Such a perfect day...

Monday was such a perfect day, which is ironic as it was also the day we heard about Lou Reed's death.  I have to confess that this tragic news didn't spoil my day at all.  Sorry Lou.

One off the highlights of our week was a Segway tour of San Francisco.  Segways are like electric two wheeled chariots that are balanced electronically, and ridden stood upright.  Initially apprehensive, we had a fantastic time once the tour guide had explained how to control them and given us a lesson.  The tour itself couldn't of course cover the entire city, it would have been terrifying to attempt the steep hills, but we went along the quayside, got great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and got a chance to whizz around an empty pier.  There was a perfect balance between tour guiding and letting us have fun on the segways themselves. After 3 glorious hours we had to give up our chariots, then we had lunch on Fisherman's Wharf and saw the seal-lion colony on Pier 39, before driving over the Golden Gate Bridge and up to Muir Forest to see Californian redwoods (my theory being that a bit of countryside in the afternoon would be more relaxing as there'll be other opportunities to see the City later in the week).

So, what did we learn from our Segwaying experience?

(1) We want one (each), they are such great fun, and cheaper than a car.

(2) They are treated like bicycles under Californian law but are apparently illegal to use on either roads or pavements in the UK.  So maybe we won't get one after all.  Yet.

(3) The expression "sugar daddy" comes from Adolph Spreckels, a millionaire sugar factory owner from San Francisco whose much younger wife called him "daddy".  We never found out what his children called him, but it sounds like a family with issues.

(4) Americans pronounce debris "debb-riss" (to rhyme with "kiss").  At least our tour guide did, but maybe she was just young and ignorant.  She also asked the other two members of our tour party, a father and son from Sweden, where the son's mother was, which struck me as incredibly forward, and fraught with risk (suppose she'd just died, or eloped with her son's best friend?)

(5) We think we saw Mark Zuckerberg coming out of a fish restaurant, but it might not have been him.