Centralparkgirl

6 nights at the Grand Hyatt in Union Square - great location - completely renovated rooms and lobby. (Beware of extremely oversoft mattresses. They put a board under the mattress for us or I would have been crippled.)

What we did:

Walking tours - Ferry Building, China Town, Mission Dolores and the Diego Rivera mural (by reservation only). The Rivera tour was fascinating, loads of information about another era from a great docent in a very beautiful historic private site. 
www.sfguides.org 

Museums - De Young - Girl with a Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Century. See Rembrandt's Century first - etchings - followed by Girl. Audio tour for Girl was informative. Timed tickets necessary - not terribly crowded first thing in the morning even on a weekend. (This is not a large exhibit and a much smaller version will be going to The Frick in NY.)
Legion of Honor (free admission same day as De Young)
Asia Art Museum - Terracotta Warriors - not a very large exhibit, but quite unique - learned a lot of Chinese history - beautiful museum - interesting renovation to the original main branch of library done by same architects as d'Orsay in Paris.

Great view of the Bay Lights at night from the pier on the south side of the Ferry Building - quite cool. Only visible on north side of bridge.
thebaylights.org

Spent a little time in Dolores Park, GG Park, and Deboce Park.
We had very good weather and walked everywhere day and evening, but did a bit of Muni, taxis (including Lyft) and rented a car for the day that we went to the De Young. (Shinsplints lasted a few days!)

Food/Dining:
Lunch/Brunch - Butterfly, Zuni Cafe, nopa, Foreign Cinema, Barbacco
Dinner - Frances, State Bird Provisions, Cotogna (drinks in Quince first), Rich Table, Park Tavern. 
The 'new' places for us were Zuni, nopa, and Rich Table. We had wonderful meals everywhere except for Rich Table. They are trying so hard to be different that their entrees and desserts are different, but not great. Their $4 bread is not great either.

Cheese class at the Cheese School of San Francisco in lieu of dinner first night. Cheeses of Italy (6:30 - 8:30) was led by a knowledgable person in the business. We sampled about nine types from all over Italy with simple accompaniments and wine. I really learned a lot. About 25 people attended. They offer many other classes including cheese making, wine pairings, etc.
www.cheeseschoolsf.com (in North Beach)

Afternoon tea at Samovar in Yerba Buena Gardens - beautiful day, gorgeous Magnolia in bloom, peaceful open space in the city.

And some great shopping to top off a great visit. We'll be back in June!

Songdoc

Sounds like a great trip--especially the cheese school.

DebitNM

You hit all my favs! Glad it was such a great trip!

MichelleY

How was Foreign Cinema? Have been curious about it.

Centralparkgirl

Songdoc - the cheese school was a good experience - a bit pricey, but it was instead of dinner. I would do it again if the topic interested us.

Deb - going to abq the end of April. Maybe we could connect?

Michelle - we've now been to FC twice for brunch - the food was fresh and very good both times; good service too.

sf7307

Brunch is great at FC, dinner is not nearly as good.

MichelleY

Thanks. Good to know.

5alive

Great trip report.

What did you think of the Mission Dolores tour? I have toured that site on my own with a guide book and am wondering if it is worth getting the guided tour. I am envious of your Diego Rivera tour--hard to get there during those months for me! Also your link did not work for me so I am reposting it here:

http://www.sfcityguides.org/

Centralparkgirl

5alive - thanks for the correction - I left out an entire word! The Mission Dolores tour was very interesting with emphasis on history and architecture. We had an excellent docent, Marion. Since we've been visiting SF fairly often the last few years, we have gone on quite a few of these. I think it would really be helpful if they posted on their website, the length of the tours and the starting and ending points. This information is not uniformly listed and would be very helpful, especially for visitors who are planning the logistics of a full day. The tour was over two hours and we had to leave before the end (we were meeting our son). We missed the part about the Mission itself (which was a small part of the whole tour). The other comment I want to make is that not all docents are created equal - no matter what the organization. Most have been wonderful, but not all. So, I do recommend this tour, but we had a very knowledgeable docent. Another experience might be different. Interestingly, our docent for the Rivera mural tour (who was terrific) mentioned that we should take tours more than once because you will always come away with a different experience with a different docent. Good suggestion if one has the time to do that. The Diego Rivera private tour, by the way, is usually given on the third Monday of the month if it is not a holiday.

easytraveler

Great trip report!

Thanks for the reminder on the Girl with the Pear Earring. Have been meaning to go and see that but it just fell by the wayside somehow.

Welcome back in June!

5alive

Thanks, CPG!