A few shots from a very fun weekend in San Francisco. My daughter, Dana, has not, in previous decades, been all that interested in traveling. She WANTS to travel, but leaving home and hearth gives her a bit of trepidation. She has been to New York and Philadelphia (when her brother graduated from Wharton School with his MBA), Hawaii (family vacation we planned), Baja California (on a cruise) and Seattle (another family trip we did). I lured her out this time by offering her a trip to San Francisco for a mother-daughter “bonding weekend,” I called it. I packed the calendar with activities from the moment we arrived until we left mid-afternoon yesterday.

We actually met in Berkeley on Friday night at Chez Panisse. I think this is the 4th time I’ve been there now. It was delicious, as usual. Then we parked my daughter’s car at one of the BART (rapid transit) stations in Oakland and whisked on over (under the Bay) to the city late that evening.

We stayed at a hotel near Union Square (Hotel Rex - okay, not exceptional, rooms are a little tired), used the cable cars many, many times, to get from there to the Embarcadero, the marina area and Columbus Circle. They are just so fun to ride. I never tire of the cable cars.

They’ve re-done the Square (a good thing) and it’s now a teeming center of activity. A concert was a-happening as we left yesterday.

Uh – not one of the glamour shots of the century, but we were having lots of fun here. This was with the Segway Electric Tour Company. These things are just the greatest. I took a segway tour in Paris two years ago – one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, IMHO. This time it was with about 16 others, and we toodled all over the wharf, North Beach and the Embarcadero area. They have several tours (about $70 each, online), including an advanced one that goes down Lombard Street (wheeeee), and a nightime one too, all about 2 1/2 to 3 hours long, including at least 45 minutes of training. We did the beginner’s because my daughter hadn’t ever done this before.

We also went to see Beach Blanket Babylon, a very funny, corny musical revue with garish costumes and comedy. Very entertaining. Might not have been my first choice of something to do, but knew my daughter would like it. Indeed she did.

Yesterday we had a lunch tea (Tea for Two, they call it) at the Leland Tea House about 8 blocks from Union Square. I chose it because it’s a more casual atmosphere than some of the starched tablecloth kind of establishments that serve afternoon tea in the area. The tea and food were delicious. I’d go back there. All the food is made on premises, fresh every day.

We really didn’t go to San Francisco for the food, although we certainly ate well enough. We had lunch on Saturday at Castagnola’s in North Beach. Right on the wharf. Food was really quite good, although overpriced. The waitress steered us to choices that were out of the mainstream for tourists (i.e., she said no on clam chowder, lobster wontons and fish and chips). The food was actually better than I would have expected (we had calamari, oysters rockefeller, caesar salads, and copious amounts of sourdough bread and butter from Boudin). We had dinner at an old-time Union Square restaurant called Sears Fine Food. Nothing remarkable, but good, plus we got in and out there in time to get to the theater.

Yesterday we did the tea thing, some shopping, took the BART from the city to Oakland. Then it was time for tearful goodbyes as I flew south and Dana drove back to her home in Placerville, about 2 hours away. Dana had a great time. (That’s progress.)

My DH spent the weekend on our boat in San Diego, took our other daughter and her family plus a group of their friends out sailing for several hours on Saturday, then took some other friends sailing yesterday. He drove north just in time to pick me up at the airport last night.