of not having to walk a block to get your car. The solution was to not rent a car and uber everywhere, and when you needed a car to rent by the day, but more about that later. Other than the price, the hotel was perfect for us. On a short vacation you're always trading money for time. We paid a lot for our hotel but the location saved us a ton of time and hassles and made the vacation more enjoyable. In the end the cost was worth it, but it was hard to swallow at the time.

Sunday we slept in modestly and took an Uber to eat dim sum at a highly rated restaurant. It wasn't the most highly rated, but it was the best within a pretty long drive and well regarded by everyone we talked to. It was really good. We walked through China Town and pretty much all of the South Beach. We bought some tour tickets and went on a harbor cruise. Walked through the park and Fisherman's Warf, Number Two Son ate at In and Out Burger, and we tumbled into bed happy and tired.

Monday we took a tour that brought us to Muir Woods, over to Sausalito, and then a ferry back to San Francisco. Despite some rain we saw all there was to see and had two fabulous meals in a seafood restaurant in Sausalito and then in Fisherman's Warf. Tuesday was a rainy day so we explored Fisherman's Warf from top to bottom. We spent most of the rest of the time shopping in Union Square. We enjoyed the shopping more than we expected. We walked a little more of South Beach, the little park and beach, and met relatives at Café Macaroni, a locally famous but remarkable affordable Italian place and ate ourselves silly. Wednesday was a total washout. We booked tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bus but the bus was a double decker with no roof on the top level. It was a horrible experience. We huddled in the lower level with all the other wet refugees from tourism and were drenched with cascades of water draining down from the upper deck every time the bus turned a corner. The only silver lining was that we ended up bailing at the Science Museum where we salvaged the day and had a wonderful time. We dried off and rewarded ourselves with dinner at Gary Danko. It was overpriced and pretentious but still a great time and good meal and something you only do on vacation unless you have an expense account. Thursday we rented a car and saw all the San Francisco sights we missed on the underwater bus tour. There is a Dollar Rental just a few blocks from the hotel that had plenty of cars at a manager's special of $54 a day. The Avis in a more conspicuous Fisherman's Warf location was sold out at more than $100 a day, but Dollar gave us the pick of their inventory for less than the cost of parking at the hotel. We saw Twin Peaks, Land's End, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, had lunch at Cliff House where I noticed some guy in a big SUV kept pushing the call button on his key fob but never locked his doors. The boys and I decided he needed to learn a lesson so we cleaned them out of electronics as they ate and we headed down to walk the beach. (OK, just kidding about the SUV thing.) We drove down Lombard Street, had noodles in Korean Town, took pictures from the top of Coit Tower, and fully explored Golden Gate Park. We returned the rental car and paid less for it than parking at the Hotel would have been and ate a scrumptious supper at some restaurant in Fisherman's Warf. Friday we rented the same car from the same guy at Dollar Rental and drove down to 17 Mile Drive and Carmel. We saw awesome scenery the whole way down. Number Two Son discovered a seaside cave at one of the beaches we stopped to explore and we ended up eating lunch at a dockside diner that has been written up on various travel shows. As we were taking a breath from inhaling the ambrosia that was served to us, Junior advised us that he knew the restaurant. It turns out he recognized it from the food shows. 17 Mile Drive was worth it but Carmel was just another pretentious upper class beachfront community. I'm glad I saw it but it wasn't worth the trip on its own. We finished up the day with pizza at an authentic Italian restaurant in South Beach. With a carafe of wine.

We drove back and got caught in rush hour traffic once we got to the city limits. A few miles of driving slower than we could have walked reminded us why living in San Francisco is so difficult. Another dinner at the same Italian restaurant and we headed to bed. Breakfast in the hotel Saturday morning and we Ubered to the airport for our flight back home. An uneventful flight and we collapsed at home and took the rest of the evening and all day Sunday to recover.

If we had longer we would have done Yosemite and a stop at a winery, but with our time restrictions this was the best we could do. Next time well take more time and be more adventurous.