This will be my first trip report on the US board, though I have posted several on the Europe and Asia boards. Warning, my trip reports tend to be very long and detailed, especially when it comes to food.

I'm going to give a quick synopsis up front and then follow with the details and reviews later.

Who we are:
We're a couple, both 40, who love to travel and we do at least one "big" trip a year. In July we're going to Vietnam so we decided to make Spring Break (my husband is a teacher) a shorter, smaller trip. For the second half of this trip we were joined by two close friends with whom we went to Rome on our last Spring Break (trip report here on Fodor's).

Hotel: Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf.

Restaurants and Food:
We had four dinners; Aux Delices, SPQR, A16 and Delfina. We visited the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building and returned there on another day to have "happy hour" at the Hog Island Oyster Company. We had 2 museum lunches; the Moss Room at the CA Academy of Science and the Cafe at the De Young. We also had lunch at a very touristy Fisherman's Wharf restaurant (not great).

Sightseeing:
Ferry Building and Farmer's Market, Fisherman's Wharf, Flower Conservatory in Golden Gate Park, California Academy of Sciences Museum, De Young Museum, Legion of Honor Museum, and Alcatraz. Quick walk through Chinatown and Little Italy.

Transportation:
Southwest Airlines, Burbank to Oakland. BART into City. Bought a 7 day MUNI "Passport" for $24 a person which allowed us to ride cable cars, trams and buses all over the city all we wanted. We also took a few taxis and walked a lot too.

Maps
I bought the Streetwise San Francisco first but I wasn't happy with the level of detail or the fact that I could not easily put it in my pocket. Next, I bought the Pocket Pilot San Francisco map which, while laminated, folds up much smaller than the Streetwise map. Even though it doesn't cover as much of the city as Streetwise, it does have the street-level detail I like. Finally, I bought a $3 paper MUNI map which turned out to be the most useful map of the bunch.

Weather
We were there the second week of April. We were blessed with gorgeous, sunny, warm weather for the first three days and didn't even need the coats we'd brought during the day (but did wear them at night). On the last day it dumped rain for most of the morning and then we were treated to a stunning rainbow over the Bay Bridge.

Research
Mostly here, of course. Many thanks to Stu Dudley for his many excellent posts on San Francisco. I only wish we'd had time to do one of the City Guide free tours he recommends. I also heavily relied on Chowhound for restaurant research and searched Yelp for reviews as well. I did not buy a guidebook.
As part of my research I created a Google Map of locations (restaurants, sightseeing, etc) and a page of links (called "tidbits") which I've placed on my website, http://www.wired2theworld.com

Photos
I took 842 photos in 4 days and I still need go through them. Eventually, I will have them up on my website and I will post links as I make them available.

Next up, the details...

First, I have to say, I really, really, really wanted to title this post "Four Fabulous Days in 'Frisco" but even more so, I didn't want to deal with the comments I'd get about using the term "Frisco". Yeah, I know, nobody but tourists use "Frisco", but the alliteration would have been so much better, don't you think?

Saturday morning we have an early flight out of Burbank on Southwest to Oakland. The flight is uneventful and not full. We arrive a couple of minutes early and are out catching the AirBart bus from the airport to the BART Colosseum stop in a matter of minutes.
The bus is $3 per person and you need exact change (pay on the bus). The trip is about 15 minutes to the BART station.

Once in the station, we buy tickets from the machines on the wall using a credit card. I find the machines to be initially a little confusing. You have to know exactly how much the ticket to your destination costs, and then adjust the price down to meet it. So, I swipe the card and it says it is going to charge me $20. Really? Why? I push the button for two tickets. Ok, now it wants to give me two $10 tickets. Then I have to adjust the price down to $3.55 each using the $1 and 5 cent buttons. Not exactly user-friendly, but we get the tickets and go upstairs to the platform.

Before we left home, I'd printed out directions from the MUNI website and it said to take the "Freemont/Daly City" line to Embarcadero. All right. Unfortunately, we get on the "Freemont" train and then figure out it's going in the wrong direction. Needless to say, my husband "D" is not very happy with me because he'd said this might be the case, but neither of us are certain before we get on the train. We get off at the next stop and have to go down, around and up to get to the other side to take the next train back.

Finally, after about 1/2 an hour, we're at the Embarcadero stop. I want to buy MUNI passes, and I'd read I could buy them there, but that wasn't so, at least not on that day. So we get on the F tram ($1.50 each) and take it up to Fisherman's Wharf and walk the couple blocks to our hotel.

Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf
I booked this hotel a couple of months ago when I'd read about a special on Travel Zoo. The room was $109 per night, with tax, $125 which I thought was a good deal for the week before Easter. I read they had just finished a multi-million dollar remodel and the location seemed good, so why not? Plus, I'm a Starwood Preferred Guest, so I figured I'd get points and hopefully a decent room.
Normally, I would try Priceline, but we wanted to stay in the same hotel as our friends and we could not guarantee that with Priceline because they would be arriving two days later than us.

Because we'd arrived so early in the day, people are still checking out and the desk clerk has a hard time finding a room ready for us. Finally he does, up on the 4th floor (the top) and says it's an SPG room.

The Good:
The hotel is in a good location in that it's right by the wharf, walking distance from Little Italy, and on the F tram/bus line. There are also numerous bus lines close by and a cable car terminus within a few blocks.
Across the street is a Wallgreens, a Safeway, a small mall between the two and a Trader Joe's a block away.
The room is a decent size with a King bed, large flat screen TV and a sofa. There is a safe large enough for my small laptop in the closet and they offer free WiFi in the lobby.

The Bad:
None of the rooms have a view; "We don't sell our views" said the guy behind the front desk. Some of the Starwood properties have "heavenly beds". This one absolutely did not. Given the remodel, I thought the mattress would be new and/or more comfortable. I don't think it was either. The bathrooms are minuscule. It was hard to close the door to the shower/toilet room while standing in it. The rooms don't have minibars/refrigerators.
Finally, I have no idea what made our room an "SPG" room because there didn't seem to be anything different or special about it.

Would I stay here again? Probably not. It wasn't horrible, but I think I'd try to get something better on Priceline next time.

Next up, the Ferry Building Saturday Farmer's Market and the one of the best pork sandwiches ever..

Hi Kristina - Always enjoyed your trip reports, this one is no exception. Looking forward to more... we'll be in SF in May.

After dropping our stuff in the room, we head out to the Cable car turnaround at Taylor and Bay where there is a MUNI ticket office. I'd planned on buying a 3 day pass for $18, but after a little consideration, we figure out that the 7 day pass would be a better value at $24 because we'd actually get 5 days use out of it. We also buy the $3 transit map which was a lifesaver more than once.

From there, we walk back down to Beach street to catch the F tram. Instead, a bus comes and we get on it with our new passes in hand. The driver scratches off the first day on our pass and tells us to scratch off the rest, clearly frustrated by us clueless tourists. The bus seems to take longer than the tram and make more stops but eventually we make it to Ferry Plaza where the Saturday Farmer's Market is in full swing.

The weather is glorious, sunny and almost hot. There are dozens of stands selling beautiful produce and all sorts of other food products. By now I'm really wishing we had a refrigerator in the room so we could buy some cheese, bread and other goodies for later.
I make note of a stand with a huge rotisserie selling whole chickens and rolled, roasted pork. Like the markets in Paris, they also sell roasted potatoes. But the thing everyone seems to be buying is a Porchetta Sandwich and the line is about 40 people long.
We wander the market for a while, checking out all the stalls and end up back at the rotisserie stand. D gets in line and I go back to a smoked fish seller to get the open faced smoked salmon sandwich he wants. It's called "Cap'n Mike's San Francisco Lox Sandwich" and comes with northwest style red lox, shaved Fennel, pickled onions and roasted peppers with horseradish cream. It's beautiful, but for $10, a bit steep in price.

Back at the RoliRoti truck, D is about 7th in line now. I watch the vendor take the huge roll of pork off the spit and start slicing it. I know what I want. The sandwich is a thing of beauty; a large mound or freshly roasted herbed pork with caramelized onions and peppercress on a ciabatta roll. It's huge and at $8.50, a great value. But even better is the taste; the mix of the meaty, moist pork, with bits of the crispy roasted exterior, the sweetness of the onions and the peppercress is fantastic and it's all we can do not to buy another.
The couple sitting next to us is enjoying one as well along with some pieces of roasted lamb they were selling that day. We chat with them for a while, get some restaurant recommendations and they nicely offer to take our picture. They recommend Blue Bottle Coffee inside the Ferry Building.

After stuffing ourselves outside, we finally head inside to check out the shops and restaurants. It's a lovely building, nicely renovated, filled with all manner of food shops, stores selling housewares, and restaurants. The interior is flooded with natural light from huge windows and skylights above. We make note of the Hog Island Oyster Co. and plan to come back Monday for Happy Hour.

As if we haven't had enough pork already, we come across a shop called Boccalone with the byline "Tasty Salted Pig Parts". Now that's my kinda shop! They sell all sorts of cured meats and even sell something called a "meat cone". This is a little paper cone filled with sliced to order mixed salami, prosciutto and porchetta for $3.50. Of course, D has to have one. After that, it's off to Blue Bottle for an iced latte which is excellent.

We wander a bit more, check out the other stalls across from the Ferry Building (lots of "crafts") and play around a bit in the huge fountain across the street. This fountain is so big, it has pathways underneath falling spouts of water, like walking under a waterfall.

We take the F tram back to the hotel for a little rest, waiting for a brief meet-up with D's sister, husband and their son.

A note about the trams; they are really cool, vintage trams from all over the world. Some have the original wooden seats and some, like the ones from Milan, still have signs in Italian. We loved taking them.

A note about the trams; they are really cool, vintage trams from all over the world. Some have the original wooden seats and some, like the ones from Milan, still have signs in Italian. We loved taking them.

Kristina, I work in Embarcadero Center, and I love LOOKING at the vintage trams! I've long wondered whose brilliant idea it was to buy those -- anyone have any idea?

sf7307-this might answer some of your questions
http://www.streetcar.org/mim/spotlig...her/index.html
Looks like Diane Feinstein was instrumental in getting them in place.

Thanks! (Of course, I've lived here and have worked in SF for 36 years and didn't remember, or ever know, that).

Because I'm impatient, and posting to my food blog is easier than on my travel web site, I've put up some pictures of the Farmer's Market and Ferry Building here:
http://formerchef.com/

Hi Kristina - My mom and I ate at the Prather Ranch Grill right next to the Rotisserie chicken truck. My mom had her eyes on those chicken the whole time she was eating her lamb sausage. We were going to buy a rotisserie chicken after our ferry ride to Sausalito; but when we got back, it was all sold out. My mom was so disappointed!

BTW, I've been reading the Budapest segment of your Eastern Europe trip on your website. Great photos and info as always.

Hi yk!
I'm not surprised the chicken was sold out, it looked fantastic!
Glad you like the stuff on Budapest. It was an interesting place, though probably not my favorite. Weather was a factor, but so was a general surliness among the locals. Email me if you have questions.

Afternoon and Evening Day 1:

Later in the afternoon we meet up with the family and take a walk around Fisherman's Wharf. First stop is to see the sea lions at the end of Pier 39. Our 3 year old nephew is enthralled by the barking and swimming creatures.

From there, we walk along the wharf and stop and check out the submarine from the outside. We also spend some time in the "Mechanical Museum" right next to the submarine. This place has "penny arcade" games from the 1800's to present day. There's everything from scary mechanized fortune telling ladies, to moving pictures of the 1906 quake, to pinball machines and video arcade games.

Starting to run low on time, we head for Ghirardelli square for some ice cream. Unfortunately, we have to take our leave before we get any because we have dinner plans with D's aunt. A hurried walk brings us back to the hotel with just enough time to change for dinner and meet D's aunt and friend downstairs.

D's Aunt takes us to a Vietnamese restaurant called Aux Delices. The neighborhood, (which I think is Nob Hill) has lots of shops and restaurants. We order a bottle of wine and chat about the family for a couple of hours. For dinner, we have a sampler platter with vegetarian spring rolls, pork and chicken wraps and another type of pork spring roll. We also have a very spicy mango salad to start. For our main plates we have a curry dish with tofu and vegetables, glass noodles with crab and shrimp and "sticky, crispy, garlic chicken" which is the best dish of the bunch. Many thanks to D's aunt for treating us to dinner.

Across the street from the restaurant is a little cafe called Loving Cup which sells coffees, four or five flavors of home made organic rice puddings and organic hand churned frozen yogurt. I try the chocolate fro-yo and it's very good. D has lemon vanilla rice pudding and it's excellent.

Photos from Day 1 (incl. hotel, more from the ferry bldg, and Fisherman's Wharf) are now on my website:
http://www.wired2theworld.com/sanfrancisco2009Day1.html

Coming up, Day 2: Riding the cable cars, the CA Academy of Sciences and dinner at SPQR.

I looked at your website for a different post, and then got lost looking at the different trips you've taken. First, let me say that you are very lucky to have a wonderful husband who loves to travel. (AMEN)
Next, I have to look at your website now and see what you've done, and see your pictures. Tremendous work. Great writing. Great organization. I am going to SF in October and will reference this again, at that time. Thank you for great, concise writing. I wish you happy travels.
Gypsy.

GypsyMaiden-Yes, I am very fortunate to have a husband who loves to travel. I also have a Mother and good friends who like to travel with me which makes it easy.
My Mother always says "when are we going next?" and my friends say "where are we going next?"
Thanks for the nice comments about my web site.

Day 2-Sunday

We get up early with the goal of going to the California Academy of Sciences for the day. The museum just re-opened in October to much fanfare and it reportedly extremely popular and busy. On Sundays, they don't open until 11 AM so we have plenty of time, we think, to have breakfast and get there.

First, breakfast. My research has lead me to a couple of recommendations from Chowhound in the area of the hotel. One, called the Beach Street Grill is only a couple of blocks away. According to what I read, everything is "made from scratch."

We walk outside and the streets are completely deserted. I guess that's what 8 AM on Sunday looks like here. Not a car to be seen. It's a little eery. We find the restaurant with no problem. It's a little diner-type place and we get a seat next to a sunny window. The coffee is Pete's and pretty good, though steep at $3 a cup for a "diner." The owner sets a plate of berry topped pancakes out on a table outside as a teaser to passers-by and it works; I order 2 pancakes, eggs and bacon ($9) and D orders the daily special, Crab Benedict ($14). It's certainly a good breakfast, but with tax in SF now at 9.5% and a tip, breakfast is almost $40. Ouch, we can't keep that up for long.

After breakfast, we walk up a block to the cable car turn-around and figure out how we're going to get to the museum. We need to take the cable car to the end of the line at Market St. and pick up the #5 bus which will take us to Golden Gate Park.
We enjoy the cable car ride and I take a ton of photos from our seats on the outside bench. The bus trip isn't nearly as fun, but it gets us to the park, where we get off and walk inside to check out the Conservatory of Flowers because we are there so early.

The Conservatory (http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org) is a glass and white domed wedding cake confection of a building. Entrance fee is $5 per person and to us, it's well worth it. The flowers are stunning and we spend a happy 30 minutes or so roaming the rooms looking at orchids, a neat toy train exhibit made from "found" objects, and insect eating plants.

From there, we walk over to the museum which is only about 10 minutes away. The day is sunny and warm and because the streets of the park are closed to vehicles, it's filled with people walking, jogging, roller-blading and biking.

Anyone still with me here?

California Academy of Sciences:

When we arrive, around 10:30, there is already a long line forming for people who have tickets.

Note; There are a few of ways to buy tickets, online before you arrive, at an automated kiosk close to the street, and at the ticket window near the entrance. D gets in line and I go to the window. With proof of using public transportation (like our MUNI Passes), we get $3 off each $24.99 admission. While we wait the half hour for opening, the line continues to grow and by 11 AM, there are hundreds of people in line.

The California Academy of Sciences (http://www.caacademy.org) touts itself as the only place on the planet where you can explore an Aquarium, Planetarium, Rainforest biosphere, and Natural History museum under one living roof. The entire facility focuses on sustainability trying to reduce the environmental impact where ever possible. Even the trash cans have 3 bins; recycle, compost and landfill.

One of the most popular exhibits is the Planetarium show for which you need a timed entry ticket. We go straight to another long line right after entering to get our show ticket. Later, when we pass by around 2 PM there was a sign stating all the tickets for the day had been given out, so make sure you get your ticket first thing.

While waiting for the Noon show, we walk around and check out the African hall, admiring the dioramas and the live penguin exhibit. There's a woman in a wet suit in with the penguins and at one point, she picks one up to move it over to another rock. The penguin fusses, tries to nip at her hand, but she talks to it gently and sets it down next to her. It then nuzzles her leg for attention like my cats do. Adorable!

More strolling brings us to the Pendulum which swings hypnotically, knocking down pegs set into the floor and a fascinating exhibit on Climate change in California. We also take a peek at the albino alligator in the swamp before getting in line for the Planetarium show. The show is fascinating and fun and lasts about half an hour. It really puts things in perspective and makes one feel that we are nothing but a small speck in the universe here on the third rock from the sun.

After the Planetarium show, we decide spur of the moment to see if we can get into the Moss Room (http://www.themossroom.com) for lunch. The restaurant is full and we don't have reservations, but a table for two opens up as we are standing there. There is also an cafeteria filled with interesting choices but D really wants a "nice meal" and we are on vacation, right?

The restaurant is downstairs and a bit dark with the only natural light coming from windows topping a staircase on the far side of the room. There's a bar, a smallish dining room, and a glassed in room with a "communal" table. Keeping with the "sustainable" theme of the museum, no bottled water is offered, just a carafe of water to fill our glasses. The wine list separates the wines by the glass into "organic", "sustainable" and "biodynamic" and I order a glass of organic Zinfandel (can't remember which one, but it was good). D orders a Liberty Ale and we ponder the menu.
For a starter, we share "country style pork terrine with house made pickles, fruit mostarda and frisee" ($11). For my main I order "Duck Confit and Heirloom Chicory Salad with a poached farm egg, bacon and piment d' espellet" ($16). It's excellent and very satisfying with a perfectly poached egg, the smokiness of the bacon and yummy duck confit.
D orders the "Moroccan Lamb Kefta with cous cous, cucumbers and yogurt" ($18). The Kefta is a lamb sausage which appears house-made and has great flavor. Happy and satisfied, we skip dessert and head back upstairs to explore more of the museum.

Next up is the Aquarium on the lower level and while interesting, it's so packed with people to the point where it's hard to see the exhibits. At one point, D bumps into a woman, and looks down to discover she's one of the teachers in his school! Small world...

Eager to escape the crowds we head back upstairs to see the Rainforest biosphere. We wait in line for a while, but it's very long and a museum worker tells us the wait will be at least 45 minutes. We decide to leave, consoling ourselves with the knowledge that we've been in real-life rain forests in Costa Rica and Australia. On the way out, we stop in the gift show and D buys a cool "enviro-battery" experiment for his classroom.

Hi Kristina, of course we're still with you. I was waiting for this installment.

Just curious, why did you choose Sunday to visit the Academy of Sciences? Since you're there for 4 days, I assume you could have gone on a weekday when it's less busy.

I'm debating if we will go visit. the admission is pretty steep... it sounds like there's so much to see/do that it can be an all-day event though. Is the Planeterium show ticket free?

OMG. Someone needs to tell the Academy of Sciences that their website is impossible to read! Who chose that black lettering on dark blue background colors? I could hardly read anything on that site!

I now see that the Planeterium ticket is complimentary. In terms of the $3 off, it sounds like just a regular MUNI bus ticket is valid too, right?

Hi yk-
Yes, I would have preferred to go on another day, but Saturday was taken up with the farmer's market, Monday was planned for Alcatraz (after our friends arrived) and Tuesday was the 1st Tuesday of the month, which meant the De Young and the Legion of Honor were free on that day ($10 admission). I suppose had I thought about it more, we could have switched it out with the other museums but in the end it was better because our friends really wanted to see the special exhibit (Faberge, Tiffany and Lalique) at the LOH.

Also, it was Spring Break week, so I think any day would have been crowded. In fact, when we were at the De Young on Tuesday, the lines outside the CAS were still long, even in the rain.

The admission is steep yes, but worth it I think. It certainly is an all day event and if I'd not had a glass of wine with lunch, I might have had more energy to wait in line for the Rainforest. ;-)

Once you are inside, all the exhibits, including the Planetarium show, are free. Because the show has limited seating you need to get the timed entry tickets.

Phooey! I put the wrong link there!
http://www.calacademy.org should be the right one.

Yes, the regular bus ticket should work for the discount too.