Touring the Bay and other San Francisco, CA Things to Do Tips

We always seem to be giving friends tours of San Francisco. Since I live on the East bay, the way I like to start off their experience is by taking them there using the Ferry. I think this is the best way to get a really special view of the city. If you’re not on the east bay side there is also ferry from the city of Vallejo,

You have two choices on where you want to arrive to. The first is the Ferry building which is next to the Embarcadero and the start of Market Street. The second jump-off point is at Pier 39, which has become an attraction on its own and is also next to Fisherman’s Warf. The Ferry leaves from a variety of sites to get to San Francisco. From the East Bay side you can leave from the city of Alameda or from Jack London Square in Oakland.

The cruise across the bay to San Francisco takes about 20 minutes from Alameda and 30 minutes from Jack London Square. You can also use the ferry to take you right to Giants' SBC Park to catch a ballgame. A round trip ticket is about $11 but it’s a pretty cheap way of getting there and touring the bay at the same time. You can buy your ticket right on board. There’s a little table there with someone selling tickets

If you’re a bit hungry or thirst, the Ferry also offers beverage service (beer, wine, sodas, coffee), and a snack bar with fresh pastries. If you want you can also bring a bike on board, but SF is not a great place to ride one as far as I’m concerned. If you want to jump-off at the Ferry building and explore downtown, you can always take a bus to Fisherman’s’ Warf. The ticket you buy also has a stub on it for a free bus ride. With a roundtrip ticket you get two tickets, one to leave from the boat and one to return.

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Address: San Francisco Bay
Directions: For those with disabilities, all boats are accessible to riders with disabilities and provide a wheelchair accessible restroom. available on the first and second decks
Website: www.eastbayferry.com

What is amazing to me is the popularity of Pier 39. It's the third most visited attraction in the US and the number-one tourist spot in San Francisco, welcoming 11 million visitors per year.

PIER 39 is a multilevel waterfront complex a few blocks east of Fisherman's Wharf. Constructed on an abandoned cargo pier, it’s a neo-recreation of a turn-of-the-20th-century street scene, but don't expect a slice of old-time maritime life. It has more than 100 stores, 11 bay-view restaurants, a two-tiered Venetian carousel, a Hard Rock Cafe, and arcade and aquarium entertainment for the kids.

It also has several attractions that are unique to its Fisherman's Wharf location. The famous sea lion colony that has taken up residence on the abandoned docks next door are themselves worth a special trip. Hear them honk, snort and slap their enormous bodies around; watch them cavort with their buddies.

You can see the sea lions for free (pier entrance doesn't cost a penny), but it's advisable to bring along plenty of cash for the other attractions as everything's slated toward helping you part with your travel dollars. To residents, that pretty much wraps up PIER 39 -- an expensive spot where out-of-towners go to waste money on worthless souvenirs and greasy fast food. It's the place that locals love to hate. If you want to get to know the real San Francisco, skip the cheesy T-shirt shops and limit your time here to one afternoon.

That said, I always bring new visitors here as it does have a few perks: absolutely beautiful natural surroundings of bay views, fresh sea air, and hundreds of sunbathing sea lions lounging along its neighboring dock. My wife never seems to tire of the place and first timers always seem enjoy it.

And everything's slated toward helping you part with your travel dollars. It's the place that locals love to hate. That said, it does have a few perks: absolutely beautiful natural surroundings of bay views, fresh sea air, and hundreds of sunbathing sea lions lounging along its neighboring dock.

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Phone: (415) 705-5500
Address: The Embarcadero at Beach Street
Website: http://www.pier39.com/home.cfm

A city within a city San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in North-America, and the most commercial. San Francisco's Chinatown offers colorful sights and sounds best seen on foot. The obvious starting place is just north of Union Square at the base of Grant Avenue, the oldest street in San Francisco; pass through the dragon-guarded gateway, a gift from the Republic of China, and you enter the largest Chinatown in North America.

There are some tacky curio shops, but the 30,000 Chinese, most of whom speak Cantonese, live in a tightly knit, distinctly un-Western community. It's a great place for casual wandering through narrow alleys, where on quiet afternoons you can hear the clack of mahjong tiles from behind screen doors, or discover a small eatery whose proprietor can teach you the intricacies of chopsticks, or see workers hand-making fortune cookies in Ross Alley.

The narrow streets are crowded with residents and tourists, here for the curio shops, herb markets, pagodas and restaurants. The shops along Grant Street, the main thoroughfare, cater to the tourist trade. For a less commercial experience the area you should visit is located between Stockton Street and Grant Street, which has the best Chinatown atmosphere.

Besides the well known Chinatown Gate, the approx. 24-block area contains a lot of pagoda-roofed buildings, as well as nicely decorated lamp posts and phone booths in Chinese style. Chinatown also has several temples; three of them are located in the Waverly Place, which is also known as the 'street of painted balconies'. This street is certainly worth a visit. Another nice and much-photographed place in Chinatown is the corner of California and Grant, which has some nice pagoda-roofed buildings

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Address: Bordered by Broadway, Bush, Kearny, Stockton sts.
Directions: Ornamental gate at Grant and Bush intersection.
Website: http://www.sfchinatown.com/

It’s amazing to me what has happened to the Ferry building in the past few years. I remember not too long ago walking in the building and thinking that it must have been something in it’s day. Now There's no better way to enjoy a San Francisco morning than strolling this gourmet marketplace in the newly renovated Ferry Building and snacking your way through breakfast or lunch. I used to skip this as part of my showing friends the city, but now taking the ferry from the East Bay to SF and then into the Ferry building really sets a mood.

Today the building houses local favorites such as Acme Bread, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Cowgirl Creamery, and Slanted Door, which share space with the street-level gourmet Market Hall. The seafood bar has a fantastic city panorama, or you can take your purchases around to the building's bay side, where benches face views of the Bay Bridge. The waterfront promenade, which extends from the piers on the north side of the building south to the Bay Bridge, is where San Franciscans throng to jog, in-line skate, watch sailboats, or enjoy a picnic.

The beacon of the port area, erected in 1896, has a 230-foot clock tower modeled after the campanile of the cathedral in Seville, Spain. On the morning of April 18, 1906, the four great clock faces on the tower, powered by the swinging of a 14-foot pendulum, stopped at 5:17, the moment the great earthquake struck, and stayed still for 12 months

An added bonus and a San Francisco favorite is the Farmers' Market which is open on Saturdays from 8am to 2pm and Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 2pm. There you can find Northern California fruits, vegetables, breads, dairy, flowers, and readymade snacks by a few local restaurants. You can also pick up locally made vinegars and oils Drop in on Sunday from 8am to 2pm for the gardener's market, which focuses on plants but also has a bit of produce.

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Directions: The Embarcadero at foot of Market St

The block-long "Crookedest Street in the World" makes eight switchbacks down the east face of Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth streets, past million-dollar, beautifully landscaped homes and unsurpassed views of the Bay. The angle of the street is so steep that the road has to snake back and forth to make a descent possible. This short stretch of Lombard Street is one-way, downhill, and fun to drive. Take the curves slowly and in low gear. The brick-lined street zigzags around the residences' bright flower gardens, which explode with color during warmer months.

Residents complain about the traffic jam outside their front doors, and occasionally the city attempts to discourage drivers by posting a traffic cop near the top of the hill, but the determined can find a way around. For this reason, the city is considering closing Lombard to motor traffic.

If no one is standing guard, join the line of cars waiting to drive down the steep hill, or avoid the whole mess and walk down the steps on either side of Lombard. You take in super views of North Beach and Coit Tower whether you walk or drive -- though if you're the one behind the wheel, you'd better keep your eye on the road lest you become yet another of the many folks who ram the garden barriers. Save your film for the bottom where, if you're lucky, you can find a parking space and take a few snapshots of the silly spectacle.

Can't stand the throngs? Potrero Hill's Vermont Street between 20th and 22nd streets is a kind of blue-collar Lombard Street, with a similar series of switchbacks but without Lombard's gorgeous gardens and views. Vermont has only six switchbacks, but they're steeper and sharper, with an interesting view of the back of the city, though the street itself isn't as scenic.

Thrill seekers of a different stripe may want to head two blocks south of Lombard to Filbert Street. The hair-raising descent between Hyde and Leavenworth streets is said to be the city's steepest

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Address: Lombard Street. Descent begins at Hyde Street.
Directions: Don’t ask locals where Lombard Street is, they're likely to point you further down toward the Marina District, where the street becomes a main traffic thoroughfare

When I worked in the city I used to walk down 3rd street every day and right past SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). When it first opened in 1995, the collection looked rather sparse in the grand new galleries. The museum , designed by Mario Botta, consists of a sienna brick facade and a central tower of alternating bands of black and white stone. Inside, natural light from the tower floods the central atrium and some of the museum's galleries. A black-and-gray stone staircase leads from the atrium to four floors of galleries.

This sparseness has been remedied by substantial acquisitions which today counts some 5,600 paintings, drawings and sculpture. Among the permanent collection today you’ll find Works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. There is also a fine collection of Modernist paintings, including works by Matisse and Dali.

The photography holdings are one of the best in the world with a 9,000-work collection. It's exceptionally strong in pieces by Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz (Georgia O'Keeffe’s husband) and Edward Weston, but ranges from daguerreotype portraits to trailblazing computer-assisted works that challenge the meaning of the art form.

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Phone: 415.357.4000
Address: 151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard Stree
Directions: SFMoMA is located in the South of Market (SOMA) area of downtown at 151 Third Street between Mission and Howard Streets
Website: http://www.sfmoma.org

In a city known for its great views and vantage points, Coit Tower is one of the best. Located atop Telegraph Hill, just east of North Beach, the round, stone tower offers panoramic views of the city and the bay and is visible from many parts of the city. This 210-foot-tall Tower resembles a giant fire hose nozzle, and stands as a monument to the city's volunteer firefighters. During the early days of the gold rush, Lillie Hitchcock Coit (known as Miss Lil) was said to have deserted a wedding party and chased down the street after her favorite engine, Knickerbocker No. 5, while clad in her bridesmaid finery. She stopped to help firemen fight a blaze and was soon made an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Company. After that she always signed her name "Lillie Coit 5" in honor of her favorite fire engine.

Lillie died in 1929 at the age of 86, leaving the city $125,000 to "expend in an appropriate manner…to the beauty of San Francisco. Coit Tower stands atop Telegraph Hill. In 1846 Captain John Montgomery, Commander of the District of San Francisco, claimed the hilltop for the US government. During the Gold Rush era, settlers used the hilltop Marine Telegraph to relay news of arriving ships -- thus the name Telegraph Hill.

Completed in 1933, 19 depression-era murals depict economic and political life in California. The government used the Depression-era WPA project to commission the murals, and the 25 artists who painted them were each paid $38 a week. Some were fresh from art school; others had found no market for art in the early 1930s. The radical Mexican painter Diego Rivera inspired the murals' socialist-realist style, with its biting cultural commentary, particularly about the exploitation of workers. At the time the murals were painted, clashes between management and labor along the waterfront and elsewhere in San Francisco were widespread.

Take the elevator to the top of the tower, remember that it gets a little chilly as the top has no ceiling and is open to the air.

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Phone: (415) 362- 0808
Address: 1 Telegraph Hill Blvd
Directions: OPEN: Daily 10-6.

Get there early as there is limited parking available People often just walk up Telegraph Hill to avoid the hassle of parking all together. Be warned, however, that it is steep and quite a hike.
Website: http://www.coittower.org/

The bridge that spans tidal currents, ocean waves, and battering winds, connects the City by the Bay with the Redwood Empire to the north, has long wowed sightseers with its simple but powerful art-deco design. Completed in May 1937 after 4 years of construction, at the then-colossal cost of $35 million, it is possibly the most beautiful, and certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world. At the time, it was the longest and tallest suspension structure in the world.

With its gracefully swung single span, spidery bracing cables, and zooming twin towers it was built to withstand winds of more than 100 mph. The bridge looks more like a work of abstract art than one of the 20th century's greatest practical engineering feats.

Painted a reddish color, that's actually called International Orange; the bridge stretches 1.7 miles beneath its soaring towers across the mouth of San Francisco Bay, otherwise known as Golden Gate. Though frequently gusty and misty, the bridge provides unparalleled views of the Bay Area. The east walkway yields a glimpse of the San Francisco skyline and the bay islands, while the view west takes in the wild hills of the Marin Headlands, the curving coast south to Land's End, and the majestic Pacific Ocean. A vista point on the Marin side affords a spectacular city panorama. On sunny days sailboats dot the water, and brave windsurfers test the often-treacherous tides beneath the bridge.

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Phone: (415) 921-5858
Address: Northwestern Tip of San Francisco Peninsula
Directions: Muni Buses 28 and 29 make stops at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza, on the San Francisco side. www.goldengatebridge.org. OPEN: Pedestrians and bicyclists: daily sunrise-sunset. Muni Buses 28 and 29
Website: http://www.goldengatebridge.org

The Golden Gate Bridge is best seen on foot or by bike (it's free, too). A stroll across San Francisco’s most famous landmark is unforgettable. Coming North from San Francisco be sure to slow down as soon as you see the toll gates. The entrance to the first parking lot is a hard right after the wall disappears. This is a meter parking lot so be sure to bring change. If you overshoot the parking lot don’t despair, another large parking lot can be found on the other side of the bridge. This lot is free but you will have to pay the bridge toll on the way back. The eastern path is predominately for walkers, but you still need to be on the look out for a few obnoxious bikers traveling very fast. If you have a bike, take it to the western side where 99% of the bikes can be found. If you have a bike and want to take the eastern side, just take it slow or better yet, walk it. If you want to walk the western side… good luck,

From the bridge, you'll enjoy stunning views in all four directions: the expansive blue Pacific to the west, the sailboat-dotted Bay to the east, the picturesque City to the south and the towering Marin headlands up north. Stand near the southern pedestrian entrance on the eastside of the road to peer at the courtyard of Fort Point below. Further out, look over the guardrail as cargo ships gliding by seem toy-sized in the distance.

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Phone: (415) 921-5858
Address: Northwestern Tip of San Francisco Peninsula
Directions: The bridge is Highway 101's link from San Francisco to the counties North.
Website: http://www.goldengatebridge.org

The largest and best known park in San Francisco is the 1,017 acre Golden Gate Park. Its history goes back to 1870 when the site was an area of wild sand dunes. At the time, the area , known as 'outside lands', was well outside the city's developed limits. A three-mile rectangle of green that runs from the upper Haight all the way to the beach, Golden Gate is one of the best urban parks in America and offers something for almost every city dweller, and a whole lot of visitors besides.

In 1871, William Hall Civil engineer was hired as superintendent of the park to convert the sand dunes into forested parkland. Innovative sand reclamation techniques were used and a dike was built to protect the park from the sea. In 1887 nature lover, John McLaren succeeded William Hall, and during the next 56 years he planted thousands of trees and converted the area into the park as we know it today.

Today the park is popular for its sports facilities which include tennis, pétanque, golf, fly-fishing, biking, inline skating, archery, handball and horseback riding. On weekends, the meadows in the park are used by many visitors as picnic grounds. Attracting more than 12 million visitors yearly, Golden Gate Park is a great place to feel far away from the hustle & bustle of the city. I have fond memories of breaking out the Frisbee and tossing it with friends. Of course the hair is just a fond memory also.

Nature lover? Wander through jungle-like rhododendron dells, trickling waterfalls and a million trees. Music lover? Catch a concert at the outdoor bandstand or join the everlasting drum circle on what locals call Hippie Hill. Just a lover? Rent a rowboat on Stow Lake or get married at the Shakespeare garden.

While the park also houses main attractions (Conservatory of Flowers; M.H. De Young Museum; Japanese Tea Garden, Buffalo paddock, Morrison Planetarium, Asian Art Museum, Steinhart Aquarium and the Strybing arboretum.), I don’t think of them as really part of the park. See info on them on separate entries.

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Address: Area bounded by Lincoln, Fulton, Stanyan.