Many people think vacationing with one's mother-in-law sounds like a nightmare. Then add your own mother into the mix, and it's usually a recipe for disaster. However, flying across the country, from Delaware to San Francisco, with my spouse, mother-in-law, and mother was the best vacation I've ever taken, and it had little to do with the Golden Gate City.

Don't get me wrong, San Francisco was amazing, and the trip down the coast was breathtaking. But the oohing and ahhing from the backseat as our mothers took it all in made the trip so special.

Two of my favorite moments from our vacation were visiting Alcatraz Island and driving down (literally) Lombard Street. The views were breathtaking, and the time spent together was memorable.

Alcatraz has a dark history and intense energy, but it is a powerful experience. We walked every inch of that island to soak in all the history we could. We stood in the eerie isolation cells of the prison and touched the cold steel of a watch tower.

When my wife, Christine, and mother-in-law, Mary, were too tired to continue, my mom and I walked past the remains of the Warden's House and along the gardens at the southeastern corner of the island. We traipsed up the steep concrete steps to the Recreation Yard and turned around to an astounding yet dizzying view of San Francisco as it seemed to hover over the choppy waves of the bay. Cold nipped at our noses and hands, but that's not what took our breath away.

While meandering on the city's outskirts, we stumbled upon the end of Lombard Street. Not daring to take that walk uphill on our first day, we vowed to come back and drive down later. And that's exactly what we did. Christine and I stole gleeful glances at each other as she cautiously crawled our rental car down that infamously precarious winding street with our mothers in the backseat, equal parts enthralled and terrified.

I'll never forget Mary and Mom gasping and exclaiming, "Oh my god!"

No trip to the West Coast is complete without a drive down Highway One, which winds along rocky cliffs offering stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.

We drove until we hit Carmel and then back up the coast to stay a few nights in Santa Cruz. Upon arriving back in Santa Cruz, a local informed us that it was migration season for the Monarch butterflies, and they were starting to cluster at the Monarch Grove Trail located at Natural Bridges.

The next day, we walked the trails to glimpse a kaleidoscope of Monarchs. It was one of my mother's and my favorite moments from the trip. I came away with a butterfly ring, the scent of eucalyptus in my hair, and memories of Christine, Mary, and my mother, Donna, standing among the delicate flutter of butterfly wings.

Christine's sonar capabilities for finding seals and sea lions paid off twice for us while in San Francisco. We followed the bellowing sound of sea lions to their known sunbathing spot behind Pier 39, but most astonishing was when we stumbled upon them while driving. We stopped at a dock in Monterey and popped out of the car to find seals staring up at us from mere feet away with big puppy-like eyes. They slithered and floated in front of us, the sun shimmering off their chubby bodies as we stared in disbelief.

All four of us were giddy as we hopped into the car and chatted about that incredible moment that was ours alone.

I've never seen Mary look so alive as when we were standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The sight of crashing white-capped blue-green waves against the gray rocks, the spray of cold ocean mist floating in the air, and the sounds that forced their way into our ears with exhilarating fury — she can still visualize it and says without hesitation that this was her favorite moment.

San Francisco was amazing. The ice cream sandwiches at the hotel in Santa Cruz were magical. The Sausalito cold that tickled our faces then gave way to a warm kiss of sun on our cheeks was delightful. Every moment of this vacation was someone's favorite moment.

But perhaps it wasn't about San Francisco at all. Perhaps it was the company we kept that made this a life-affirming trip. It didn't matter where we went; it was our best vacation because we were together.