J.P. zero/ P.T. ONE!

I figured a few things out a while ago during a little get away with some of the kids.  We took our two 19 year old boys on a little adventure, they had both graduated High School (2010 and 2011) and we wanted to do something fun with them before they got all growed up and adult like and moved on with their lives.  We went here:

I LOVE it here, RIGHT here, on the bridge.  Just a joke because this bridge charges money!  They let you go one way free and then sock it to you when you want to return, they seem to know you always need to return.  Shady if you ask me.  Anyway, I love the area, not the city necessarily but I enjoy the temperature which was a high of 68 while we were there (my body went into shock when I got off the plane in 115 degree Phoenix).  There was moisture in the air, my skin felt and looked better, there were redwood trees we were able to walk amongst, and fresh fish to eat.  Also little roads we could venture on and find hidden beaches and obtain wonderful views of the area from cliff tops.
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We made a trip to Alcatraz so we could see if the accommodations at home were better or not:

There is a calming shade of green on the walls, but it's possible to duplicate that at home I suppose.  We decided after seeing how close the toilet was to the bed that home was better and we found a new appreciation for doors.  For me I am still not 100% against bars in certain rooms.

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I decided I really REALLY like the GMC Acadia, they gave it to us to drive.  It's roomy, comfy, and not as big as the Tahoe.  This car didn't have ALL the bells and whistles but it did have some nice features.  One of which we should have considered was the GPS system!  What a life saver Tom's phone was (THANKS for letting us drain your battery even though you couldn't play Mafia Wars, or whatever it was)!  He got us from point A to point B much more effectively than those darn vague maps.  But I think I need to downsize to one of these, it seats 7, uses less gas, and is just dang purdy:

Now for the real lesson I took away from San Francisco!  Driving your own vehicle in the city (even if it is a mighty fine Acadia) is not always feasible.  The parking is limited, the streets are narrow and STEEP, and that place is CROWDED!  Therefore the lovely city offers a variety of alternate transportation methods.  For example:

The Trolleys! 

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 Experience it for sure once, but it gets pretty crowded. You could sing the Rice a Roni commercial song while hanging off the side (lots of times it's so crowded you are hanging off the side involuntarily, so you may as well sing).  You can jump off and back on whenever you like, convenient right?

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  There is also:

The Open Top Tour Bus. 

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Saw lots of these, they were fairly reasonable, cost more than the trolley but you weren't nearly as squished.  You were also able to hop off and on if you wanted to. 

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There was this fun little 2 hour tour option:

Makes me want to sing the Weird Al song while segwaying my way around the city.  Not an option for us though as we wanted to go to Chinatown and this was a guided tour of 2 hours for 70 BUCKS a person, um NO!  Not to mention I didn't know all the words to that song so it would have lost some of it's magic. 

There were these little yellow cars you could rent too, they were electric, held 2 people and were as ridiculously priced as the segways. So that was out! 

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Then of course we could have rode the bicycles made for 2? 

Wouldn't we look cute Brian and I peddling together?  No I didn't think so either! Tom and Mike were NOT going to ride any bike together.  I laugh when I think of Thomas peddling his heart out, working hard to get them up those steep hills and then seeing Mike coasting along on the back pretending to peddle.

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So we went to the lobby of our swanky INN and asked the guy at the desk what the most economical way would be to get to Chinatown.  He informed us that there was a bus stop just up the road and we could take Bus 8X and get right up to Chinatown for approximately 2 BUCKS round trip.  SUCCESS!  I had to take it easy and had to walk slowly and with limits so that sounded like something I could do, so we set off in the right direction with exact change. (No change given on the buses)

Our Chariot! 

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After waiting at the bus stop for approximately 15 minutes this pulled up.  The bus stop should have been an indication that we should have went with a different option, but being new to city life and all we didn't pick up on the obvious signs.  Like the guy sitting up against the wall behind us "nodding" off and looking a little worse for wear and carrying a filthy, bulky and somewhat smelly backpack.  Or the people who wouldn't make eye contact and looked angry.  Or the little old lady that didn't STOP making eye contact.  She talked up a storm, she was a native of San Fran after all, lived up the road a ways, liked the weather, thought Arizona was wonderful, had a sister that lived in Phoenix, etc etc etc..

So we hopped on the bus, I sat of course and the boys stood and other than a few old folks and the woman 2 seats over with man sized hands and a loud voice and possible drug problem (speculating of course but I have seen Intervention) the bus wasn't too crowded....YET!  About 10 minutes before we were going to get to our destination the bus got VERY crowded.  There was a sign above the seats in my area that said if the elderly were to board the bus that those able to stand should relinquish their seats.  I wasn't going to relinquish mine if ol' man hands didn't (she might have been younger than me, just looked old).  At one point the seats to the left and right of me were vacant.  By the time I thought to get the camera out the seats were filled, my arms were tucked tightly against my sides and I was hugging and slightly leaning over all my valuables.  I learned too late the importance of keeping my eyes forward.  In my defense it's a little hard to do once someone stands right next to you grasping the bar above their head and pointing their rump (that could go off at any moment) in the general area of your face.  The two men that sat on either side of me were older and smelled similar to crab meat,

 not fresh out of the ocean and cooked with butter kind of crab meat, no no, much different than that.  When the rump in my face turned up I mistakenly turned my head to the left where I was met with a horrendous burp from the little ol' man that's face was no more than 2 inches from mine.  Since children may at some time read my blog I won't post the words that went through my head, but let's just say I decided to take my chances facing the rump.  It couldn't be much different and it was slightly further away.  For goodness sakes folks cover your mouths while burping on a crowded bus!  So as the title states it was J.P. vs P.T. (Public Transportation) and it WON.  I do not see any reason for future challenges, I will just take my losses.