Things I Learned About San Francisco While My Family and Friend Were Here

• You pretty much don't have to pay to ride the cable car if it is crowded, and you didn't get on at the turnaround or Ghiradelli Square
• We are not weather wimps! It's as cold and windy and bone-chilling as we all say it is.
• The Tonga Room will fuck you up. And your mama, too.
• Don't go to The Top of the Mark for breakfast a) hungover b) without a wad of cash c) without a camera. The view is phenomenal, and so is that brunch buffet (with dim sum!)
• The Mark Hopkins Intercontinental is a very swanky and clean and quiet hotel with windows that open onto a gorgeous city skyline, and it's very reasonably priced. For what you get I'd say it is a steal.
• Many tourists--way too many--never see more than Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, the Ferry Building, Chinatown and/or North Beach. There is just so much to see and do in San Francisco, and because other people who visited tell up-and-coming visitors all the best things to do, one local's recommendations cannot overcome the power of grand tales of the sea lions. Which are pretty damn cute.
• It can be hard to find what my mom calls "normal food," and find variety. That said, we ate some stellar French, Italian, American and seafood. Everyone seemed to leave with pleased palettes. 
• Traveling in packs of five or six makes it very hard to cab anywhere, and twice as expensive.
• The City does not have a large number of men that appeal to my single sister and our friend Emily, both of whom brought their A game.
• Breakfast places open unusually late. At least a lot of them.
• The ladies who work at Miette are always so nice. This visit cemented that.
• They don't have sweet tea.
• Holy crap, am I going to miss it something fierce.