Day two:
We went to Sears Fine Dining this morning and had a big breakfast, Belgian waffle, sausage and strawberries for me and a cheese omlet, hash browns, bacon, and wheat toast for Mom.

The Grayline City Tour was illuminating. We circled the town, little Italy (where we'd come back for supper) and Washington Park where 100 or so Chinese seniors were doing their morning Tai Chi in the park, Chinatown. We say the F line which is made up of vintage trollies that run around the town and decided to get on one tomorrow and whisk out to Golden Gate Park. We went up to Twin Peaks which was more or less totally fogged in, meaning there was no view of the bay or ocean, but we had some good views on the way up the hill. We found that Golden Gate is the name of the gap that allows the ocean to come into the bay and the Bridge, which is 1.25 miles and bright orange (the better to be seen in the fog) and the bridge just goes over that gap. We saw the Japanese Tea Garden in GG park, a garden that must take tireless pruning and shaping. Back at Fisherman's wharf we lunched and sat in the sun on the pier before getting on the Blue and Gold to Alcatraz. It is a dark place. The cells are small and closer together than it seems in the movies. I stood in "the hole." I strolled up and down the cellblocks. The bird man of Alcatraz it seems turns out to be a really nasty guy who drove everyone crazy. We walked up to Washington Square in the late afternoon and watched a family with four kids who had come to the park to swing and play. The youngest child was in hilarious striped pajamas (he looked like the cat in the hat). I ended up talking with their dad about local restaurants and he suggested the U. S. Restaurant. It's in little Italy and U.S. stands for Union Sportiva, originally the name of a gym. The food was terrific and we enjoyed meeting Nicolas from Chile and Elana from Venice who were our hostess and server. The place was small and totally local. We took a cable car back to the hotel. This evening we checked out Walgreen's for breakfast things and I took a walk around Union Square as the sun was setting. Then it was time to head back to the room and crash. I'm impressed with the beauty of the vistas, the cramped living style, no yards for most people, the great mass transit running all over the city, the beauty of the local flowers, shrubs, and trees. It's almost another planet.