We just got back from our annual trip to San Francisco. It rained almost the entire week, although the sun did come out a few times when we were doing outdoor activities that really were much nicer in the sun.

Since it will take me a while to write the report, I wanted to post pictures first. Hopefully, you will come back for the narrative, which I promise will have paragraphs and lots of descriptions of meals, wonderful FREE walking tours and some really wonderful moments of nature at its best and worst.

The Castro
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Bawdy & Naughty
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Ana Nuevo State Reserve {elephant seals}
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...teReserver2010

Vallejo Stairs
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Twin Peaks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

SOMA Walk
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Palace Hotel
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Chinatown
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Big seas
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...geInPacificaCA

There are some other misc. photos, will post those at the end.

Deb

Deb, have you been to Safari West? If not, we must get you there

http://www.safariwest.com/

Just clicked on the first link to the Castro and thought: "Wow! These are great!"

Will be going through them slowly to savor your photos.

Also looking forward to your report on the Dine About Town restaurants.

Thanks for sharing!

Our tour of North Beach.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

Wasn't it raining last time you visited San Francisco too?

yes, yk. We are making sure our next trip is in September or October! We had dinner with Ray, did he tell you?

I enjoyed your photos....Your guide DID look like Harrison Ford. The Palace Hotel was amazing inside. I loved the arch with the insets of the different people who contributed to San Francisco's history. And we did stay at the Marriott "jukebox."

Loved your photos, Deb. Makes me want to head right over there. Rain or shine, what a city! The Palace Hotel was wonderful--like Paris' Grand Palais.

Great photos and video, especially of Ano Nuevo, the Castro, SOMA and Twin Peaks (where I go running). And at least the sun came out for you occasionally. Please let those of us who live in the City know when you're coming next time so we'll have our umbrellas ready.

Can't wait to hear about the SOWA walk. did you visit Palace hotel on your own or did you take the Palace Hotel walk too?

We did the following tours, all through SFCityguide.org:

Embarcadero South - Ruth Miller Ramble
SOMA Architecture Tour
Palace Hotel
North Beach
The Castro
Bawdy & Naughty

Last year we did 2 additional Cityguides tours:
Victorian Houses
Cityscapes and Public Spaces.
We all toured City Hall last year, but did it with one of their docent tour guides.

>>Last year we did 2 additional Cityguides tours:
Victorian Houses

Here is a start, some of the basics for now. We were in SF from Monday to Monday.

This is our 3rd winter trip to San Francisco. It was purely recreational and our intent was to get to Ana Neuvo State Reserve to see pups being born or newborns and the other activities [males fighting for the right to breed and breeding itself]. We were there in March in 08, but we had missed most of the action. Our second goal was to do as many City Guides tours as possible. Unknown to us when the trip was booked, was it was also San Francisco's Dining Around Town where you could get some great meals at the city's premier restaurants at some phenomenal prices.

We flew from Albuquerque to Oakland on Southwest. It is a short 2 hour 15 minutes non-stop flight. The weather wasn't great, so the trip was a bit bumpy. We were lucky, we were in the first group served drinks and then the pilot turned on the seat belt sign and that was the end of drink service.

We took AIR BART from OAK to BART stop in Oakland. That was fast and easy, for $3 each [exact change]we were ready to get on BART and take it into San Francisco. $3.80 each to Embarcadero. Since we were going to use BART that night to go to Berkeley, we added enough fare to make it RT to/from Berkeley.

[We did the same thing for the trip back and it worked out equally well.]

We used public transportation all but the day we went to Ana Nuevo when we rented a car for the day. We bought a 7 day MUNI passport and got our money's worth within the first few days. Since we were going to be in SF for 8 days, we paid for transport the first day, using transers and walking made it reasonable.

We took the F trolley to our hotel; I was concerned about having 2 small roller bags on the trolley and it being crowded but we had no trouble getting on and getting a seat. It helped in that it was about 2:30pm, so it wasn't rush hour yet.

We normally prefer to stay around Union Square, but we got a great deal and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott at Fisherman's Wharf. The hotel has just been completely renovated: large room with a couch, wifi, a nice king bed, good sized bathroom. All white linens and triple sheeted. Towels were decent. Lighting in bathroom good, nice toiletries. Coffee maker but awful coffee.

The location is great - it is right around the corner from the historic F trolley as well as 1 block from the Hyde Cable Car turnaround. There area was not really crazy except for Saturday night. We had no trouble getting on either the trolley or the cable car except on Saturday night there was a line waiting for the cable car. Since we were trying to get from FW to Union Sqaure for dinner reservation, we opted to take a cab.

Weather - what can I say? January is the wettest month and this week sure proved it, if there was any doubt. We came prepared for temps in low 50's and with rain gear so we did okay. We would have of course, preferred sun the whole time, but oh well...

I had made reservations for 9 different restaurants for some lunches and most dinners to take advantage of the DAT. {More on restaurants to come}.

I had made reservations for Ana Nuevo for Tuesday, to see Beach Blanket Babylon on Wednesday night and to go to a jazz concert at Yoshi's SF on Saturday night.

SF Library City Guide tour list was printed out, and we had picked the ones that most interested us circled and ready to go. I had tried to coordinate restaurants with where we would be touring.

Comfortable shoes a must, boots were handy too. We walked miles and miles everyday. Good thing, burned off all of the those great meals.

More to come...

Fun, fun, fun! I loved your photos, and really liked the Palace Hotel, can't wait to go for a longer visit myself. Look forward to more!

Off to a great start, Deb. We saw BBB years ago, nearly fell out of my chair laughing--I wonder if it's just as fun as I remember. Look forward to reading more!

yk, there's a Palace Hotel walk?? Have you taken it? We are staying there in May.

Enjoy reading your report - would you mind posting the link to the city guide again? it seems that the one above isn't working. I tried doing a search but didn't come up with what was needed. Thank you

The tours and all info can be found here:

http://www.sfcityguides.org/

AnnMarie - City Guides does the tour of the Palace Hotel. It is very popular, they do them several times a week. Check the schedule on the above site.

There were at least 50 people on the tour when we went [it is also one of the few INDOOR tours, so weather factored in I'm sure, but the guides said it is always has lots of folks] and there were 4 guides, so we were broken into smaller groups and took different routes.

Thank you, Deb!

I know Deb enjoyed the City Scapes & Public Places walk given by Jay and his dog. Jay is the guide this coming Friday at both the 10 and 1:30 walk.

Stu Dudley

Meals

As I mentioned above, it turned out that Dine About Town coincided with our trip; that meant we could and would try new places to eat. It is so easy to want to return to places that you have eaten at before and loved, so this would be an incentive to try new digs.

I used Chowhound.com for restaurant info and there are some really informed SF posters. I also rely on Fodorites input for restaurant ideas, so with all this input I was ready to set up a game plan.

I would try to map out our City Guide tours and then find restaurants in the areas we would be visiting. It worked out pretty well.

Our only repeat was the "Cafe" at Chez Panisse. We absolutely love it there, so it was our first stop for dinner on Monday night. We took BART and walked up Shattuck Avenue, feeling like we were returning home. We got there a bit early and stopped in a great book store to browse. It is on the corner where you exit BART. I'll have to find the name.

Tuesday, we stopped for lunch items at Trader Joe's which is in Fisherman's Wharf area. We had "picnic" in car when we got to Ana Nuevo. On the way back to SF, we stopped in Sam's Chowder House for some chowder and a lobster roll. Chowder was excellent; the lobster roll was tasty but not what we expected. We were thinking New England lobster roll and it was far from it -- no mayo to be seen. Just a lot of butter and lobster meat and it was warm, not cold. Very tasty, just not what we expected.

Dinner that night was Campton Place, which is in the hotel of the same name, just off Union Square. It was our first DAT meal. DAT dinners were prix fix at $34.95 for 3 courses and lunch was $17.95 for 2 courses.

Wednesday's lunch was Spruce and was the best DAT meal we had, and a second only to Chez Panisse. Wednesday night, we had a lovely dinner at Fifth Floor which is in the Palomar Hotel on 4th Street, just off Union Square. What made that dinner so special was that Fodorite, Abranz and her husband joined us! This was a DAT meal.

Thursday we got lunch from Out The Door in the Ferry Building. We did this between tours, it was not a DAT meal. This is the "fast food" part of Slanted Door.

Thursday night we ventured pretty far off the beaten path to Triptych out on Folsom and 7th. This wasn't a DAT meal, but I had bought a restaurant.com $25 certificate for $2, so it seemed like a good idea. We were less than thrilled with dinner.

Friday found us at lunch at One Market and dinner at Thanh Long with some Fodor friends that rallied to join us for a pretty impromtu gathering. this was also not a DAT meal. StuDudley, his wife, Abranz and her husband, thereyet, and rkkwan joined us to share some amazing crab and garlic noodles.

Saturday, we felt a need for a pizza fix, so we had some slices in North Beach after our tour. We had some enjoyable slices at Pizzelle at 314 Columbus.

Saturday night, we had dinner at Fish & Farm in the Mark Twain hotel, just off Union Square. It was a DAT restaurant, but we decided to eat off the regular menu.

Sunday, we had a fabulous Brunch at Foreign Cinema. It is a DAT restaurant, but not for brunch. This was after our tour of The Castro area.

Sunday night we were exhausted and still pretty full from brunch, so we just walked over to Scoma on the Wharf for chowder and crab louis.

Details of the meals to follow! Just thought I would whet your appetites -- did I??