Message: We (husband, myself, 17 year old, and 13 year old) leave next Saturday for San Francisco. We should arrive on Sunday in the after noon, giving us 2 1/2 days to see the city.

Day One (half day) - Lee Carter (shopping), La Taqueria (early dinner), Mitchell's Ice Cream (dessert), than leave car at hotel and take bus to Crissy Park for fireworks.

Day Two (where my craziness takes hold) - Drive down Lombard St and Filbert St (cheap thrills for the kids), tour coit tower, tour Maddie's Pet Center (13 year old's request), late lunch at Dolores Park and see the San Francisco Mime Troupe (17 year old's request), leave car at hotel and take cable car to Wharf, Tour USS Pompanito, pick up quick dinner take out and take night tour of Alcatraz, cable car back to hotel.

Day 3 (family plotting against me at this point) - walk through Chinatown for morning, visit cable car museum, take Powell-Hyde cable car to bay and back for fun, get car and see Musee Mechanique, Exploritorium/Tactile Dome, Dinner at Swan Oyster Depot or Mayes Oyster House (would love to know which one we should eat at), visit recycled records (another 17 year old request).

Leave the next morning for Six Flags

OK, am I totally insane? My family is energetic and will put up with my planning to a point. With only 2 1/2 days I really want to use our time wisely and have a good time. I'm actually pretty flexible when things happen or don't work out as planned. So any thoughts from those in the know? I'm still open to change at this point. I have purchased the tickets to Exploratorium and Alcatraz so those events are pretty much set.

After Six Flags our whole pace slows down to a crawl as we take 5 days to venture up the Northern coast to Oregon.

I don't know if the itinerary is too much but I love your style of writing! Very humorous!!

Sounds like a fun trip! Are you from here? Some of the places you mentioned are not the standard tourist fair. If day two doesn't kill you, you should be fine.

Have a great time!

I'm from Portland, Oregon. I have read just about every book in the library here on San Francisco. I absolutely love researching places and trying to find some out of the way things to do. My family did a lot of road trips when I was growing up (dad, mom and 6 kids in a Volkswagon bus) which was fun most of the time with lots of memories and some wild stories. My husband and I came through San Francisco on our honeymoon 19 years ago, with no reservations (bad news in July) and no idea of what to see and do. I guess that's why I'm so excited about this trip, I get to stay overnight in the city and see everything we missed. I'm hoping to get some feedback before we leave in 7 days.

I don't think you're crazy...It sounds like fun. Only thing I might change is "take Powell-Hyde cable car to bay and back for fun" as you'll already have two cable car rides in by that point.
Six flags the next day will be fun...it will feel relaxed after all the activities in the city!

Every day brings something new! Now I know what is "Maddie's Pet Center".

Great itinerary, but the part I like the most - your children took part in planning. You don't ask helplessly like some others "where do I take my teen".

Hey, I just came back from Portland, OR, working on a report

My daughter the 13 year old volunteers at our Humane Society, so visiting Maddie's was at the top of her list.

I hope you had a great time in Portland. We've had some fantastic weather this spring.