Day Two of our San Francisco adventure stared with a very early wake-up call…my bladder! 5:30 a.m. and I had to pee (now I have to say, I didn’t have to get up any other time through the night, so that is a good thing), and once I got out of this rock hard bed I have to sleep in, I didn’t want to get back into it. Greg says I am like an old lady and maybe he is right about that – an 86 year old trapped in a 34 year old body – but what a spunky 86 year old I am! Since there isn’t much to do at 5:30 a.m. in San Francisco (at least not much that I know of), I decided to shower and go to the hotels gym…yes, I actually brought my running shoes and sweat pants so I could take advantage of this facility. Down I went to the gym with my book in my hand, thinking of course I would exercise in style like I do at home…think again! I stepped into the gym and saw that all of the machines were standing upright, none of them were recumbent bikes like I have, but that is okay because a bike is a bike, right? Wrong! Apparently I haven’t really been exercising at home all this time because I could feel my legs burning after just five minutes on this upright bike…unlike the good feeling in my legs after 30 minutes at home. I made it for about 15 minutes on the bike and then another 15 on the treadmill, just so I didn’t look like too much of a loser coming out of the gym only minutes after entering it (just in case there were any people watchers in the hotel lobby at 6:30 in the morning). Our next stop after getting ready to go out for the day was to our free continental breakfast which was not that good, so I ended up having a banana, a piece of toast and a chat with my new found friends – two sweet 80 something ladies who were on a tour bus leaving for Rio tomorrow morning. After chatting with my friends we set off for the day and walked down to Fisherman’s Warf, where there was nothing happening since it was only 7:00 a.m. We walked around aimlessly until we found a tour place where we inquired about a city tour (and the lady told us we would see the “Full House” house, which made my day!), and we decided that we would take the two hour tour that started at 10:00 a.m. Now we just had to find something to do for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes!!! At 9:00 the double decker bus rolled to a stop and we quickly ran to see if was time for the tour to begin…nope, we still had an hour to wait…ugh! The fantastic tour guide told us we could relax in the sunshine on the top deck of the bus if we wanted until the tour began, and because we had absolutely NOTHING else going on, we did just that. We sat an people watched for the next hour until the tour started. If you are ever planning a trip to San Francisco, I would highly recommend this kind of tour around the city. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Nob Hill, China Town, the Tenderloin District, Union Square, The Painted Ladies (houses), etc., etc. Once we rolled back into Pier 39, we had just enough time for a quick lunch before we would then board the boat bound for Alcatraz!! We went on the tour among the hundreds of other tourists that decided today was the day they wanted to visit The Rock and is a very interesting place to see! 
Once we got back onto the boat to come back to San Francisco, I noticed that I had burned the tops of both my hands and my arms just past my wrists! You may think this is no big deal, but for me it is because another tidbit of information about me that you may not know is that I have Vitiligo, an auto-immune disease that causes me to lose my pigment (you should just Google it though if you want to learn more about it), and unlike people who are very fair skinned, or have red hair and freckles, I have NO PIGMENT on many parts of my body, my hands included. You may wonder why in the world I would spend a day in California and not wear sunscreen, and you would be right in wondering that…until you come to San Francisco and discover that it is a very different and deceiving climate here. The wind is whipping so hard that it makes my eyes water, and the breeze (wicked wind) coming off the ocean is so cold that you actually have to wear a jacket – and if you are smart, gloves – so I didn’t think about the fact that even though I am shivering in my sweater with a blanket over my legs on the city tour bus, the sun is still very much the sun and in California, it is hot! I will have to be much more careful for the rest of our trip and apply the sunscreen that I brought before we go out tomorrow!
After our trip to Alcatraz, we were on our way back to our hotel, shivering from the wind and limping from sore feet, Greg suggested we just grab a drink at the Hard Rock Café. When we walked in I noticed how loud the music was and knew I was in no mood for that kind of noise, so I asked to be sat on the patio. The sun was shining onto the patio and even though I had just discovered my sunburned hands, I asked to be seated in the sun – because I know how cold it could be in the shade. Let me tell you that I didn’t know how freakin’ cold it would be no matter where we sat on that patio! I shivered and complained that I just wanted to go, but I knew that Greg wanted to sit down for a few minutes, so even after he called me Grandma, I decided to stay put. I ordered myself a $7.00 milkshake (I should have made it a hot chocolate) and told Greg that this Grandma needs to go on the kind of vacation that only lasts about two days and involves being driven around in a luxury tour bus! We finally made it back to our hotel room at 5:00 p.m. and I am ready for bed!!
This is Grandma Sara signing off and I will be back with another update from our San Francisco adventure tomorrow!
SJ
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