San Francisco Suggestions?

theres a pirate store somewhere
coit tower is kinda cool
eat some clam chowder at fishermans warf and say hi to seals
take a roadtrip out to visit james in the redwoods
theres a gallery called 20goto10 that kicks ass

The WWII submarine tour in the harbor at the Maritime Museum is just the most amazing thing I have ever done. It gave me such respect for those men.

http://www.maritime.org/pamphome.htm

There is a beautiful labyrinth at Land’s End at Golden Gate park that I am planning to visit this weekend.

The Ferry Bldg for food.

I’ve been told RITUAL COFFEE is the best in the area. That is first on my list next time I visit SF.

I would love to get together! It’s been far too long.

Hi Joe,

I think San Francisco’s beauty is as much its history as it is the natural location, but especially the off-the-beaten track atmospheric history.

Alas, some really cool places got priced out of the city during the dotcom boom, but it seems the Cartoon Art Museum is still there – http://www.cartoonart.org/

May I first suggest watching the movie “Time after Time” to whet your appetite? Great scenes of the Bay Area, in the battle of H.G. Wells to stop Jack the Ripper in 1970s San Francisco.

Speaking of fiction, there’s a great walking tour for Sam Spade/Dashiell Hammett fans – http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-escape17apr17 and http://www.donherron.com/tour.html

In North Beach, there’s http://citylights.com/ – City Lights Books, which Lawrence Ferlinghetti cofounded, and I think still owns. Lots of great Beat history nearby, but much of it centered on City Lights.

The Palace of Fine Arts has the Exploratorium, which sounds like it would be up your alley – I never had the chance to go while I was there, but I have seen the Palace in sunset and it is truly glorious.

Union Square is worth the trip… At night there are some neat greasy-spoon diners that are open late, and since it’s near the IHA Hostel, you have people from all over the world hanging out there.

Avoid the Tenderloin. I was followed by a poor soul who “knew” I was in the CIA and was audibly expressing this belief.

IMNSHO Chinatown is worth a jaunt, too. After visiting Chinatowns in Sydney, Vancouver, LA, Chicago, Houston, NYC and Boston — and time living on the doorstep of the one in TO — I’d have to say San Francisco’s is the best in terms of sheer experience and color. Beyond the knicknack shops you can find some genuine Chinese and Japanese art and pottery imports, some good bakeries (mm mung bean cakes) and some amazing history – http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/chineseinca/sfchinatown.html – http://www.c-c-c.org/ – and not to mention Jack Kerouac Alley (in Chinatown, not North Beach).

When in Haight Ashbury, tip your hat off to the Free Clinic, which is still operating. There’s also the Red Victorian Inn, which may give you a free look at one or more of their rooms (which are uniquely decorated) – http://www.redvic.com/ – they also have a cafe.

If you do go to Berkeley – Moe’s Books is great. Avoid People’s Park – it’s historical all right (I never realized someone had been killed in one of the protests – even before Kent State), but not safe.

In Oakland, Jack London Square has the Buttercup Grill, great place for breakfast or brunch.

have fun! Patience

SWEET. I can’t wait to take you and Ingrid around to see the sights and fill some bellies. Finally I’ve got someone to play host to since moving up here so I can start to feel like an SF native and less of a transplanted San Diego ex-patriot.

So here’s the rough plan: you kids are on your own until Sat, unfortunately. Some of us have to work you know.

On Saturday, name the time and I’ll pick you kids up in my trusty Civic. I can’t do the touristy walk for miles thing because I’m still rehabbing the knee, but at least I get a handicap placard – it’s like a magic wand in this city. We’ll go to North Beach and duck into Rogue Ales Public House, a tiny indie pub and brewery, oh wait excuse me, “Micro Meeting Hall”. We can sip some suds but the main attraction is the absolutely delicious Kobe beef burgers and calamari.

Then, since we’re already in North Park, it’s next door to Coit Tower and it’s the kind of attraction you tend not to see if you’re just walking around the city, it’s kind of a car thing. And the views are worth it, so we’ll motor on up the hill and check that out.

After that, it’s your call, I’m flexible for whatever. Here’s my recommendation: we can do the “hang out with the hipsters in the mission” thing if you want, but honestly? I live in the mission and I think it’s played out. If you’ve seen one hipster scene you’ve seen them all: williamsburg, brooklyn; north park and south park, san diego… they all blend together. And there’s no way I’m subjecting you guys to the steaming crap that is the taquerias around here – us San Diegans are a special breed of mexican food snobs, spoiled as we were from a steady diet of la posta, el cuervo, el cotixan and bertos in general. All of those hole in the walls make their food fresh – they serve up the grub here “mission style”, which is fancy talk for “tubs of pre-made food sitting out in the open like it’s a frigging cafeteria”. They don’t even have california burritos!

I live by one of the prettiest parks in the city (dolores park) and it’s nowhere near worth going out of our way for, it’s nothing that’s going to impress colorado ingrid or hollywood hills joe 🙂

The only thing worth checking out here is the pupusas, the salvadorian food that’s just plain heavenly. If burgers aren’t our thing for some reason, that’s my backup plan for the belly filling action.

So, I’d recommend we hit up something that’s way out of the way for typical tourists (far away from the embarcadero, golden gate, etc) – golden gate park. It’s huge, beautiful and our inner design geeks will go gaga over both the inside and outside of the deyoung museum. It’s stunning. In addition to the cool architecture, interior design, art, and next door japanese gardens, it’s got a 360 degree observation tower (just like coit tower) that’ll give us the second set of awesome views for the day, from further inland so you can see the golden gate bridge and other stuff.

Other options for the second half of the day – keep migrating west and drive up to the top of twin peaks, it’s like the mt soledad of SF. Or go over the golden gate bridge and above it into the marin headlands, the cliffs there are almost level with the top of the bridge and make you feel like you’re walking in the clouds.

How’s that sound? Feel free to trim to fit.

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