Places to see in San Francisco?

[winter]

Yo. General enquiry here:

Female Parental Unit is going to be in San Francisco in two weeks, with a day or two free. She doesn't drive, though cabs are a possibility, and her interests mostly mirror mine apart from manga/anime. What's there for her to see, visit and/or shop at?

(And if anyone can point out good comic stores there, I would very much like to prepare a shopping list for her ^_^)

Also, I may possibly have a kitten. 300 km away, stripey, undertermined sex, apparently very cute. Lestat for a boy, Esme for a girl?

Comments

[trixie-chick.livejournal.com]

mmrmfgh. my brother lives in san fran, and i've been there a few times. however, my info will be sketchy at best as my brain is a sieve...

- avoid eating at the touristy pier places. those places are totally geared toward trade that is not generally expected to return, and therefore, have poor service and aren't very good.

- she doesn't need a car to get around; in fact, having a car in san fran would be insane. the streets are incredibly hilly, curvy, and narrow, and it's not easy to find parking. also, san fran has cable cars, buses, and trains, which cover the city pretty well.

- there's Ghirredeli's (sp?) square, famous for ze chocolate. there's a GREAT science museum, near a beautiful chinese garden. golden gate park. haight and ashbury, famous for hippies, but there's a great mix of stores there, and a lot of good restuarants, from african to a brewery. (area i know bestish cuz my brother lives right near there). ah, and... the presido! which is where george lucas has some of his ILM peeps. i don't know if you can go near there, but the whole area is gorgeous.

- comic book store. the comic book shop that is owned by the guy who inspired matt groenig (sp??) to create Comic Shop Guy for the simpson's is in san fran. it's a cute little store, relatively small, all white. i don't know precisely where it is, though. >_> i know i walked down haight street from my brother's for a spell, and then turned up some side street, and it was there. ....i can investigate further, if need be.

good luck with the kitten!

please excuse my horrible spelling. =p can't spell worth a damn today...

[winter]

Thanks :) I'll try googling the comic shop. Would be a shame if the 30kg luggage allowance had to go to waste, after all ;)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Yay for kitten!

Gina

[winter]

Definite yay :) It's a pretty long story - suffice it to say it was me taking hir, or se would go back to the bushes. And my grandparents and aunt are being *censored* and not agreeing to keep hir even a week more, which would allow me to go pick hir up leisurely :S

But still. Kitten!

[-leareth.livejournal.com]

Places I went to when I visited San Fran:

-- Haight Street (also near Golden Gate Park)
-- Chinatown
-- Japantown
-- City Hall and UN Square
-- Ghiradelli Square with the world's best ice-cream XD up near the pier with all the sea lions!
-- Alcatraz and the Pier near there
-- Golden Gate Bridge (warning: check the bus routes and times because I also remember getting a little stuck there trying to figure out which Muni bus to get back into the city)

Avoid the Tenderlion area unless you have street-wise locals with you or a very big group ^^;;;

Foodwise, I remember getting taken out to great places along Haight Street, the Cheesecake Factory which is near the big Borders bookshop IIRC, Ghiradelli's, this great Indian place just inside the Tenderlion, and some smaller places my friends knew.

As for a comic book shop, I remember visiting one in the Haight Street/Golden Gate Bridge end of the city ... I can ask for the address of it if you like.

[sakura-no-prey.livejournal.com]

I think there's a Kinokuniya in Japantown has a friend who lives there ..

[wateriswine.livejournal.com]

The bus and feet are probably the best ways to get around San Francisco anyway. Traffic is insane.

I don't know any comic shops there, I'm afraid. I'm almost always there looking for manga-related stuff. ^_^; If she has any interest in more traditional Japanese arts and crafts, Japantown/Nihonmachi center is great shopping. The big Kinokuniya Japanese bookstore is there too.

For general shopping, Union Square has three department stores including Neiman Marcus and lots of high-end fashion (Betsy Johnson, Armani, etc.) There is a large Borders bookstore, and Rizzoli (art books) used to be around there too. If Cafe de la Presse is still around, it was a fairly decent place to eat/drink (and read magazines).

Chinatown and Haight Ashbury are both great places to explore, even though they are likely to be filled with other tourists. (I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one good comic book store in the Haight...)

Golden Gate Park has a really beautiful Japanese tea garden, and the science museum there was pretty good as far as I can remember (been ten years).

I like the cafes in North Beach, the old Italian neighborhood on the edge of Chinatown. City Lights bookstore there is kind of interesting to poke around in, and historic.


People tell me Cliff House has the best view, but I've never been there.

[-leareth.livejournal.com]

Yup, there is. And lots of little cafes with cakes and ice-cream XD

[winter]

Thank you so much :) :) :) Damn, now I'm envying her... why does she get to go there when all I got was bloody Milan?

[winter]

I'll pass that on - thanks for the list :)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Hey, I used to live there. And I agree that if she's going to be in the downtownish area, cars are a pain. The BART is a good way of covering large distances.

I know Berkeley better than SF, and the comic store I knew there has since closed. But The Other Change of Hobbit is an interesting fantasy/SF book store that probably has some comics. In all, your mother might enjoy a visit to Berkeley for a change of pace. It can be reached by BART. The places to see might be the campus (just a quick walk; there's a museum too, with special exhibitions) and Telegraph Avenue. There's some small-funky-boutique type shopping, but most of it would be on College or Solano, not Telegraph.

Otherwise, SF's interesting bits include not just the Park and the Haight and North Beach (which I like) and Chinatown, but also the Mission (the vaguely-hispanic district, with a historic mission) and the Castro, where everything the light touches is gay. I'd avoid Fisherman's Wharf--soooo touristy. Alcatraz, the old prison, is touristy too, but at least I found it interesting.

[winter]

I don't know if she'll have time for Berkeley, but I'll definitely send her to the Mission and Castro. Thanks!