Second full day in San Francisco - Dylan's Tour and lobby pizza

Today we booked a private city tour with local company Dylan's Tours. They offer a variety of tours depending on your group size and activity level. You can do shuttle bus style tours, bike tours, or even what they call an electric tuk-tuk tour. Since we already had our own plans to see Alcatraz, we went with the option they call "Dylan's Famous Tour." The thought of a 7 hour tour did not sound appealing to me but the nice thing about booking your own private tour is that you can go as slow or as fast as you want. There were a few time constraints as far as our guide giving us a time frame to be back after exploring an area on our own and the fact that we had to visit Muir Woods within a certain time frame of the late afternoon since their company had an assigned time for the use of one of the super limited and popular parking spaces on the property. While a large group bus tour always has those one or two people that believe the time space continuum doesn't apply to them leaving everyone else waiting, we are the kind of touring people who will most likely be back well within the guide's requested time.

First stop of the day however was back down to the lobby for the included continental breakfast.

I'm one of those people that likes barely cooked bacon that's still chewy. Rarely ever seem to find that on my travels though. Couldn't finish everything on this plate so I took the yogurt back to our room fridge. Never did go back and eat it. 

Back up to the room to grab our stuff and we met our guide Aaron waiting for us outside the hotel. He'd brought more of a van than the advertised mini bus but for us two who simply had jackets and a camera case, it was fine. We told Aaron that we'd already visited Alcatraz, Ghirardelli Square, and Pier 39 the day before so he kept his overview of Fisherman's Wharf brief as we drove away from the hotel. Our first stop was City Hall. Aaron told us about the lines of trees in front of City Hall and how they are meant to be cut back so that only the top has leaves and the bulk of the bark is exposed. 

Someone in San Francisco decided that the trees were too bare and needed to be kept warm so they make these animal stockings to cover the bark with the animal's mouth serving as the opening to where the leaves start:

After a quick drive through Chinatown and their Little Italy neighborhood known as North Beach, we drove up to an area known as Twin Peaks for their panoramic overview of the entire city. We were very lucky to be visiting on a day with such clear skies, missing the days of smog that soon filled the air a few days after we headed on to Hawaii. 

Our next stop was to the Haight Ashbury neighborhood known as the hippy neighborhood. Aaron explained that the area got its name simply from the two street names that meet and Dad fell in love with a tie dye Tshirt that showed the street signs. Aaron slowed down along the drive enough to point out The Grateful Dead house and the Hell's Angels house. He told us of having a guy on a past tour who was such a Grateful Dead fan he climbed all the way up over the current fence so he could stand where they'd stood. Now the houses have fenced in porches as well as fences at the bottom of their stairs. This was our first point where we were given a time to be back at the van. Aaron pointed out a public restroom in a little hole in the wall restaurant called Street Tacos and suggested we check out where Jimi Hendrix used to live. We bought a couple sodas at Street Tacos and used the restroom before walking along the streets admiring the colorful buildings and shops. 

Following drive through visits to the historic neighborhoods of The Mission and The Castro, Aaron drove us by the famous Painted Ladies or Seven Sisters block of houses that was not only used as the outside of the house from the sitcom Full House but also a corner house used in the filming of Mrs. Doubtfire. Unfortunately he wasn't allowed to stop and let anyone off for pictures. He told us the story behind how Robin Williams convinced the owners of that house to let it be used for the film and how they only agreed if the place could stay anonymous. Robin agreed and filming began. The owners of the house went to the theater to see the movie and discovered that in the scene where Sally Field's character tells Mrs. Doubtfire where to report for the interview, she gives the exact address where their house is located. They soon had lots of extra houseguests. 

A quick drive through the Presidio followed where Aaron joked that when he has families on his tours, the kids get excited when they spot the Walt Disney Museum. Then they find out it's not really about Disney and its characters but focused on Walt's life and career. 

We stopped at Fort Point nestled just below the Golden Gate Bridge and got a great view both of the bridge and across the bay. Aaron told us about the 1989 earthquake that hit San Francisco and how the only fatality was the one guy who was crossing the bridge because everyone else was watching the Battle of the Bay game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. 

One of the perks of being on a private tour is making requests for changes or extra things onto the schedule. We spotted a great vantage point we'd passed further back on the ride here to view the bridge and Aaron happily drove us back to that point.

After checking out the Tenderloin area, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to head into Sausalito for lunch. Aaron pointed out the bridge's "barrier transfer machine" known as The Road Zipper. The Road Zipper moves the barrier between lanes along the bridge when traffic gets heavy so that it keeps cars flowing freely. 

Aaron pointed out a few popular lunch spots and turned down our offer to have lunch together. We ended up at his suggestion of a place called Venice Gourmet Boutique. Sounds like it ought to be selling clothing but was more like a deli. We placed our orders, pastrami for Dad and a turkey on sourdough for me. The place to pick up your order was around the far side of the deli case where a long line of people were waiting. Before we could join the line, a waitress for the deli asked if we planned to eat here at the tables outside. We said yes and she ushered us out to the tables before we could even pay for the food. Dad kept asking her about still having to pay but she told him that he could pay at the end. She grabbed us a couple sodas while we sat unfortunately in the path of the blinding bright sunlight. Took a super long time when we'd only ordered a couple sandwiches. Dad liked his sandwich but my sourdough bread was really tough and hard to eat. I finally disassembled it and ate the inside ingredients leaving the bread behind. 

Our waitress seemed to be running back and forth between the outside tables and the deli counter frequently until we decided it was time to pay and leave. We had gotten to the point of getting up to head back inside the deli so we could pay and leave when she came rushing back to check on us. Dad's sandwich and my carb free meal cost just over $27. We still had time to kill before having to meet Aaron back at the van so we wandered along the waterfront looking at shops.

The place on our tour where I'd be doing the most walking was our next stop - Muir Woods. As I mentioned earlier, the few parking spaces right by the entrance to Muir Woods are so limited, they now have to be reserved. Otherwise you're stuck parking on the side of the road and walking a mile or two down into the valley. We passed several cars parked along the long winding desolate looking mountain road that led to the entrance. Once at the entrance, Aaron had to go to a specific single parking spot explaining that they had this one spot reserved for this particular hour of the day which is why Muir Woods was one of our last stops. There are several paths to follow within the Woods and each of them are marked at the start by a numbered bridge. Dad asked which would be easiest to walk and Aaron said to check out Bridge #3 before sending us on our way with a time to meet back. 

We stopped at the ticket hut and Dad used his lifetime national park pass to get in for free. As it turns out, they extended the same privilege to me so this particular stop cost us $0. The paths to walk around are either covered in planks or paved asphalt. 

There were a few steps leading to the gift shop but another space on the opposite side featured a ramp for those with limited mobility. It takes a bit of walking to get to where you find Bridge #1. We'd been given a map at the ticket hut and Dad noticed on the map that Bridge #2 is physically shorter whereas Bridge #3 might have been more of a flatter even walk. I decided to try out Bridge #2 then since Bridge #3 would require another long stretch of walking to even reach its start. Dad opted to relax on the bench outside Bridge #2 and wait for me. 

Aaron had warned that while the weather was comfortable throughout our tour thus far, we'd want to take our jackets into the woods as it is so shaded that it gets cold. 

Paved path once you get past the bridge

I learned from the plaques posted along the route that the trees in this forest are deciduous because the above picture shows how little sunlight makes it down to the forest floor. I also picked up little tidbits of information about the name of the creek that ran through the woods and the types of animals found here. I reported my new found knowledge to Dad later and he was amazed that I'd picked up so much info on my walk. There must be a way that these Bridge # paths end up becoming one (i.e. Bridge #5 is the toughest because it covers the length of path all the way back to Bridge #1) because I started out walking across Bridge #2 and after following this one directional path, I came out by walking off of Bridge #1. The drawback of that is that I then had to walk again past the gift shop, the ranger lecture area, and the long path just to get back to the start of Bridge #2 where Dad was waiting on the bench for me. Dad was surprised to see me walking up from our original direction and not back along Bridge #2.

We walked back again toward the entrance stopping in the gift shop as we passed. Plenty of tree, bear, and other animal shaped trinkets if you're a collector. We made it back to Aaron and the van in plenty of time before our reserved parking spot time slot was up and he was impressed at how punctual we'd been all day. He said he routinely had to go running through the woods finding those last one or two late people when he gives tours to bigger groups. It would have been lovely to spend more time hiking the paths but I think by this time of the day the energy level was waning.

With some extra time left we asked about being able to visit Lombard Street, known as the famous crookedest street. Aaron told us that tour companies weren't allowed to get too close, especially with his normally large groups and the bigger shuttle buses. He was able to find a place to park nearby and Dad stayed in the car while I joined the masses of selfie sticks with people attached to them to take pictures from across the street. Not quite sure how all those turning their backs to Lombard Street to get a picture of themselves as well managed to get a picture showing anything other than their heads and some flowers. You have to face the street and show the curves and the moving cars to get the true representation of the curves.

By now we felt we'd gotten a great representation of all parts of the city for our last full day in San Francisco and bid goodbye to our guide Aaron after he returned us to our hotel. After we'd rested for a little while, we decided to stay in and try the recommended delivery restaurant of Napoli Pizza. They offered a small variety of pizzeria style foods from pizza to calzones to subs and pastas. We opted to split a pepperoni and sausage pizza with a side order of garlic bread with cheese. We also added a 6pk of Diet Coke cans since we didn't have anything but tap water on hand. They were willing when we called from the room phone to bring it directly to our hotel room but Dad still didn't want to eat in the room without a table. We told them we'd meet the delivery guy in the lobby and finished placing the order at 6:18PM. Off to the lobby to sit and wait and jumping the surprisingly multiple times someone walked in carrying a pizza box only to be hotel guests. Finally at least 45 minutes later, a guy walks in with a small stack of boxes. We greet him and he hands over one of the pizza boxes, a smaller box for the bread, and a generic shopping bag full of knocked around loose Diet Coke cans. We had tried to pay over the phone with our credit card but the guy taking the order said they only accepted cash. Not bad though for $29. Once we paid the delivery guy and he went off to find the room belonging to the rest of his stack, we took our boxes to one of the breakfast tables in the lobby.

I only ate one half of one bread slice just to try it as this picture makes it look more appetizing than it did when I opened up the box. Together we polished off 2/3rds of the pizza and thankfully the soda cans though shaken up were cold so we didn't need cups and ice. We used the smaller bread box to bring the remaining pizza up to our room. The last few sodas went into our room fridge. With plans to fly out to Hawaii the next morning, we both took showers and settled in for the night.

First Full Day in San Francisco - Lunch, Dinner, and lost jackets

Once we'd gotten our fill of seals, a feast for your eyes, ears, and nose, we debated where to get some lunch. One of the other landmark places I'd wanted to visit was Ghirardelli Square so we caught a taxi there from Pier 39. Side note: Noticed a lot of times wi-fi wasn't an option wandering around town and sometimes not even cellular connection on our phones because we'd keep getting an error saying the connection was only for AT&T customers. Our first attempt to get an Uber instead of a taxi wouldn't work because of the internet connection. Guess that's why so many taxis were lined up waiting nearby. Clever marketing strategy sports stadium owners!

Wandering around led us to a restaurant called McCormick & Kuleto's. We walked in on the top level and the bartender directed us to the bottom level where a hostess was waiting at the main entrance to greet diners. We were seated quickly and it appeared like we were one of only 2-3 tables in use at the time.

We got drinks served but after that our service level went downhill. I couldn't imagine what was keeping our waitress when I could see when anyone was attending to the few other tables in use. We finally got to order and I went with the Dungeness Crab & Shrimp Roll. I'm not normally a chowder eater but figured with the sandwich and fries I'd have enough if I didn't like the chowder. I was a little surprised when Dad chose to order the Grilled Chipotle Chicken Sandwich as he thinks even plain barbecue sauce is too "spicy." We had another long wait for our food to arrive and surprisingly it was the fries that were an issue as both dishes featured stale hard fries.

Dad reported the bad quality of the fries that were so hard they snapped apart like a broken carrot when the hostess wandered by and that brought over a manager. He also didn't like the quality of his sandwich. The manager apologized and had our waitress get Dad a fresh plate of fries. The new fries were 10 times better than what they first tried to serve us. I was asked about my sandwich which was tasty. I actually ended up eating all of the chowder so I could barely finish the sandwich. Otherwise I would have made a point about them not offering to get me fresh fries as well. The manager took Dad's entire dish off our bill. Not sure if we got charged for refills or that's just one expensive Diet Coke Dad drank. I got a chuckle out of the code she punched in for the refund:

We returned to the Ghirardelli shop to check out the candy making factory area Dad remembered from his previous visits decades ago. It was interesting to walk through the shop first and see tons of products and package sizes we never see in stores at home. It was amazing though how highly priced a lot of the products were getting close to triple digits for the larger packages and many of the coffee bean packages. The small shop of products we had to walk through first reminded me of the old but super tiny wand choosing shop our whole tour group crammed into at Universal Hollywood's Harry Potter attraction. The shelves of product offerings continued on as we had to squeeze past tables of people eating in the café. Finally at the back of the café, we discovered that the "factory" was just a few unmanned machines in the back that they leave running as a display feature for people to take pictures.

Afterwards we ended up just walking back to our hotel and rested for a while in the room. Neither of us were really in the mood come dinner time to seek out a full sit down dining restaurant to visit. We scoured the room looking for any literature about recommended area dining as past hotels have had a nearby restaurant list or a tried and tested offering of take out and delivery spots. Coming up empty, Dad went downstairs to ask the concierge. He came back up with a takeout delivery menu from a pizza place and after browsing it, we decided to walk up the road to Subway and save the menu for tomorrow night. It turns out that the Subway we'd seen on that airport ride to the hotel is actually part of a small outlet mall that you have to walk through a parking garage to get into. Dad's not fond of having to bring back food to our hotel room when there isn't a table and chairs to eat at so we dined in Subway. Our two cups for refillable fountain soda combined cost less than Dad's one soda at lunch. I had to look up once home what it meant when our receipt had an added $1.08 for the SF Health Mandate (5%). Turns out they pass a small percentage of the cost of providing employees health care onto each customer's bill. I love finding unique additions to recognizable fast food places we visit in our travels but this time we went with tried and true favorites: Chicken Bacon Ranch for Dad and a BMT sub for me:

I promise there's more on there besides tomatoes and pickles.

We weren't quite ready to retire for the night back at the hotel so we wandered over to the Walgreens a few doors down. After browsing the aisles for snacks and settling on a couple items, we headed to the cashier. He rang up our items and left them sitting on the counter after we paid. We asked about getting a bag and he replied "Are you willing to pay an extra cost for the bag tax?" We declined and scooped up our few items to carry out ourselves. I offered to stick the items in my coat pockets for the walk back to the hotel and just as Dad is replying "I could stick them in my coat pockets too" he realizes he no longer had his coat. Thankfully the Subway we'd just dined in was only a couple storefronts away and we rushed back to find Dad's coat still draped over the back of the chair where he'd taken it off to eat his sub. Thankfully we hadn't gone back to the hotel before we noticed it was missing and super thankful that Dad didn't have the habit of keeping his wallet in his coat pocket. 

Back to the hotel with now both our jackets and snacks, we settled in to watch some primetime TV before falling asleep.

First Full Day in San Francisco - A morning of prison and seals

After a little bit of checking in at home thanks to the included free wi-fi, we headed down to the hotel's lobby for their free continental breakfast. Several reviews I found online mentioned how crowded the breakfast area can get and I must say I agree. The actual food space is shaped like a U with most of the grain or drink dispensing machines along the far wall. There was cereal dispensers, a make your own pancake machine, and a toaster for bagels. On the inside counters were chafing dishes full of hot items like bacon, sausage, and eggs. Smattered around them were tiny wine cooler style fridges for milk cartons and yogurt or clear display cases with muffins and cinnamon rolls. It was nice to see that they did include soy and non dairy alternatives and you could certainly find plenty to eat if you were vegetarian.

The buffet was set up so that almost everything repeated itself on each side but that didn't stop people from coming in one doorway, standing around, and looking completely confused as they'd head to one side for the pancake and push past everyone to get their bacon from the other side. The only discrepancies I noticed as far as food safety and allergy safe offerings is that one hot dish said it had omelets when it had scrambled eggs. Also while both sides had a hot dish containing sausage, one side was pork sausage and one was labeled turkey sausage. As always, there were plenty of employees wandering about that one could ask for clarification. As for the complaints that there isn't enough of a seating area, our years of experience at cruise ship buffets trained us for the ole watch and wait for someone to bail and then swoop in like a pterodactyl move. For the most part, we didn't wait long until a table for two opened up. I can see though how trying to get a table for your family of 6 might be an issue especially if you have impatient children in your group. All of the hot food was truly hot and the cinnamon rolls was something we both enjoyed each morning.

No that's not an unusually small plate - the sausage patties were huge! And rest assured those that know me, those may be coffee cups but we used them for water and juice. My hatred of coffee is still intact. :)

So what was on the agenda for today? Well after breakfast it was time to go to prison. Prison? But I didn't take that extra cinnamon roll officer! Makes for a funny Facebook status update though when you post about arriving at your first hotel and heading to prison the next day. Today we had booked a tour for 10AM to visit Alcatraz. Tickets were easily booked online costing around $38 for my adult ticket and $35 for Dad's senior rate ticket. We called for an Uber to take us to Pier 33 but if you're up for it, it's a good moderate walk from the hotel. They do a good job making sure only the people whose ticket time is coming up are the ones entering the line up queue. There's tables, a 3-D model of the island, and a gift shop/café to hang out in while you're waiting. No having to stand for long waits or be in the sun. Halfway through the line they have a backdrop set up so you can pose for a picture. They encourage everyone to get any food or drinks they want before and even on the ferry ride because once on the island, only water bottles are allowed. Our ticket printouts were checked off with a marker by the initial employee manning the line entrance and then scanned and double checked by another employee before we got to board the ferry. 

There was inside and outside seating on the ferry. I opted for the upper level outdoor seating which required climbing a steep staircase. I had a bit of ulterior motive for this choice - the Ruby Princess was visiting San Francisco today for a port stop and I used the viewpoint to take pictures of the cruise ship.

Once arriving at the island, the ferry announcer tells everyone that they are required to stop right where the ferry lets off and take the time to listen to the Ranger's speech. It was basically a welcome speech, a repetition of the rules and when the last ferry would leave. For those with limited mobility, there is the option of riding a tram to the top of the multiple hills it takes to get up to the main prison entrance. They make a big deal on the website about how small the tram is and how unless the disabled person is blind or a child who can't ride by themselves, then they can't have the rest of their party join them. Dad planned all along to ride the tram and got the driver to agree to let me ride too if I wanted. I thought they were only going up to the top of the hill we could see from the pier so I said I'd be okay walking it. I stopped at the top to wait as the tram came up shortly thereafter but then it kept on going making a few more turns up more hills. Dad said later that everyone on the tram had thought they were stopping where I stood waiting but it turns out that it climbed about 3 large hills before stopping. I usually like hiking and climbing hills but I was so out of breath by the time I reached the second hill. By then the tram was out of sight and I had to guess which direction they'd turned. Finally I came up near the top of the last hill and spotted Dad waiting for me. He went and found the one place on the property that sold water bottles so I could rehydrate and catch my breath. It had recently rained the previous day so the few benches outside the main entrance were spotted with water. I sat down on a slab of concrete and tried to make conversation with a woman who'd done the same but she wasn't in the mood. I made a joke about having fulfilled my workout for the day and while she didn't care, another woman who had just walked up remarked "I'm with ya sister!" and gave me a high five. 

We did see one woman using a service dog on a leash as she walked up the same hills that had me out of breath. Other than shopping bags and diaper bags I don't recall many people bringing large bags with them but there's a helpful size chart if you need to bring any bags on your tour.

Once we were ready to walk again, we headed inside to collect our audio guides for the self guided walking tour. The guides are offered in multiple languages, you just walk up and tell the first person what language you want and they direct you to the person manning those particular headsets. I'm guessing that each person manning that language was also fluent in that particular language so that they could explain how to use the headsets. Our English speaking employee was quite chatty wanting to know all about our lives and hometown. We were directed to the helpful sign that says "Tour Starts Here" so you know where to find the first place the audio tour leads. I also liked that these headsets featured a picture of the tour stop to go along with the description.

If you're visiting the prison with someone, I suggest synchronizing your headsets like you'd synchronize your watches. Dad had started his tour commentary a few moments before I did and he'd often be trying to correct where I was looking or walking because he was slightly ahead in where the narration was telling him to go. After a while of wandering in pace with the narration seeing the public showers, the visitation area, and the exercise yard, we came across some open cells where you could pose for pictures inside. 

We got turned around at one point heading inside the dining hall where we thought the narration was leading only to have it run through a bunch of stories from former staff and inmates directing the listener all over the place. We decided to stay put and rest on a bench while we listened to the stories and then walked around just to see what we came across. We ended up outside and followed the paths until we reached the bottom of the exercise yard. Discovering that the only direct way back inside was up a steep set of narrow stairs, we turned back and headed up the path we'd come down until we found a way back inside. We found the information desk again and the employee there pointed out that the exit to leave the prison was the doorway and/or elevators that had been right in front of where we sat in the dining hall. Guess I got tomorrow's workout done today too. We followed the signs for the exit and of course it dumped us right into the gift shop. Dad found a comic book picture style version of an Alcatraz at night photo drawing on a T-shirt he liked and it was a long wait in line to buy it. I got a chuckle out of the popular souvenir they were offering for sale:

How many people have this rock next to their pet rocks and moon rocks?

Once back out at the main entrance, Dad decided he was okay to walk back as it was now all downhill. It was a bit of a wait in the sun as it took a while to unload the ferry that had just come so that we and 200 of our closest friends could board it to go back. If you have the energy and mobility, this site could really keep you engrossed for several hours but after a couple hours we were ready to move on. For the paranormal enthusiasts, the park service also offers an evening tour available to book on their website.

Back at Pier 33, I wanted next to see the famous seals at Pier 39 so we walked until we found a space of many restaurants, shops, and games that reminded me of the classic beach boardwalk. It took quite a bit of wandering to find the actual place to see the seals and we were eventually directed up a set of stairs to a large patio style landing. Most everyone was on the lower level of the patio which was at eye level with the seals. There was a small set of stairs that seemed to lead down to that level but we weren't quite sure how to get down there otherwise. It was quite loud sitting there as you can imagine with some 50-100 seals hanging out sunbathing on the small docks. We watched one seal try to climb onto a dock occupied by only one other seal but his efforts were met with a swift smack of a flipper and off he went back into the water. 

First arrival into San Francisco

We hired a car service to take us to the airport and spent the first few minutes of our trip rolling our eyes as the driver tried to stuff our two large suitcases and small carry on into the trunk of his sedan. You would have thought we were trying to bring 20 suitcases the way he struggled to fit them in his small trunk. The carry on ended up on the front passenger seat by the time we were finally on our way. Personally, if you run a professional car service, I think you should invest in only SUVs or something with extra trunk space. This car was fine if you based it solely on the amount of people needing transport but our other traveling companions would have had quite the struggle with their six pieces of luggage between the two of them.

We had hoped to try new airlines like Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines but United won out when we compared their direct flights. It's amazing how just a cross country flight could include so many layovers and delays. I believe one such search result had a 9 hour delay in between the connecting flights! Thanks to the time difference, our dinnertime flight had us landing in SFO at 9:30PM. If only that meant it was really only a 3 hour flight. I joke that if I was as lucky at playing the lottery as I am at getting "randomly" selected for extra security screening at airports, I'd be rich. Long ago we'd gone through the steps of getting TSA pre-check status and except for a few places where that line was just as long as the regular one, it's been a great time saver. For this flight from BWI to SFO, not only did the metal detector stop working and have to be reset over and over, but it kept beeping as they ushered the first people through. They still let them go on but when it beeped for me, the agents announced that I was randomly selected for extra screening (why am I never the one millionth customer in line at the grocery store with this kind of luck?) and this time it was for my cell phone to be checked for any sign of explosives. As we had to still dump everything out of our pockets to go through the x-ray machine, I was a little surprised when the agent seemed taken aback when I told her my cell phone was in our carry on bag. She escorted me over to retrieve my own bag and stood over me while I opened the bag to retrieve the phone. A quick swipe later and my phone was returned allowing us to go on our way.

I had looked up the amenities for United's first class passengers and the consensus seemed to be that the plane we'd be on didn't offer media screens but instead suggested we download their app to our own devices which would enable us to watch movies there. Tried downloading the United app only to find that we instead needing to download a different app solely for streaming entertainment on United's flights. Tried downloading that other app and was told it's not available for my Kindle Fire tablet. Dad tried it on his iPad and found that it didn't work for him either. However, we were pleasantly surprised upon boarding the plane to find that this particular flight had mounted screens. I stuck with reading my book and playing games on my Kindle anyway. Dad's only complaint was that when many passengers started reporting the wi-fi going out, the captain reset every media system right as Dad was nearing the end of his movie.

For our time in San Francisco, Dad had settled on staying in the Fisherman's Wharf area and sent me on the mission to find the best deal for booking the Holiday Inn Express at Fisherman's Wharf. We usually end up at Hilton owned properties for progress toward their Hilton Honors program but this time we went with an IHG owned property. I signed myself up for their loyalty program and used Ebates to book directly through IHG's website. One of the features I liked on the Holiday Inn Express' web site was that you could list in your booking preferences when your flight would have you arriving after 10PM. It was nice to have that added comfort that let the hotel know you hadn't bailed on the reservation. At Dad's choice, I booked us a 2 queen bed mini suite for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights.

I'm 5'7" and this lamp over the chaise lounge nearly conked me in the face every time I went to stand up out of bed.

Loved how instead of "Do not Disturb" the signs said "Hang On I'm Busy". Here you can also see the doors have the sensor for rubbing your key card over it to gain entrance.

This little lineup of plastic silverware was so funny to me

I had been getting over a cold just before we left so by the time we were landing at SFO, my usual ear popping feeling felt more like a vice across my forehead and every noise for most of that night sounded like I was hearing everything through a bag on my head. We had also rented a car service to take us to the hotel (thankfully this time an SUV) and it was a little off putting that the service insisted you get all your bags, get outside, and then call them to come get you. Thankfully it was decent weather as we waited the 15-20 minutes for this guy to show up. He was cordial and polite as we spent the ride asking questions about the area and how easy it would be to get to specific attractions. At the hotel, because of the late hour, we were the only ones at the front desk so check in was a breeze. This was the first time I'd booked a hotel for us under my own name and it was a unique experience trying to get through all the forms and instructions the woman at the desk was handing me when I could barely hear her because of my clogged ears. We had snagged a luggage rack that someone had left outside the lobby and made our way to the 4th floor. It took me until the 2nd morning in San Francisco to notice the sign outside the elevators identifying the 4th floor as the IHG Rewards floor. Don't know what made the 4th floor so special but we had to pass our room cards over the sensor in the lobby to call for the elevator.

There was a small set of steps leading to the rooms from the elevator but a long round about ramp off to the side for the luggage carts and anyone who needed wheelchair access. Our room was down the first hallway and then a couple rooms in after you turned so it was a quick walk back and forth to the elevators when we didn't have a heavy luggage cart to push. Our room featured a desk, dresser space doubling as the TV stand, an open closet with safe and ironing board, a chaise lounge by the window, and a bar area with sink, microwave, mini fridge and coffee machine. Dad immediately used the chaise lounge to stow our suitcases for easy use as except for hanging coats and our nicer clothes, we didn't bother to unpack our bags for our few days here. This was Dad's first cruise with me using his C-Pap machine and other than having to swap beds so that he could use the cords in the same position as how he sleeps at home, it worked well sitting on the nightstand between our beds. He left it sitting there the entire time so there was never an issue with it being moved or touched while the maid was cleaning. Dad used regular water for his machine during our time here but we had reached out to NCL's special needs department before we left and placed an order for distilled water to be left in our cabin. We didn't really use the fridge in the room except to store leftover drinks we'd picked up on tours and never tried the microwave.

I've noticed in several hotels this tendency to have heavy oversized doors to the bathrooms. When our bathroom door was opened, it lay flush with the wall but took up the whole wall.

I liked that we had a large assortment of towels stacked in our bathroom but found a couple issues I'd like to see modified. One is the limited amount of safety precautions for the tub shower. There was one safety bar right by the edge for holding onto when you get in and out but nothing to hold onto once in the shower. Also, you couldn't even tell there was any sort of anti-slip device on the bottom of the tub until you stepped in and it felt rough under your feet. Could have used something that didn't feel like it once was whole and had worn away.

The other issue in the bathroom is that the light was motion activated. You'd walk in to use the bathroom after being sound asleep in the complete darkness and be instantly assaulted by the bright fluorescent light. After a couple times of standing there blinded for a few minutes trying to convince my bladder to wait for my eyes to adjust, I started remembering to trick the motion sensor which was positioned on the entry wall just above the sink. I'd open the door, swing my arm into the room while keeping my head turned away. That was enough motion to trigger the light and I could then gradually swing my head around so my eyes were accustomed before I walked all the way into the bathroom.