My husband was speaking at a conference in San Francisco on Wed but had to be at trial run Sat morning so I flew out with him Friday and tour around SF for a few days. We’d already been to Alcatraz, the Wharf area, Muir Woods, Monterey and Carmel before so we decided to go to Point Reyes if the weather co-operated. I ran across Stu Dudley’s post on San Francisco a few days before we left. WOW! It should be mandatory reading for anyone planning a trip. http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

The weekend forecast wasn’t promising but our flight got in 30 min early so we were off to a good start. Walking through the airport we saw what I'll call "performance" window washing. This guy was spinning around the soap brush and squeegee like twirling batons or numchucks. It was so entertaining that I taped him but by the time I got my camera out he was almost done. My husband was calling me to leave but the guy started a new panel so I got the camera out again and taped it. For some dumb reason I stopped right before he finished. ARGH! When he finished he turned around and I gave him a thumbs up. He smiled and bowed his head a little. Quite a performance. I need to put it to music and put it on YouTube.

I brought our Garmin GPS unit but the Hertz rental came with GPS so we used it. I don’t know about other rental car GPS units but if that was my only experience, I never would have bought one. If you have you own, bring it!

We stayed at the Marriott on 4th St. Our room on the 29th floor had a view of the city and a section of the Bay Bridge. The location was good and the staff were very friendly. For some reason they put the desk and dresser drawers with a wide screen TV across the entire window wall so we couldn’t take full advantage of the view. The desk was way too high for the keyboard so I kept the laptop on my lap. I know, it IS laptop, but it gets hot! They have a huge snack tray with a variety of candy bars ($4), mini can of Pringles ($5) and small cans of nuts ($9-11) next to the TV. That’s just plain mean making me stare at that all day ;-) I guess I should thank them for the exorbitant prices or I probably would have eaten most of it. The bed was soft and comfy with a variety of pillows. At $56/day (with tax), they’re obviously proud of their valet parking. BTW, if you’re staying there and use GPS, input an address on Mission St, where the parking entrance is, because the GPS takes you to the main entrance on 4th St. With the one way streets downtown, you can’t turn L onto Mission to get to the parking entrance and you’ll have to circle around a couple of blocks.

It was overcast, but no rain, so we decided to drive to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA)in the Marin Headlands (#16 in Stu Dudley’s best views) just across the Golden Gate Bridge . It was a gorgeous spot, as advertised, but too overcast for great pics. There are a series of overlooks as you drive up the hillside alon Conzelman Road. If you continue on after the road becomes one-way, you will end up at a trail that tunnels through the hill to the Point Bonita Lighthouse on a narrow rocky point sticking out into mouth of the bay. The door to the tunnel was locked when we were there. I’m not sure if they ever open it but that point would have an incredible view of the GG bridge and up and down the coast on a clear day.

Driving past the lighthouse trailhead you will pass Battery Mendell on the left and then the road dead ends at a turnaround with views of the Lighthouse and up and down the coast. There were a couple of huge hawks flying overhead, or I should say hovering overhead. We watched one for at least 5 minutes. He stayed in the same place teh entire time and we didn’t see him flap his wings once.

Heading back you just follow Field Rd past a YMCA camp and through a bunch of military bunkers and buildings. Field Rd turns into Bunker Rd and will eventually bring you back to CA 101. The entire area is filled with remnants of WWII bunkers and installations.

A friend recommended La Ciccia, www.laciccia.com a Sardinian restaurant at 30th and Church St in Noe Valley for dinner so we called and got reservations for 5:30. We got there at 5:00 but they weren’t opened yet so we stopped at the market across the street and got some fruit and then walked up Church St to look around. The restaurant was a cozy place with excellent service. The owner's wife greets everyone as they arrive and there seemed to be a lot of repeat customers. I had pork tenderloin with grape must. It was a little dry but very tasty. I loved their dressing on the mixed green salad. My husband said his mussel and clam appetizer and crab linguine were very good. They brought by a basket of bread but no butter or olive oil. When my husband asked for butter the waitress said they didn’t have any. The thought never occured to me that a restaurant wouldn’t have any butter, especially after watching “Julia and Julie”. She did offer to bring olive oil or they had some premium EVOO for $2.

On the way back to the hotel we got pulled by a motorcycle cop for driving in the bus/taxi lane. I told him we couldn't drive in there! The cop made some comment about "that's why all those cars we backed up in the left lane". Then he said the fine was $385 and my husband probably stained his briefs. ;-) He asked where we were going (the hotel was 4 blocks away). The guy seemed really nice so we didn't think he was going to write a ticket but he pulled out some paperwork as he walked away with my husband’s driver's license so we weren't sure. He talked on the radio for a while and then came back and gave a warning. Phew!

In my husband’s defense, it was confusing because we had to make turns and the lanes were marked for bus/taxi only. Then he saw other cars driving in those lanes, and no taxis or buses around, so he thought maybe that only applied to certain times.

Back at the hotel we called it a day and slept like babies.

Nice report so far. Funny coincidence that you ate dinner in that particular neighborhood, because Stu Dudley (and I) both used to live near there. (My DH and I lived at 30th and Sanchez for years, I think Stu lived on Jersey).

Yes, AFTER we went there, I read about the market and the XO coffee shop across the street in Stu's notes.

When we were walking up Church street, there was a large grass covered hill to the east. Was that Bernal Heights Park?

Church Street and what cross street?

Oh mdod, one of my grandson's had the same experience as you did on Market St. My grandson was ready for a heart attack (young college fellow on a limited budget) but he too ended up just receiving a warning from the officer.

Stu Dudley, I always mentally think of him as "Mr. San Francisco". He and his wife are such an interesting, fun and lovely couple. I was so pleased to become acquainted with them at a SF GTG. He is a wealth of knowledge as is his wife.

sf7307: I'm not sure what street it was. We probably walked north up Church street 3 or 4 blocks and it was off to the right (east) side. From where we were it looked like a big grassy hill with a hand full of trees at the very top. I looked on the map that night and figured it was Bernal Heights.

Day 2
My husband finished his meeting at 11:30. It was pouring down rain earlier but the rain stopped so we decided to walk to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero. I was here with friends 4 years ago and they all raved about Hog Island oysters so I told my husband HE needed to try them. I don’t let oysters pass my lips! We checked out the vendors outside and I kept my eye out for a Hog Island tent but didn’t see it. We did pass by a chicken place that had at least 50 people standing in line. I asked someone in line if it was really that good and they said “yes!” I took a picture of the place but all I can see of the name is “Roti”. Has anyone tried it? I can't imagine waiting in a line that long.

I didn’t see the oyster place so I asked someone and they said it was inside. We found it on the back side of the north end of the building but the line was long and not going anywhere soon. I could have sworn that we bought them and ate them outside so I finally asked someone if they had a place outside. They do. It was almost at the end of the walkway on the right side of the building. We turned right before getting to it. So if you're willing to get shucked oysters on a paper plate, you can save time and money by picking them up at their tent outside.

After the oysters we walked down the Embarcadero and took the stairway behind Levi Plaza Park to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. About halfway up the stairway there’s a stand of trees that house a bunch of feral parrots, mainly Red-masked Parakeets from what I read. We heard a racket as we were walking up. Suddenly a bunch of parakeets swooped out of the trees, with a couple of them dive-bombing our heads. Then they circled the house next to the stairway and regrouped in the trees for another run. I tried but they were way too fast to get a picture or video of them. I don’t know how long they keep this up but they circled about every 30 seconds or so while we were there.

It took us about 35 min to walk to Coit Tower from the Ferry Building. By the time we got to there we had blue skies with fluffy white clouds. For $5 each, we took the old hand-operated elevator to the top. The young Chinese operator was very entertaining. We had a great view of the entire bay area from the top of the tower.

We headed back to the hotel via Chinatown. Right before we got to Chinatown we passed Big Al's Adult Store at 556 Broadway. I have a friend that is always talking about her favorite “toy store” so we went in to check it out. Wow! Who knew? Some of those things did not look pleasant. My husband was disappointed because it looked like everything there was for women. I wasn't going to ask and, apparently, he wasn't either.

Next stop Chinatown. I’m not sure if there was a New Year’s celebration or what but Grant was closed off and packed with people wall to wall and we heard announcers and music on speakers as we walked by. Stu’s advice was to walk down Stockton anyway so we didn’t squeeze through the crowds on Grant, not that it was much better on Stockton.

We checked out a large Chinese grocery store. It had row upon row of dried foods. Almost all the signs and labels were in Chinese so I had no idea what most of it was. I did recognize dried shark fins, mushrooms, scallops, sea cucumbers and things that looked like fine sponges (can you eat that?). There was some dehydrated food that was $139/pound. That's a lot even if it's dehydrated, especially when it’s out in baskets where everybody can touch it!

My husband was craving egg rolls and we hadn’t noticed any restaurants on the first few blocks of Stockton so we turned down one of the cross streets toward Grant. There was a stage set-up with performances going on. We watched a few minutes of Chinese dancing and then went into some Chinese restaurant. The place didn’t look too clean. As we were heading for a table, my husband saw some small gray animal dart across the floor. He turned and sheepishly asked the hostess "what was that? A cat?" She said “yes” but he wasn't convinced. He asked me if I saw it. Nope. But then we both saw it and confirmed that it was a little kitten. Phew. The egg rolls were cold but the hot and sour soup was very good. I was just hoping we didn’t end up with food poisoning ;-)

We made it back to the hotel around 3:30. Since it ended up being such a clear day we decided to get the car and take a scenic drive around town. That morning I had highlighted areas that Stu recommended on my map. We headed over to Alamo Square. I figured it would be obvious but I couldn’t tell which house on the corner of Scott and Fulton was supposed to be the Westerfield Mansion. We did find "Postcard Row" on Steiner between Fulton and Hayes and got a good picture of that. Then we drove past the Victorian houses on McAllister and Golden Gate and past the Chateau Tivoli B&B on the SW corner of Golden Gate and Steiner.

Next we drove up to Twin Peaks (the hill with all the cell towers) with incredible 360 views of the city. Boy did we luck out with the weather. Thank goodness the forecast was wrong.

It was still too early to eat so we decided to drive back up past Golden Gate Park for a scenic drive along El Camino Del Mar. We stopped at the lookout on the left at the end of the golf course (before Seacliff). Then we turned left into Seacliff and down to China Beach. The beach had nice views of waves crashing against the rocks, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands where we were the day before. Some guy started throwing a frisbee with his wife and son. LOL...he said he'd stand by the water to keep the frisbee from going in and it went in and was swept away on the first toss!

We continued down Seacliff looking at the beautiful houses on the cliff overlooking the bay but we couldn’t find Robin William’s house with a dinosaur topiary peeking over a hedge.

By then it was 5:30 and we decided to call Bacco's Italian Restaurant at 737 Diamond St. www.baccosf.com/noflash.html where I had a wonderful meal 4 years ago. They had a table at 6- perfect. I had the map and knew where it was but decided to use the rental car GPS since we had one. Instead of going the way I was going to go, the stupid thing took us down #1 and told us to turn L where there were no left turns allowed. OK, we'll turn left at the next street. Nope. They don't allow left turns on ANY of the streets there for about a mile! When we finally got to a street that did allow it, we had to sit through 4 cycles of lights. Argh! We made it just a few minutes late. Dinner was excellent again. I had the Sachetto and my husband had one of the specials, I can't remember what it was. We topped it off with chocolate ganache filled cookies and milk for dessert. Mmmm...good.

The sky was so clear when we got done eating that I wanted to go back up to Twin Peaks (it was pretty close) to take a look at night but my husband pooh-poohed the idea. I can’t really complain after such a great day.

mdod, you'll appreciate this little anecdote. We went to the top of Twin Peaks more than once on the 4th of July. I remember once when it was so foggy, you couldn't see anything, including where you parked your car. And then there was the year it was so clear we could see fireworks all around the bay! (As I said, we lived on Graystone Terrace, on the "side" of Twin Peaks, with a view of downtown, for 3 years during grad school).

sf7307, That had to be a great place to be on the 4th of July (when it was clear). I always thought it would be neat to fly into some city just after dark on the 4th of July. Too bad it's foggy so often. It was interesting that they had to move the Point Reyes Lighthouse farther down the hill so it could be seen under the fog.

>>I couldn’t tell which house on the corner of Scott and Fulton was supposed to be the Westerfield Mansion

I have a foodie friend whose sister used to live nearby. We went to Baccos with her 4 years ago and really liked it. Then she told me her sister really liked La Ciccia so we tried it the first night. With so many restaurants to choose from I felt kind of stupid going back to Baccos but I figured if they had openings at the last minute we'd go and they did. Yes, we walked into XO while waiting for La Ciccia to open.

Really enjoying your report. Thanks for posting.

Day 3
We woke up to blue skies so we headed for Point Reyes National Seashore. We stopped for a photo op at Vista Point across the Golden Gate Bridge and then drove up CA Hwy 1 to Point Reyes. That is a beautiful, but winding, road. I'd advise against that route if you're prone to motion sickness. We didn’t leave until 8 (which is late for us) so I figured we could stop at McD's or something along the way for breakfast after we left SF. Amazingly, we drove all the way there without going past a single fast food place. We got to Olema and followed signs to Point Reyes Station thinking that was the park entrance. Wrong. It ended up being a town a few miles north but they had a nice grocery store where we picked up some fruit, snacks and a (good) deli sandwich.

We finally got to the Bear Valley Visitor Center and talked to the ranger about trails. I was hoping to hike a loop with part of the Sky Trail but since it was already past 9 and you have to take shuttles out to the Lighthouse and Chimney Rock on the weekends until April, we probably wouldn’t have time to do both. He suggested that we do the shuttle section first and then go to the Point Reyes Beach, Estero Trail to Sunset Beach Trail, drive down Mount Vision Rd or drive out toward Tomales Point to see Tulle elk.

We drove out to the visitor center on Drakes Beach (where I was surprised to see surfera) to catch the shuttle bus for $5 per person. On the way to the Lighthouse we passed a herd of Tulle Elk and drove through rolling green pastures with several historic dairy farms. We finally reached the Lighthouse stop at 10:45. It was a short walk uphill to the visitor center where there were several volunteers eager to talk about the gray whales, elephant seals and sea lions in the area. They had binoculars and some show and tell stuff but the whales came through early this year and the last sightings were the previous weekend. They said we were very lucky to have such nice weather. More often than not it is cold and foggy there. We walked down the steps to the lighthouse while trying not to blow away! It was interesting and the view up and down the coast was great. On the way up they have the 308 steps numbered but they don’t count the two steep ramps, so be prepared.

We walked back up to the shuttle stop and just missed the shuttle so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Someone had a telescope set up nearby watching sea lions on Point Reyes Beach below so we pulled out our binoculars and took a peak.

When we got to the next stop we headed off to the right on the trail to Chimney Rock point. It was an easy 20-25 minute walk out there. There was a volunteer with information and binoculars there, trying not to blow out to sea. She pointed out an elephant seal bull with a harem of about 20 females in a cove below the point. As we walked back past the Life Station below, we saw two lonely bulls laying on the beach near it.

Back at the shuttle stop we headed the other direction to the Elephant Seal Lookout. You could hear them making noise from quite a distance. Volunteers had some informative posters and several telescopes set up. There were probably 150-200 elephant seals and their pups laying on the beach, flipping sand onto their bodies to keep cool. Only the alpha males mate and there were 7-8 alpha bulls each surrounded by their harem. All the other males were either at the far perimeter of the group or off in other coves away from the females.

Next we walked down to the Lifeboat station. It had some interesting displays about rescue methods inside and we talked with a volunteer for a while. Apparently it is only open when the volunteers are there. One of the elephant seal bulls was still lying on the beach next to the building so we got a close-up view. He had a pretty big “trunk” so he must have been fairly old. They may be graceful underwater but they sure are slow and awkward on land. Most of the time they just laid around but this guy was moving when we walked by. He’d move about 10 feet and then rest for a minute or so before moving a little more. It’s probably better than I’d do if I weighed a ton or more and tried to move across the sand without using my arms and with my feet tied together!

We headed back to the shuttle stop and rode back to the visitors center at Drakes Beach. It was already 3:00 so we walked along the beach for a while and decided to call it a day and maybe catch some of the Super Bowl. On the way out I had to stop and take a picture of the sign for the “Historic Life-Saving Station Cemetery”. That just tickled my funny bone. We drove back on 101 to avoid going back on CA 1 with all those curves on the outside lane, next to the cliffs.

We decided to return via Berkeley so we could eat dinner at Viks, my foodie friend’s favorite place for Indian chaat (snack/fast food). But since it was early and such a clear afternoon, I told my husband we had to drive back to GGNRA to get some better pictures first. Then we drove back up through Sausalito and across I-580 to Berkeley.

Viks www.vikschaatcorner.com was an interesting place. It was in the middle of an industrial park nowhere near any traffic but there were quite a few people there at 5:00 on a Sunday afternoon. As my friend said, you’ll be over-dressed in jeans but you’ll also see Indian women in saris there. It reminded me a lot of a large school cafeteria with a bunch of small tables and the stackable type chairs. They had a main counter where you placed your order and paid. My friend had suggested some items but I hadn’t planned on going there so I didn’t have them with me and I had no idea what anything was. Luckily, I thought I recognized some of the items she suggested and my husband likes Chicken Tandoori so, along with some help from the cashier, we managed to come up with a good variety.

The kitchen area was a very long L shape with various stations with computer monitors. Apparently each station prepares specific items and calls your name whenever their items are ready. As soon as we sat down, they called our name and my husband brought back a bowl of Behl Puri. As soon as he sat down, they called his name again and he went to a different counter to get the Chicken Tandoori. By the third item it was pretty comical but everything was very good and very fast.

After dinner we headed back to San Francisco over the Bay Bridge. I thought I had figured out the way to the darn parking garage without having to loop back around but we couldn’t turn where I wanted and we ended up taking yet another detour to get to the darn garage. We walked into the hotel and the game was on in the bar with 1 minute 14 seconds left. Oh well. We didn’t really care about either of the teams. Later on we got a text that my husband won the football pool for the 3rd qtr score. What a great way to top off the weekend!