San Francisco Trip Report
 

Just back from 3 days in SF and 3 days in Yosemite. Following are our thoughts on the San Francisco portion of the trip. There is a separate Trip Report for Yosemite.

3 days in San Francisco allowed us to 1) ride numerous Cable Cars; 2) walk across the Golden Gate Bridge; 3) take the ferry out to Alcatraz; 4) eat at many great places; and 5) visit all of the normal tourist spots. In short, 3 days covers San Francisco quite fully.

We (parents & 2 kids) stayed at the Serrano Hotel (Taylor/O'Farrell), near Union Square - my husband found a great internet deal with them. It was a beautiful hotel, and very convenient to all of the Union Square/cable car sites. As far as the debate on the homeless situation and whether or not Union Sq. is a problem, we did not find it a problem at all. Much less, in fact, than the last time we were there, in 1991.

We returned to a favorite restaurant (off the tourist-track) - MacArthur Park (take the California cable car line to Front St. - Embarcadero area). Casual dining, nice atmosphere, all locals. And finally, don't forget the "other" chocolate place in SF: See's. (Market street, around the corner from the Powell-Mason cable car turn-around). YUM

faye1, I just posted a reply to your Yosemite trip and here I am again! As I mentioned in the other post, we are taking a very similar trip with the same age kids in just a few weeks. We are staying at Fisherman's Wharf. I have already reserved the ferry/tour to Alcatraz. What else would you suggest? My husband visited S.F. years ago, but the kids and I have never been.

Hi again Susan!
I don't know how much of this is stuff you know - very touristy, obvious things probably - but here goes: we love Johnny Rocket's, and there's one down at the wharf. We ate supper there after our 3:15 Alcatraz tour returned. If you've not done Alc. before, do the audio tour. Very informative & well done. Ghiradelli Square also down there - chocolate of course, but do look up See's (old-fashioned, big variety, like Whitman's - tons of free samples!- and really good peanut brittle). One dilemma we had was we did SF first, bought a bunch of chocolate, then couldn't take it to Yose. because of all of the bear warnings. You may be OK because you're in the lodge (we were in a cabin). Expensive shipping home!

We had our cell phone, and walked the GG bridge on Sunday morning - called a bunch of family/friends back home on our "free" minutes from the bridge, with the fog horn in the background. Cell phone didn't work in Yos. Chinatown is a must-do. We got a couple of blocks off the main drag (Grant Street) and really experienced non-touristy Chinatown - dried seahorses for sale at the sidewalk markets, etc. Ate lunch at "The Grand Oriental" and were the only non-Asian people in the place; everyone else was eating with chopsticks, and they brought us forks - we know they were laughing at us in the kitchen. Definitely not "American style Chinese" - very noisy, busy, hectic. Fun.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (had always heard of them but never been to one) - it is at the top of Macy's on Union Square; food was OK, desserts were great, but the best thing was sitting outside on the roof, overlooking Union Square, watching the fog come in (we got there around 6 p.m., Sat. night, got on the list, and were seated around 6:45).

Do you know about the Cable Car Museum? Worth a visit - free, really neat to see what makes the cable cars work. One goal for us was to ride the CCs as much as possible. You can get 3-day passes down at a kiosk near the Powell-Mason turnaround. The wait at the turn-around is long (45 min), but you can actually go up one block to the next CC stop, and the CCs that are coming out of that turnaround will sometimes stop and pick you up. We did that one time and felt like we had cheated! - no waiting.

If you have girls/girls at heart, you will want to check out Lush. We originally visited Lush in London 2 years ago. The only one in the US is right off Union Square on Powell Street. Organic, funky bath & body products. Bath bombs are their trademark item. Get them to do a bath bomb demo for you.

Take your polar fleece jackets for SF -shorts & t-shirts for Yos. Write me again if you have questions.

Thanks for your report, faye1! I will be in San Fran in 3 weeks and plan to visit Lush for the first time!!!!

Faye1, thanks for the more detailed response. I will write down the restaurant recommendations immediately! We would like to ride the cable cars and I appreciate your information on them. My daughter (we have a son and a daughter) is already a huge Lush fan. (we discoved them in London as well). We even went out of our way in Florence last winter to get to the Lush store there. She and I will definitely check out the S.F. store! We also have Haight Asbury on our list becuase my son is a huge 1970's rock n' roll fan (Led Zepellin and Hendrix)!

faye1, glad you love See's Candies! I love them too. Funny bit of trivia: See's is currently headquartered in South San Francisco, but started in 1921 in that icky city to the south-- Los Angeles! I'm surprised the San Franciscans would allow any See's outlets in the city....