"A Wonderful Weekend Getaway " a San Francisco Travel Page by Stasigrace

We arrived at Oakland Airport on a Saturday afternoon. Oakland is a much cheaper and more reliable alternative to SFO. We flew Jetblue, and decided that while it was nice, it wasn't all that.

From OAK you can take a free shuttle to the BART system, which whisks you straight to downtown San Francisco. It was very easy and we hit only one snag, when we learned too late that you can't share tickets (more on that in my transportation tips).

Our hotel was the lovely Hotel Bijou, just a block and a half from the Powell Cable Car terminus in Union Square (BART adjacent). It was a piece of cake to get everywhere. Read about this darling boutique hotel in my hotel tips (it's movie themed--great for cinephiles!).

That evening we headed to the Haight-Ashbury area and looked around. It was an easy but long bus ride over there. It was just before Halloween and all the stores were full of fun costume fixings. We had a blast trying on wigs, Mexican wrestler masks, and more.

Our dinner was to be at Cha Cha Cha, but we just couldn't deal with the noise (or the wait). We headed up a few blocks to an extremely quiet street where we found an adorable creperie called Crepes on Cole. It was quiet and served enormous portions of delicious food. What a treat!

The next morning we headed to Golden Gate park. It's sheer size makes walking unmanageable, but if you have wheels of some kind, you'll be able to find all kinds of neat things. See my "Must-See" tip for details.

We headed back to the hotel and for lunch I had my all-important clam chowder in a Boudin bread bowl. This is a must-have treat in San Francisco and can be found many places (I think I ate mine at a department store).

That afternoon we were lucky to have tickets to see Baz Luhrmann's "La Boheme", which was running before moving to Broadway (where it did very well). This is a great production and I highly recommend it (the touring production may be coming to your town this year). I've never seen a show where the SETS got applause! And yet, every time the lights came up, the audience would ooh and ahh and even break into clapping and cheering. The opera itself was beautifully staged and the singing was magnificent.

That evening we had a wonderful meal at Hana Zen sushi. This out-of-the-way place offers all kinds of unusual Japanese options at discount prices. More in my eating tips.

We also had a Ghirardelli sundae (got a couple free coupons from the hotel), which is another of my "must-dos" every time I'm in San Francisco.

For our final day in San Francisco we set off by cable car (with free passes from the hotel). We stopped near Chinatown and walked through that wonderful cornucopia of sights and smells. We got to see them unloading fresh half-pig carcasses from a truck--yummy!

We next visited Little Italy, where there's a tiny museum that's actually quite fun and loaded with history (see my off the beaten path tip). We also went into some churches, which are just beautiful. I most recommend Sts. Peter & Paul, just off Washington Square. The presence and calm inside brought tears to my eyes.

Our lunch was pizza, which was good, but the best part was to come. After a quick trip to City Lights Bookstore we went across the street to the Coppola building (it's a green triangular building) and sat there for 3 hours tasting wine! The affable bartender explained to us all about the Coppola holdings in wine, food, real estate and of course, film. It was such a wonderful break in the day. The pizza there looked to die for and we vowed to return (see restaurant tips).

That afternoon we did the requisite trip to Ghirardelli Square (for another sundae) and Pier 39 to laugh at the sea lions. A trip by cable car took us back to the hotel, where we enjoyed a screening of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (free screenings every night).

All in all, this was one of the most perfect trips I've ever taken, and it was all in just a weekend, a short jaunt from our home. It wasn't our first trip to San Francisco and it certainly won't be our last. But it will be infinitely difficult to top.

Please feel free to steal our weekend and have yourself a perfect trip too!