riding on the side of the trolley.

So today was actually day 2 of my trip to San Francisco -- which I claimed was my first, but realized that I'd actually been before -- and it was fantastic.  

Day 1 is (kind-of) summarized here [at welcome to thomasville, the family blog] and I will add further explanations of strange stories.   

For starters, after a lovely trip around Golden Gate Park, we were walking towards my cousin Amanda, who goes to school at the University of San Francisco.  We started admiring this house, and a man standing outside, looking up at the house with arms crossed, asked us what we thought.  Of course, it's a gorgeous Victorian...!  He then proceeds to invite us inside to see the renovation he just completed!   Want.  

Also, here is proof we did not get lost (even though we trusted my sense of direction!) and managed to find the Japanese Tea Garden, which is absolutely breathtaking.  I climbed a giant bridge -- and the picture is the view of Mom from the very tip-top.

Today we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf, and took a cable car to get there.  We managed -- as is so typical with trips I take -- to get stuck twice, and had to be pushed by a truck with what appeared to be a trolley-plow attached to the front end.

However, we made it to the Wharf, and got denied to go to Alcatraz, so wandered instead, managing to find our way inside the Musée Mecanique, which is basically a warehouse full of olde-tyme coin-operated stereoscopic viewers and mechanical amusement goodness. 

 I present the mechanical Opium Den, which involved a dragon snaking its way into the scene, and an opium addict shuddering.  Heh. 

Also, here I am waching the UNKNOWN, which apparently, in the 1920s, just meant naked ladies with veils over parts of them.  Fantastic.

Finally ended up at Ghiradelli's for ice cream sundaes.

On the way back, we attempted cable car again, and this time: success!  Managed to snag Mom a seat in the front, and I hung on the outside, which was, of course, my intent from the beginning.  Almost smacked into some car side mirrors, but managed the ride relatively unscathed. 

For more pictures & things of that nature, I'll be posting to my flickr account.  Here are specifically SF photos.