Are there any decent options for commuting from Inner Sunset to Mountain View?

One option is biking to CalTrain. If you work in Mountain View, I would guess that you're in the tech world somehow, so you can always catch up on some work on the train or just relax. I live on 20th Ave and it takes me about 35 minutes to ride to the 22nd St. station. On rainy days I have the N train a few blocks away which takes about the same amount of time on average but with more uncertainty. I work in Redwood City, and if I catch the right train, it's about 25 minutes, plus another few minutes of biking on the Redwood City side, making my commute about 70 minutes in total, all of which is dual-purpose. I get a workout and I get some work done. In the morning, driving in is usually about 45 to 50 minutes but the return drive can easily be an hour and a half unless I stay till seven. And I don't get a workout that way. So unless I have some compelling reason to drive, I usually don't. Plus the fact that the train has a schedule forces me to leave work on time and not stay "just a few more minutes" :-)

You might try driving to one of the stations--So. San Francisco has a big parking lot. Without too much traffic the drive takes about a half hour from SF. With traffic though, it would take longer, maybe 45 minutes to an hour.

Have you ever considered maybe living in South San Francisco or San Bruno? You would be closer to the City but not have to face the messy commute. Parts of SSF are not to bad. Anyway, good luck.

That is a tough one. I was looking it up and it looked like the commute could take up to 2 hours. From the actual Caltrain station to Mountain View it takes 45 minutes but getting to a CalTrain station and finding parking could really be a hassle.

If you have no other options, I would go for UBER. It's an amazing app that calls limousine style cabs, for the same price. https://www.uber.com

You might consider San Bruno and Millbrae as well. They keep you relatively close to SF but not so far south that you are in the really high rent areas of the Peninsula. Parts of Daly City are okay too. All of those get you away from the plane noise but don't make it impossible for commute purposes.

The other option, of course is to live closer to Mountain View and just come up to the City on weekends for fun. Good luck!