Hi! I'm just back from 4 days in SF and had a great time.

Some comments - It was colder than I realized. We wore pants/jeans in the city and always had a sweatshirt/jacket with us. I didn't research places to eat much so we usually just picked a place where we were hungry. The only exception was our dinner at Roy's. It's a favorite restaurant of ours back in Philly and we hadn't been in a while. It's Hawaiian/Asian fusion and close to the Moscone convention center. We had the address and STILL had a hard time finding it.

Arriving - I took the BART from SFO. Very cheap and pretty easy. The only confusing part was that you first take the AirTran to the BART station at the airport and I was looking for signs leading me to the BART which there weren't. Only $4.95 to Union Sq.

Day 1 - we spent this day riding the cable cars, seeing the "crooked street", Coit tower, North Beach, Chinatown and the Cable Car Museum (free!) Lots of walking this day. This was our best weather day, it was very clear (wonderful views from Coit!) and pretty warm at mid-day.

Day 2 - We rented bikes near Fisherman's Wharf and biked over the GG Bridge to Sausalito. I basically only ride a bike on vacations, but this was a great activity. It was $23 each for the day's rental (we had a $5 coupon from a brochure). The bridge has been in various degrees of fogginess all morning but seemed especially so when we were on it. We stopped a few times on the bridge to take pictures and marvel at how foggy it was and those times we were freezing. I felt bad for the people walking over it (this was my original idea, but it seemed too far to Sausalito to walk the whole way). When we were riding we felt much warmer. I actually had short sleeves on over the bridge and was comfy (except for the stops we made). When we got to the other side it felt very cold so I put on my sweatshirt. About 5 minutes later, riding towards Sausalito, I had to pull over and take it off. Too warm! Sausalito was bright and sunny. We checked out the shops, had great hamburgers (you'll smell them walking by), relaxed, had ice cream (tons of ice cream shops here) and then took the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf. We took the bus back to Union Sq., cleaned and relaxed and then went to dinner at Roy's.

Day 3 - Fourth of July day. We had a leisurely morning and then cable car'd down to the wharf. We did some souvineir shopping and walked around the area. We had 3:15 tickets to Alcatraz (bought in advance online). Very worthwhile excursion - do the audio tour of the cellblock. We got back to the Wharf at about 5:30. It had been sunny and nice in the AM, but getting foggier and windier all day. It was extremely windy on Alcatraz. The fireworks weren't until 9:30 but we were pretty tired of the wharf area and it looked like the fog was getting thicker and why stick around and see fireworks that are only colored fog? So we headed back to Union Sq., got some dinner and then went to the lounge at the top of our hotel. By now the fog was intense and we enjoyed watching buildings 2 blocks away disappear and reappear. We ended up watching fireworks on TV, when they showed many bay area shows, but not SF's.

Day 4 - we rented a car and drove to Muir woods for some hiking. The GG bridge was again VERY foggy. The drive to Muir was also very foggy and winding. When we got there I was surprised at how many people were there considering the weather. It was mildy foggy at the woods. We did the Ocean view/Lost/Fern Creek trails which worked out great since it got us off the main loop and away from the crowds (yes crowds). Also great scenery!! By noon it had gotten much clearer and on the curvy drive out we got to see what the fog was blocking on the drive in. We then headed to Sonoma. We stopped at 3 wineries (Gundlach Bundschu, Sebastiani, Ravenswood) and walked about the town. We tasted 5-8 wines at each place and that was enough to get me tipsy. We had dinner in Sonoma and then drove back though the city to SFO. Since we didn't get to walk around several neighborhoods, we made sure to at least drive through them on the way to the airport.

HA HA HA HA this is how we can tell a tourist from a local - if in shorts, must be tourist from Ohio

AirTran from SFO? I thought only the Oakland airport has a bus connection with BART, somebody help me!

pb and j:

GREAT report!

We often wonder how people fare and what are the pluses and minuses of our suggestions!

It's great to get such wonderful feedback!

Come back soon! And bring your sweaters!

pb_and_j, that was just a terrific report; thank you! We'll be vacationing in SF in early October; and I will take a copy of your trip report as an inspiration. Funny thing, I grew up in the area. At the time, I didn't appreciate all there was to enjoy, and the scenic beauty. And the fog!! I miss it -- didn't you almost feel that it was a living organism?? Anyway, now that I'm grown, gone, and older, it's a real treat to "play tourist" in SF. Only, I don't wear shorts...

Yes, the BART station is inside SFO, and you take the AirTrain from your terminal to the station, less than 5 minutes. In Oakland you take the bus out of the airport to the Coliseum BART Station.

Great trip report, but makes me want to go back SO bad!

sludick - great comparison - the fog was like a living creature and I enjoyed watching what mood it was in each day!

re: BART - I have a guidebook from last year that said the SFO BART connection was to be finished in early 2005 but they "weren't holding their breath". I looked online and saw a schedule for it, so figured it was working. I think a lot of people don't realize it's there, not many people took it from the airport.

Hi, it's pretty common in SF for the weather to be very nice for days or even the day prior to July 4th (which it was actually)! The fog usually rules on July 4th for some reason-like it's playing a bad joke on us who live here. There are actually just a few July 4th's that I've recalled that the weather was warm and the skies were clear so that people could enjoy the fireworks show. This year the news reported that people got fed up and walked away from the fireworks show because they couldn't see anything! Anywhere else but SF-I was in Sacramento where there was a good fireworks display because the weather was hot (90F+).

Hi pb and i! I'm just re-reading some messages and have a few questions for you. I am debating whether to bicycle our group of 5 across the GG Bridge. Was that a long hike from FW where you rented to the GG Bridge and then across to Sausilito? Would you do it again or just take a ferry????? Where did you park your bikes in Sausilito?

Oops one more question. Did you bring the bikes back on the Ferry or do you leave them in Sausilito somewhere?

I loved our biking day! They provide bike locks and there are racks on the streets and near the ferry in Sausalito. We took the bikes back on the ferry (no extra I believe.)
The ride from FW to the bridge is very nice too, and that part is flat.

Personally, I don't even enjoy ferry rides. I've been on various ones and they are generally COLD and DAMP. I popped upstairs to take a picture of Alcatraz and then went right back downstairs.

We'd like to add our appreciation for the report, pb_and_j. We will be in SFC in early October and will take a few of your experiences and thoughts with us.

pb and j -
Where did you stay? Were you happy with your accommodations? We will be going with our eleven year old in February (brrrr?) and were thinking of staying in the Argonaut at Fisherman's Wharf. Any suggestions for must-see things for children? What did you enjoy most about Chinatown?

I stayed right near Union Square at the Grand Hyatt. I got this through Priceline for a great price. I thought it was a great location since we were near the cable car end/start (and a lot of other transport, including the BART to the SFO airport), close to chinatown, and surrounded by tons of shopping and restaurants. Every morning we went to a diferent diner in the area and our car rental place was right there too.

I thought the wharf area got boring very quickly. There are only so many souvineir shops you can go into.

Alcatraz is a must-see, the cable cars were fun, and the cable car museum was a nice behind-the-scenes look into how they work.

Thanks for the info on the bike rental. I think we are going to do this. One other thing, are the lines to get on the cable cars long and time consuming as I have read different times.

The cable car lines can be very long. But, for whatever reason, they don't fill the cars up at the start. Sometimes not even close to full.
So just go to the next block and you'll probably get on the next car that comes by. We did this several times.
By the 3rd stop or so they are often full.