San Francisco and what to do in it

Alex you are high, the City Pass includes a ton of free admission. It's like a 50% savings on face value of all those attractions (almost all of which are pretty great for fisitors).

fisters = visitors (who enjoy fisting)

TMI

Those things are generally scams. I'll take my $24 bus pass and go see the few things on the pass that I want to see rather than pay $54 and get stuck with a bunch of nonsense I don't want to do and an overpriced bus-pass.

http://www.citypass.com/citypass/images/look-inside/sanfrancisco/3/34.jpg

Wow a free lollipop. Fuck that sign me up.

Alex you are a native! This is not a thread for natives you dork. You are a funny dude!

i'll admit that having to take my citypass out whenever i got on localsbuses detracted value

i did it stealthily tho

I love Alex's definition of bunch of nonsense!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

de Young/Legion of Honor = great
Aquarium of the Bay = is this the Pier 39 one? never been.
Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise = great (on a nice day)
Exploratorium = great
SF Museum of Modern Art & an option ticket to either Asian Art Museum or California Academy of Sciences/Steinhart Aquarium = great

LESSON: don't listen to Alex guys.

more like bunch of nonsense = grime and dubstep shows in bayview, YARLY.

;-D

"Alex you are a native! This is not a thread for natives you dork. You are a funny dude!"

I was imagining myself as a TOURIST (remember imagination Shasta, it was something Sesame Street us.) Look it's not a rip-off and most cities have something similar and I've done 'em a couple of times and in general the couple of bucks they save you aren't worth all the goofy rules (must see two museums on SAME DAY, etc) and hassles and stressful planning that goes into having them.

I've been planning for my trip to SF this summer, and actually I think the CityPass thing sounds pretty great.

I was going to go to a couple of the museums anyway (Exploratorium and museum of modern art) and if I get to go and see touristy things for free as well (the cruise and aquarium) then I might as well, since I've paid for it already

i think the basic question is how much time to do you have; if it's enough that it makes sense to do a lot of museumgoing, get the pass to encourage you to fit it all in; if it's not, feeling obligated by the pass might mix up your priorities

Yeah I mean obv the question is how much time do you want to spend in museums anyway. The answer for me is generally NOT MUCH, but hey if they are your bag then go for it.

Ok then. what should I see?

I'm there for about 5/6 days in the middle of July. Going to spend one day in Berkeley I think, and planning to go and see Alcatraz one morning too. The Exploratorium is only the other thing I desperately want to see (I came across it lots when I was reading up for a dissertation last year).

I only got to the de Young (selective pass-through was worthwhile/fun; building didn't do much for me; great gift shop) and the Asian Art (very good/well-curated, but deserved a bigger chunk of time than I planned, and somewhat exhausting)

826 Valencia is a fun 20 min.

Especially if you can get one of the surprises or compete for a piece of jerky on dried squid.

I'm a big fan of the Musee Mechanique, but its new home is less interesting than the old one near Seacliff.

my favorite stuff:
Chez Panisse Cafe
UC Berkeley and sunset from the Bowl
Baker Beach and Coastal Trail to the bridge
Aquatic Park/Fort Mason/Greens
Russian Hill
Ferry Building
Golden Gate Park (tea garden, conservatory, de young)
aguas frescas (at Farolito, where the burrito amd salsas didn't impress (but grilled chicken = rong?) and Balazo (where the salsas and goat cheese+nopal taco were nice))
Haight houses

I missed most of the Presidio and Nob Hill and never got to the Cliff House/Lands End, Castro, SoMa or on the water. The wharf beyond aquatic park sucked as much as I was warned (missed the musee). The Mission didn't do much for me beyond the view of Twin Peaks, tho i didn't eat much there and the area around the park was pleasant enough if a bit LA-like. Only took a quick pass through Chinatown but didn't see what the big deal was.

"Going to spend one day in Berkeley I think, and planning to go and see Alcatraz one morning too. The Exploratorium is only the other thing I desperately want to see (I came across it lots when I was reading up for a dissertation last year)."

Exploratium is fun. Alcatraz is a waste now that it's an audio tour IMO. I'd def. look into doing a walking tour of downtown. Chinatown is a nice tourist trap. Stuff in Golden Gate Park is always fun, walking around the Arboretum, the Conservatory, Stow Lake, Japanese Tea Garden, etc. If you like biking there are about a zillion good bike routes. And of course there are no lack of great shopping and eating opportunities.

Here is the walking tour group I recommend (to be honest it's the only one I've done.) The participants probably tend toward the old-ish end, but the tours are fascinating and they get into all sorts of neat nooks that most locals have never seen and they're chock full of useful trivia.

Here is the walking tour group I recommend (to be honest it's the only one I've done.) The participants probably tend toward the old-ish end, but the tours are fascinating and they get into all sorts of neat nooks that most locals have never seen and they're chock full of useful trivia.

http://www.sfcityguides.org/

that's so lame about Alcatraz. I remember getting tours from actual ex-cons from there, thx to my dad.

(also Farolito's is disgusting)

Parse that sentence for me, Shakey.

The previous one. Not the Farolito one.

yeah, I thought Taqueria was better, but I picked Farolito cuz I thought it was more authentic SF (ie inauthentic). plus I spotted it first. disappointing.

the best mexican food I had in CA was at the Los Gatos farmer's market >:

things to do in the Mission:
- lots of cool stuff on Valencia street, including what is probably the best sci-fi bookshop in the world (Borderlands), Aquarius Records, the aforementioned 826 Valencia, Paxton Gate
- walking tours of the local murals (Precita Eyes on 24th St gives tours, I believe)
- go to Cell Space's weekly rollerdisco
- get stabbed in a Mexican heroin bar
- Mitchell's Ice Cream

x-post

(wait which sentence am I parsing? My dad's a history teacher, he used to take his classes to Alcatraz as part of class trips to SF and Sacramento - he met and knew several guys who had done time at Alcatraz back in the day and would use them as tourguides of the island. They always had the best stories)

Yes, that sentence! Now it makes sense!

i'm guilty of not being a big record store/scifi bookstore type. the murals i saw were nice but not as nice as i expected and i decided i was more interested in taking twin peaks pictures and moving along than finding the right alley or whatever to see more.

plus it was hot there

mural quality in the mission varies from unbelievably awesome (the Women's Building) to incomprehensibly bad (the one of old and retarded people at 22nd and S. Van Ness, which I think just got painted over)

no Paxton Gate = no meticulously stuffed rat dressed as Queen Victoria for you then

er I think I mean Bernal Heights hill, not Twin Peaks. I<-noob.

I want to get back to SF so bad, but I have so many other hands trying to get into my wallet... :-(((

xxp - that's quite alright, thanks

The Alcatraz audio tour is still pretty good.

I can't stand audio tours of any sort, to be honest.

Paxton Gate = a poor man's Bone Room (El Cerrito, CA) which all pale in comparison to Evolution (Soho, NYC)

Farolito is the only place with Sesos (brains) and Cabeza (head cartilege) so I guess if that's not authentic enough for you, you should stick to the Los Gatos Farmer's Market LOL.

well i'm definitely not an organmeat guy, but i thought i was consciously choosing "sf-style burritos" over something more like the real thing at Taqueria. have you been to that market, steve? i thought it was really good food but maybe it was just good timing. the town overall was slightly absurdly (or at least more-than-expectedly) conspicuously wealthy, but pleasant in a suburban village-y way and also had the best pastry I had in CA.

yeah, that's the heart of silicon valley (where the technology for whatever you're typing on and looking at right now has been developed).

but i have to admit having lived on a farm for half of my life, i don't really find the appeal of "farmer's markets" neither authentic or fascinating. for really authentic mexican food, i recommend this place just down interstate 5 from here. it's about a 40 hour drive.

My fave taqueria in SF is El Balazo. Outside of the fact that the help knows about 10 English terms, it's not very authentic, but damn is it tasty.

I guess I'm kinda soured on the notion of authentic cuisine since I had to eat real Chinese food for 2 weeks in China and it was absolutely terrible.

Yes, I am prematurely generalizing.

i am such a lazy tourist, i never care too much about the sights when i go to a place, i just like being there and walking around and eating and taking my own slow time about doing things, also i like looking at people and eavesdropping and watching the local news and lingering in hotel rooms.