What SF-area activities are appropriate for a "senior" couple (my parents)? (San Francisco: for rent, hotel)

[Sprockethead]

Hi everybody!

I am pretty much brand-new to the area. My wife and I moved to Millbrae from North Carolina about a month ago for a new job out here. It was somewhat of an arduous move, but we're pretty much settled in now. I feel very lucky to be a part of your community now, and hope that everybody that lives here knows how lucky and blessed they are to be here!

My parents are coming to visit me soon (mid-August). They are in their late 60s/early 70s. My mother is still very energetic and able to hang with a long trip to the city. However, my father not so much. He has joint problems that make it hard for him to walk up stairs or stand for long periods of time. He's ok for an hour walk or so, but after that is going to be pushing it.

They will be here for about five days, and I'll be off work. We're thinking of staying somewhat local - we're up for a road trip for the day, but probably not a hotel stay anywhere.

So to FINALLY get to my question - what are some good ideas for activities for the day? So far all I know if the area is my commute down the 101 to work, haha. So I haven't experienced too much either.

What I'm thinking so far:

* Napa/Sonoma, but what? Guided tour? Drive to a couple vineyards? How does that work?
* Drive to see the redwood trees. Is there a driving route or does this require hiking?
* Go into San Francisco to explore. Any destinations that don't require a lot of standing/walking?? Chinatown is out. Maybe MOMA? Maybe the Golden Gate park?
* What about South Peninsula?

Thanks for any ideas.

tl;dr: My somewhat elderly parents are coming to visit me and I'm trying to think of "senior-friendly" activities for 5 days....

[Ruth4Truth]

Look up Muir Woods in Marin, for an easy-to-walk redwood park. It tends to be crowded on weekends, but there's plenty of flat terrain, and some benches to rest on. https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

GG Park involves walking, though I suppose that could be kept to a minimum. There's the DeYoung Museum and the aquarium, which are close to each other. Not far from there is the Japanese Tea Garden. There's also the plant conservatory, which you could probably drive your parents to, within the park, drop them off, park, and re-join them. I remember getting lost with a friend in the park, with a car, and we ended up on what may have been a series of maintenance trails. It's a huge park, you could have fun simply driving around and exploring nooks and crannies. It extends all the way to the beach, btw.

For lunch before or after your park visit, check out the two Russian restaurants a couple of blocks north of the park, around 5th/6th and Balboa: Cinderella Bakery (be sure to get some of their bakery items to take home with you! Fabulous!), which is the hang-out for the local Russians, and Katia's (www.katias.com) http://www.cinderellabakery.com/ From there, you could drive them down Geary Blvd., past the Russian Orthodox cathedral, to the beach. There's plenty of parking along the highway there, and you wouldn't have to get out of the car unless they'd like to take in the view and fresh sea air; you could cruise alongside the beach for as long as you want, and stop at Lake Merced park at the other end of it. Sometimes you can see people hang-gliding at Fort Funston park, nearby: https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/fortfunston.htm Time this drive for mid-day or early to mid-afternoon, to catch the area when it's fog-free.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Highway
http://sfrecpark.org/destination/lake-merced-park/

There's also the Presidio of San Francisco, the old fort from the days of "Alta California", when California belonged to Mexico. It's a park, historic site, and now accommodates offices of environmental organizations. You could do this on the way to Muir Woods, before crossing the GG Bridge, which is close by. https://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm

[Sprockethead]

Thank you so much Ruth!! These are great ideas that I would have never known.

[BicoastalAnn]

I always take my guests to the Ferry Building. You have the great diversity and culture of bay area food on display packed into one building. Your dad can wander with you and mom until he gets tired and then can scope out a table and wait for you guys to come back with food to share. I don't know what NC is like but the great quality of produce and seafood here, plus abundance of artisanal foods, should be a treat to out of towners.

Edit: if they like oysters, going oyster shucking in Tomales Bay also seems to be quite popular and isn't too far a trip from Napa/Sonoma. Maybe just 30 mins?

[BicoastalAnn]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Look up Muir Woods in Marin, for an easy-to-walk redwood park. It tends to be crowded on weekends, but there's plenty of flat terrain. https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

GG Park involves walking, though I suppose that could be kept to a minimum. There's the DeYoung Museum and the aquarium, which are close to each other. Not far from there is the Japanese Tea Garden. There's also the plant conservatory, which you could probably drive your parents to, within the park, drop them off, park, and re-join them. I remember getting lost with a friend in the park, with a car, and we ended up on what may have been a series of maintenance trails. It's a huge park, you could have fun simply driving around and exploring nooks and crannies. It extends all the way to the beach, btw.

For lunch before or after your park visit, check out the two Russian restaurants a couple of blocks north of the park, around 5th/6th and Balboa: Cinderella Bakery (be sure to get some of their bakery items to take home with you! Fabulous!), which is the hang-out for the local Russians, and Katia's (www.katias.com) Cinderella Bakery & Café From there, you could drive them down Geary Blvd., past the Russian Orthodox cathedral, to the beach. There's plenty of parking along the highway there, and you wouldn't have to get out of the car unless they'd like to take in the view; you could cruise alongside the beach for as long as you want, and stop at Lake Merced park at the other end of it. Sometimes you can see people hang-gliding at Fort Funston park along the way: https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/fortfunston.htm Time this drive for mid-day or early afternoon, to catch the area when it's fog-free.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Highway
Lake Merced Park | San Francisco Recreation and Park

There's also the Presidio of San Francisco, the old fort from the days of "Alta California", when California belonged to Mexico. It's a park, historic site, and now accommodates offices of environmental organizations. You could do this on the way to Muir Woods, before crossing the GG Bridge, which is close by. https://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm

Might have to make the Richmond restaurants my next weekend excursion.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by BicoastalAnn

I always take my guests to the Ferry Building. You have the great diversity and culture of bay area food on display packed into one building. Your dad can wander with you and mom until he gets tired and then can scope out a table and wait for you guys to come back with food to share. I don't know what NC is like but the great quality of produce and seafood here, plus abundance of artisanal foods, should be a treat to out of towners.

This is a great idea, too! The Embarcadero area and Ferry Building are great! We had an ice cream thread on this forum once, and someone said the Ferry Bg has a really good ice cream shop, with some unusual flavors.

There's so much cool sight-seeing to be done in SF, I never get tired of it!

[smarino]

Take 'em down to some of the leather bars around 1AM. A quick tour though the Tenderloin to enjoy a bottle of Ripple (or a fine $4 Merlot if the money is available) in a bag on the corner w/ the "philosophers" is always fun. The food is good at St Anthony's dining room, and they can peruse the weekly menu to see what day they may like to drop in. Take Bart, fall asleep, and everyone can end up at the end of the line and try to figure out how to get back. See how far you can get walking down Market Street and giving money to the people that ask before you run out. Get some chalk and do a quick night time mural on the BofA "heart of a banker" sculpture in front of the headquarters downtown. Maybe something w/ pink $$$$'s all over it and arranged like musical notes would be eye catching. Buy some cheap drums and all of you can head over to Pier 39 and see if you can make a little money playing Innagadavida together. Call the places that have studios for rent at $1600, explain there will be three of you moving in, and tell them that's a little steep, would they be willing to take $250 a month because it's your folks? Go down to the bay, look across to Oakland, and everyone can shout "They're RIGHT, there IS no there there".

There's lots to do. Hey, it's 'frisco!

[humboldtrat]

Try one of those bus tours in SF. They have double decker buses and I think they let you get off in one place to explore and to hop on another bus. This is just an example; I've never been on one: San Francisco Tours | City Sightseeing | Big Bus Tours Another suggestion is a drive down Hwy 1 from SF to anywhere along the San Mateo coast and return the same day. Stop at the Pillar Point fishing harbor and for lunch. There are many mainly seafood restaurants around the harbor.

As for the redwoods, I took my 88 year old mother to both Big Basin and Hnery Cowell state parks (Santa Cruz County). Both have a flat loop paths of less than a mile through the redwoods. There are benches along the way to rest.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

As for the redwoods, I took my 88 year old mother to both Big Basin and Hnery Cowell state parks (Santa Cruz County). Both have a flat loop paths of less than a mile through the redwoods. There are benches along the way to rest.

That would be a long drive to do in one day, though the OP said they'd be up for a road trip. Hwy 9 going in is certainly a scenic drive! Big Basin is great, the oldest redwoods are well-marked and one of the rangers is very informative and helpful, and further along into Felton, you can ride the historic redwood train for a tour of the old logging areas ($40/person). It would be a long day, but might be worth it.
http://www.roaringcamp.com/ Be advised that traffic around Felton tends to be a little congested, even on weekdays, at all times. It thins out the closer you get to Big Basin.

I went to Henry Cowell, but there were no redwoods on those short trails! It looked like the section that's close to the main road had been logged historically, and that oaks, bay, and other deciduous trees had invaded. Obviously, I was in the wrong section, but I wouldn't say Henry Cowell is worth the long drive. I suggest taking the narrow-gauge train tour in Felton, instead, after Big Basin.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

That would be a long drive to do in one day. Big Basin is great, but it's a long drive, and traffic into the area is usually congested, even on weekdays. I went to Henry Cowell, but there were no redwoods on those short trails! It looked like the section that's close to the main road had been logged historically, and that oaks, bay, and other deciduous trees had invaded. Obviously, I was in the wrong section, but I wouldn't say Henry Cowell is worth the long drive. The drive along the road to get to the park is much more scenic, IMO.

Traffic to Muir Woods from Milbrae is pretty terrible, though, especially if one leaves after 10-ish on a weekend day - you gotta go all of the way through SF, then across the GG bridge, then fight the traffic on 1 through Marin to get to one of the roads into Muir woods...and then you have to find a parking spot (which is often full on weekends).

Honestly, driving to Purisima Creek Redwoods (my favorite open space preserve in the mid peninsula) will be a much bigger bang for the buck (there are flat, easy trails on the Half Moon Bay (Higgins Canyon Rd) entrance) - just as impressive redwoods minus the ridiculous headache that one gets with Muir woods. As you can likely tell, I don't really care for Muir Woods that much - it's certainly nice, but it's absurdly overrated, especially when one considers that there are other equally-nice options for seeing big Redwoods in the Bay Area.

Big Basin or Portola Redwoods state parks are both great options, too - a bit of a drive, maybe, but actually similar time as a Muir Woods drive from Milbrae

• Muir Woods will be over an hour total from Milbrae (could be much longer if one gets stuck in weekend bridge traffic)
• Portola Redwoods will be a bit over an hour
• Big Basin about another 15 min further

Highway 92 does get crowded on the weekends, but there are other ways to get to these state parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains (such as 280 to Woodside Road (CA-84) to Skyline).