Got in late on Thursday and spent the weekend recuperating from my vacation! Work is piled up to the ceiling but it was well worth the trip. First of all, that city was ridiculously packed with tourists. Mostly from Europe. Seems like a popular destination for French, Japanese and Scandinavian tourists. The weather was way warmer than I thought it would be. I took sweaters for the evenings but all I needed was a light poncho. I stupidly got a sunburn too! As for our itinerary, we did everything. We were out the door pretty early everyday and able to beat the crowds pretty much everywhere we went. Saturday -Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market: Beautiful food everywhere! We had breakfast at Boulettes Larder - really fantastic food. -Exploratorium Museum: Really neat place but we got there too late and the crowd was just too much. It was packed with unruly kids and rude parents and nephew isn't the pushy type so he didn't get to have very much "hands on" with all the cool exhibits. We did see a cow's eye dissection, so there's that! -FW/Pier 39: Aquarium - really one of the better aquariums I've been. We were early so lots of the animals were active, especially the very cute Otters; RocketBoat Cruise - super silly and touristy but oh so much fun and got to see the sea lions while on the boat; lunch of chowder in a bread bowl at Boudin which was lame but I guess an iconic thing to get at FW. -Chinatown - Didn't have dinner but walked through. Really dirty and don't need to go to another Chinatown ever. -We were so tired we order takeout sushi (can't remember from where) in our hotel room. They have a service in SF that's much like Uber but for delivers. Worked great and sushi was good but average. Sunday - Had breakfast at Waterfront Bakery around the corner from the bike rental place at FW. Very yummy French pastries at this cute little bakery. Maybe not the best choice for breakfast before a bike ride! - The GGB bike ride was awesome! Again, started off early and beat the crowds. Sister and I had to walk our bikes up two very steep hills but nephew powered through the whole thing. Really, one of the easiest parts was on the bridge. Wind wasn't bad and all the bikers were very courteous. Sausalito is a fantastic little town. We parked out bikes (valet bike parking!) and walked around town, had the best burger ever at Napa Valley Burger, laid in the grass for awhile at a park by all the sail boats while nephew flew a kite. Took the ferry back to SF in late afternoon. I clocked the bike ride at around 10 miles. Getting off the Ferry at FW and riding back to the bike rental place was a little stressful because of the crowds and cars. -Took a cable car from our hotel to Frascati on Hyde (Russian Hill) for dinner. Fantastic little neighborhood bistro. Monday -Rented a car at the hotel (free upgrade to a Mercedes was nice) and drove to Muir Woods. We arrived around 8:30am and got a parking spot in the second parking lot. Had a decent breakfast at the cafe there and walked about two miles into the forest before nephew wanted to head back. Really beautiful and peaceful. So glad we left when we did. As we were getting closer to the entrance, the woods turned into a shopping mall - people everywhere with a din of voices. There were cars parked along the road for two miles! - Drove to Point Bonita Lighthouse with the most spectacular views! Went to Rodeo Beach down the road where nephew got to fly his kite. Basically a very uncomfortable gravel beach. Wish we had thought to take a blanket. - Headed back to SF and drove around the Castro, Haight-Ashbury (found an organic hot dog place that was just okay), the Tenderloin (yikes!), drove down the iconic hairpin turns on Lombard Street. Went to Baker Beach just before sunset. Nephew was happy to jump into the bone-chilling water! Returned our car about five blocks from the hotel. We walked back to the hotel UP THE HILL. No wonder there aren't that many people walking those hills. Tuesday - Took a cable car to Union Square, had breakfast at Sears (very good hearty breakfast fare). - Went to Alcatraz, what a wonderful experience. The audio tour is awesome and there was a former prisoner in the bookstore signing his book. The island is a bird sanctuary as well so it was really cool to see all the nests and fledglings. - Got on a cable car at one of the manual turntables (nephew loved that!) near FW and went back to the hotel. - Had dinner in the Mission District at Pica Pica, a Venezuelan arepa restaurant. Not amazing, but good. Walked around a bit and headed back. Wednesday - Sister and nephew went to iFly in Union City. She said they were on the Oakland bridge in traffic for almost 45 minutes. I stayed at the hotel to take care of work. - Had dinner at Boulevard near the Ferry Building. Beautiful old building and the food was spectacular. Thursday - Travel day. Checked out the hotel a little more (rooftop garden with beehives was a joke) and had a late breakfast. Laid around a bit and headed for the airport. Really nice airport! My sister's flight was an hour before mine so I had time to get a pedicure in the salon at the airport. One of the best pedicures I've ever had. Notes: -Cable cars are hard to get with all the tourists but I found a trick. Hold up a hand with fingers showing how many people are in your party. They'll pick you to jump on every time. Showing your City Pass helped too because then the operator knows they don't have to mess around with taking money and giving change. - Our hotel sucked. Very expensive Fairmont Hotel wasn't even close to being worth it except the location was good - away from the crowds. The only good thing I can say is that the beds were very comfortable. Maid service was terrible, concierge service was non-existent, and our room was musty and smelled like smoke. They claimed they had no other rooms to switch us to and offered to bring a ionizer to the room which took them and hour to bring. Breakfast was mediocre at best. That was way more detailed than I had intended! All in all, great vacation. Loved San Francisco but wouldn't want to live there!

I thought it sounded like a lot of filler too. I've got a call in to Dr. D's office to clarify a few things. I know nothing about fat transfer, but will do some research. Dr. D did tell me that the area on my face that is starting to slightly jowl is not as a result of saggy skin, but I have excess fat in that area and due to other parts of my face on which gravity is taking its toll, the jowling is taking on more of a prevalent look. I don't know if I should be pleased to know that it's not just saggy skin but a fat face that I have! LOL!

The bottom line is that there will always be both predators and prey in all living things. If we use good sense we do what we can to not become prey. There is healthy fear and unhealthy fear. Believing that crime lurks around every corner that mass media and social media promotes is unhealthy fear. This would include the nonsense that all men are potential rapists, women are approaching strangers in stores and malls to lure them into human trafficking, any stranger who smiles or speaks to you is a threat etc. That unhealthy fear will eventually make one prey. The relatively few true predators out there will always be able to pick the weak out of the herd. Unhealthy fear is weakness. Healthy fear is knowing that there are some bad people and things in the world. Healthy fear is being aware of your surroundings. It is locking your doors and taking normal precautions. Healthy fear is Not because you expect to become a victim but because you are realistic enough to understand that bad things happen. Healthy fear is taking preventative measures but never allowing fear to paralyze you from enjoying life. I part company with Elmer when it comes to dives versus nice establishments. The restaurant //hospitality trade has always been rife with corruption on many levels and it is not just the customers. From back door street drug dealing by cooks and local "thugs" in the local dives to women, kink, designer drugs and other services etc. in high end establishments often frequented by the wealthy many of who are politicians or the owners of the high end places themselves. Raye Smith made a lot of good points. The examples cited in the OP were annoying behaviors but nothing criminal. Paranoia is not healthy fear and I think Kath realizes that herself. She just needs to work on getting past that and devise a system to help her DD gain the skills of surviving the life of a young adult. The world is no less safe than it ever was. But for some reason we have become a fear drive society. We tend to divide people by gender, sex and race making shard human issues and threats more difficult to solve. On the other hand we blend criminal statistics into one big ball of fear without dividing them properly into their sub groups so we can view them in clear perspective and determine where and if the real threats are to ourselves. New age feminists refuse to acknowledge that a young women having a consensual 3 way with guys in front of their friends is not in a good position to say no to the 4th guy. Being drunk doesn't absolve one of responsibility no matter if you are a man or a woman. If you want respect as an equal then act and take responsibility as an equal. Only Kath's DD can make the decision to stay or leave her job. But if she does stay it can be a positive opportunity for her to learn how to deal with people and become mentally tougher which is a good life lesson for all to have.

When I was 20, my roommate and I went on a vacation to the Cayman Islands. One day, a trio of 3 men beside us on the hotel's patio (they looked to be mid 40's) started chatting with us. The said they were childhood friends, and always went on a vacation together every few years, to go deep sea fishing. They said their wives went together the same week, to some other vacation destination. They had rented a boat for the next day, and hoped to catch some 'big fish.' They said if we felt like getting offshore for half the day, we could meet them on the beach the next morning and join them. They explained that it could get pretty boring waiting for a bite, and being childhood friends who'd shared every story possible, they'd welcome some different conversation...but one laughed and added that we should feel free to bring something to read, in case we found them too boring. We asked how their wives would feel about their invitation. All 3 said their wives wouldn't be upset, as they knew their husbands frequently invited a few people to join them, and that they implicitly trusted their wives as well. So we agreed to meet them on the beach the next morning, with our packed lunches and nothing else. Just before we boarded the boat, one of them mentioned that the ride out to where they needed to go, could be pretty choppy. He offered us some Gravol, to avoid getting seasick, which we took. The pills looked 'normal' and it was back in '76, so we'd never heard of date rape drugs back then. Indeed the ocean was pretty choppy on the long ride out to sea. About an hour after they stopped, I started feeling really sleepy. My roommate later told me she'd been captivated, watching one of the men struggle to reel in a large fish for about 20 minutes. When he finally landed it, she noticed I was nowhere to be seen. She was told that I'd almost nodded off in my seat, so had gone below deck to lie down for a while. My roommate said she went down, but I was asleep, so she went back up top. Less than an hour later I awakened and rejoined everyone. Nothing was amiss, and I felt refreshed after my nap. Not long after, I watched a shark being caught and released, as it was deemed to be too young. When we returned to shore, the men were thrilled that one of them had landed a big fish that would be mounted and brought home. The next afternoon, we saw the men come back in, with 2 guys and a girl they'd apparently invited along, but no big fish. So my roommate and I were thrilled we'd been part of a successful deep sea fishing excursion! But as a mature adult in today's world, I realize how bad things could have gone. In our naivety, we'd gone with 3 virtually strange men, out to sea. No one at the hotel would have known what happened if we'd disappeared, and certainly not our families back home. There weren't even any witnesses on the beach at 5 am, or on the hotel patio when we'd left with them. Although the Gravol just made me sleepy, it could easily have been a totally different pill. Even if the men really were 'happily married to implicitly trusting wives' we still could have been killed and just dumped overboard, way out at sea. No one knew we were on board and sharks would have eaten the evidence. So my roommate and I were very, very fortunate that these truly were a trio of honorable men, who were at all times courteous and respectful to us. That still stands as the most foolish and potentially dangerous thing I ever did.