Things to do in San Francisco

[Tony Sade]

I'm taking my youngest boy (11) to San Francisco for several days to burn up some frequent flier miles before USAirways goes belly up. (I know the unions appear to have agreed to the concessions the airline says are necessary for it to avoid liquidation, but who knows what will actually happen and whether the freebies will survive.)

I've been to SF several times before, so I'm pretty familiar with and probably will visit a good many of the obvious tourist destinations-Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, cool neighborhoods, museums, and parks-but I wouldn't mind hitting a woodworking site (cool tool store or house tour or the like) to satisfy my urges.

Any suggestions? Also, the kid is heavily into classic cars these days. Any worthwhile stops? Thanks, Tony

[Tyler Howell]

Eat Tony Eat!
The food is out of this world. If you are tired of the tourist thing in the City run up and down the coast! Too Too cool. Lots to see and do,
I suppose wine tasting is out. the Vineries are still very interesting.

[Jamie Buxton]

Tony ---

You might be interested in a redwood forest. To a wood guy from back East (that's where I grew up), a forest full of mature redwoods is nearly a religious experience. Big Basin State Park is a great place for them. It is a couple hours south of SF proper. Muir Woods is closer to SF, but not as nice IMO.

Dunno when you're coming, but another unusual sight is elephant seals. The bulls are 20 feet long. There's a colony of them at Ano Nuevo, also down in the Big Basin area. They're all over the beach there in the winter, with January and February being the peak times.

There are a couple of stores in the East Bay which specialize in Japanese hand tools:
Hida Tool & Hardware, Berkeley. 510-524-3700. www.hidatool.com
Japan Woodworker, Alameda. 800-537-7820. www.japanwoodworker.com

[Rod Torgeson]

Tony....One thing that is very interesting is the Monterey Aquarium, I think your 11 year old would enjoy that as well as yourself. On the woodworking side, Macbeth hardwoods in Berkley is very interesting, of course trying to take a 10 foot board or two on the airplane back home might be a challenge. Also there is a place in Stockton called The Woodsman that has some unusual wood. I try to visit both these places when I visit my daughter in Antioch and usually end up bringing something back home. Hope this helps. Rod in Appleton, WA

[Michael Perata]

Tony

Being a native San Franciscan and raised in Redwood City:

China Town - largest Chinese enclave on the west coast.

Golden Gate Park - rivals Central Park

San Francisco Zoo - excellent primate facility and a new Lemur compound - nice day trip

A long day trip north up the north coast along Hwy 1 - SPECTACULAR

A long day trip south down the north coast along Hwy 1 to Monterey - the aquarium may be the BEST in the world.

A day trip down Hyw 35 (Skyline Road) through some of the most magnificent Redwood forests anywhere (Big Basin, Portola State Park). Drive a little further to Felton and you can take a narrow guage rail road trip throught the forests. Nice.

North Beach. Fior d'Italia is the GREATEST Italian ristorante anywhere.

The San Francisco National Maritime Museum - excellent exhibit with many wooden sailing ships.

Castro - see how the other half lives. (11 might be a tad young!!)

Japanwoodworker in Alameda - a short drive across the bay to a woodworker's wet dream.

A cruise on the bay including a stop at Alcatraz - nice.

A cruise on the bay including a stop and hike at Angel Island - REALLY NICE!!

Coit Tower for one of the best views of anything anywhere.

And there is more....

[Ted Shrader]

Tony -

I'm jumping in with Tyler on this one - EAT!

One place I definitely recommend is Dottie's. Go there for breakfast. It was on our list when we went a year ago. I'm glad we went there early in the visit, because then we could rearrange the rest of our itinerary and put it on the list for subsequent mornings. Great place for breakfast!

Ted

[Chris Padilla]

Tony,

Mike about nailed everything I could think but I've only been living here since 1998.

One thing my wife and I (and now kid) enjoy doing is taking the CalTrain to SF from SJ, and then walking around Market Street (lottsa shopping) and then eventually winding through the Financial district on our way up to Chinatown/Coit Tower/Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf. Yes, we walk the whole way. San Francisco has got to be one of the neatest metropolitan areas geograhpically speaking. Telegraph Hill (the hill Coit Tower sits upon) is sooooo cool.

I'll never remember where but there are a couple car dealers here and there that have Ferraris and Porsches but I don't recall seeing classic cars. I'm sure they exist...try and Google that stuff.

Mike did leave out the Twin Peaks area. Jamie is right about Big Basin. It is very humbling to see those massive Coastal Redwood trees. I wouldn't say that BB is a couple hours from SFO...should be closer to 1.5 hours if you go during a weekday. You'll practically have the place to yourself if you go first thing in the morning. It'll be cool there...be prepared.

I have to be honest, I went to the Monterey Aquarium as wasn't all that impressed. I went about 4-5 years ago in case things have improved since. Still, if you are in that area, 17-mile drive is very nice.

[Tony Sade]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Decisions, decisions!!! (Tyler-food is usually high on my list, but the kid is a bit picky so this might not be the trip to try out new stuff.)

[Neal White]

For classic cars, search for "Blackhawk Meseum" for their website. They are in Danville, about 45 minutes Ease of San Francisco and definitly worth the drive.