San Francisco

From Burden's Landing

<flickr>3316026464|frame|m</flickr>

Our home and the most beautiful place in the world. Known for the Golden Gate Bridge. The local newspaper is the San Francisco Chronicle.

See Bay Area for nearby cities. Also see Angel Island, Golden Gate Park.

There's detailed food information in the neighborhood sections below, but there's also some specialized information in San Francisco/Food.

Pick-up Basketball

I play every Sunday morning at Julius Kahn Park in Laurel Heights right next to the Presidio.

Richmond Recreation Center (18th Ave, between Clement and California). 2011 hours:

  • Tuesday: 12:30-6:30pm
  • Wednesday: 2:45-6pm
  • Thursday: 11:30am-3pm; 5:30-8:45pm
  • Friday: 2:30-5:30pm
  • Saturday: 9-4:30pm

Sundays at 5pm at the Eureka Rec Center. Costs $5.

Other possibilities to explore:

Other:

Donaldina Cameron House in Chinatown has an iconic view of SF and was featured in Will Smith's, In Pursuit of Happyness. Not sure if you can play pickup there.

Local Blogs

These are the local blogs I follow to keep up with what's going on in the city.

Party Ideas

Escape party

Joey the Cat skeeball and arcade event space

Neighborhoods

Secret Spaces of San Francisco

Western Neighborhoods Project. Includes the Richmond, the Sunset, and West Portal.

Tourist Tips

I think I pulled these tips from a Conde Nast website -- can't remember which. This was from one of a series of articles on different cities, offering insider tips on avoiding tourist traps. I pulled the ones I either most agreed with or didn't already know to do.

  • Don't...TAKE THE POWELL STREET CABLE CARS. Lines snake around the cable car terminus at Powell and Market streets, the beginning of the two major cable-car lines (Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason), which carry tourists to Fisherman's Wharf. While you wait -- sometimes as long as an hour -- you're held hostage by D-grade accordion players, panhandlers, and evangelists threatening hellfire. All this hassle for a ride on a toy train?
  • Instead...TAKE THE CALIFORNIA STREET LINE. Take the cable car line tourists don't know about: the California Street line. There's rarely a queue for this lightly traveled route because visitors don't know what to do at the end of the line, Van Ness Avenue. But we do: Grab a picnic lunch of succulent Cowgirl Creamery cheese and crusty French bread near the beginning of the route at the Ferry Building Marketplace and hop on the cable car at the foot of California Street. Then, from the terminus at Van Ness Avenue, walk to Lafayette Square, in swanky Pacific Heights, for a hilltop picnic in the shadow of stately townhouses. Afterward, window-shop Upper Fillmore St alongside the city's skirt-and-sweater matrons. (Tip: For a great photo on the cable car, shoot east downhill as you approach Stockton Street; the Bay Bridge tower is briefly framed just right between downtown skyscrapers.)
  • Don't...TAKE THE FERRY TO SAUSALITO; instead...TAKE THE FERRY TO TIBURON. Ride the ferry to Tiburon, a village in Marin County with a picturesque main street straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. You'll get the same amazing shots as you sail past Alcatraz and Angel Island, and once you arrive in port, you'll have room to roam away from the herd. Poke your head into cute boutiques, snag a table for the obligatory dockside lunch at Sam's Grill (beware the seagulls swooping down on your fish and chips), and you've pretty much done Tiburon. But that's part of the charm. For full immersion in the kick-back Marin County lifestyle, snag a bay-view room at the Waters Edge Hotel and sip cocktails as the sun slips into the Pacific beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dry Ice

United Liquor Stores sells dry ice and styrofoam containers. There's a UPS store down the block for shipping.

2401 Chestnut Street (@ Divisadero)
415-567-0580
Hours: 7am-1am

Other