gaowmichelle

I feel pretty familiar with all the major sites of San Francisco and for all the Bay Area for that matter and I just LOVE it. But what I want to know is what are the most off-the-beaten path things that you know in the area (can be further afield ie. wine country, tahoe).. I have heard of falcon watching and some place where you can churn butter. What else? I want to connect to local people who are doing and seeing really interesting things as I think a lot of the SF/Bay Area appeal is all about how interesting the people are. Looking to do a summer trip and pack in as many of these one-of-a-kind experiences.

Be an oyster farmer for a day anyone??

Any and all suggestions welcome. Even something off the top of your head that you don't even know exists yet.

sf7307

I assure you the locals I know are not spending their days churning butter

MonicaRichards

We like Pescadero for lunch at Duarte's and then to the Harley Goat Farm.

Dukey1

Oh, this is funny. Go to the Russian River some weekend. You can certainly "connect" with the locals many of whom will undoubtedly be doing all sorts of "interesting things" which have nothing to do with oyster farming.

wekewoody

Catch one of Theater Rhinoceros' shows or perhaps the latest offering from the San Francisco Mime Troupe. They have shows in Dolores Park in the summer.

http://www.sfmt.org/index.php

http://www.therhino.org/

SAB

This 35+ year local has never heard of anyone going to churn butter or oyster farming!!

We locals do all kinds of things depending on our interests, whether they qualify as "off the beaten path" is another question. What we tend to do is enjoy our environment, hiking, biking, surfing, beach combing, para gliding, sailing, wine tasting, cheese tasting, baseball games (GO GIANTS), going to farmer's markets, attending outside concerts, running, attending street fairs, basically anything and everything you could think of to do outdoors. There are way to many things to do here on a sunny weekend that there is no need to deliberately seek odd and unusual. Odd and unusual just happens!

Wm

Us locals here in Sonoma County use Farm Trails to get to know our local food producers. Here's the website:
http://www.farmtrails.org/

starrs

At the top of my list when I return -
http://www.sausalitowoodenboattour.com/

Let the farmers come to you -
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace....ers_market.php

Get out and go for a walk and learn more about the neighborhoods -
http://www.sfcityguides.org/

BTW, the tour of the Ferry Building by the above was one of my favorites.

Have tea in the Noe Valley -
http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/

We really enjoyed spending almost most of the day here -
http://www.jacklondonpark.com/
and visited some wineries afterwards to close out the day

And after a barrel tasting we drove up to
http://www.lakesonoma.com/splash.asp

Pick up your picnic lunch here -
http://www.drycreekgeneralstore1881.com/

Those are some of my favorites.

If it's sunny, just hang out at Delores Park and enjoy being part of the community. Or maybe watch a movie at night
http://www.doloresparkworks.org/2012...ovies-dolores/
watch the video

Kailani

Off the top of my head:

The Sea Chantey Sing:

http://www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/chantey-sing.htm
with pictures: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/...#photo-1815283

The Columbarium:

http://www.californios.us/columbarium/

and the Thrill Peddlars:

http://thrillpeddlers.com/vice-palac...ettes-musical/

wekewoody

Locals in the mid-peninsula area around Palo Alto and Mountain View like:

1. Cantor Center for the Arts at Stanford.
http://museum.stanford.edu/

2. Shoreline Park in Mountain View. You can sail a boat, golf, have lunch or pick up the Bay Trail here and walk for miles along the levees. It is a restored wetland habitat that is a migratory bird sanctuary. At certain times of the year it is a birder's paradise.

3. The Gamble Garden in Palo Alto has their annual Gamble Garden Tour of gardens in the area. It is the last weekend every April. It is happening this weekend, so you'll have to wait until next year. http://www.gamblegarden.org/

sf7307

Too bad you weren't here today or you could have gone to the 14th annual How Weird street fair (pretty weird, I'd say )

http://sf.funcheap.com/weird-street-faire-soma/

nanabee

gaowmichelle,
My husband and I took the Sausalito Wooden Boat Tour (at starrs suggestion) this weekend and loved it. Absolutely interesting and very different from what you'd expect. Sausalito is famous for it's house boat community. The woman who does the tours (Victoria) has lived there many years and has researched the history & has written a book as well. There are two tours we took the one offered on Sat. and it's 3 hours. I highly recommend it.

shanek

If you do go to Sausalito, spend some time in the afternoon walking around the park that ajoins the ferry terminal.

You may be fortunate enough to bump into this guy..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2bn7sdJ19Q

We spent an hour or so chatting to him after riding bikes across the bridge a few years ago. It was "entertaining" to say the least.