GRISWOLDDAD
Parenting, Entertainment, and Travel Tips
Things to Do in San Francisco
There's so much to do in and around San Francisco, it'll take some time to get it all in. This is one of the best cities to do one of the hop on/hop off tours because even though you need to walk through the neighborhoods to experience them, you get a ton of information on these tours.
You can see Pier 39, Chinatown, Little Italy, Haight Ashbury, the "Full House" houses, and San Francisco's most iconic structures, the Golden Gate Bridge and the famous prison, Alcatraz!
Pier 39 is full of family fun, restaurants, shopping, rides, food vendors, and the famous sea lions! Lots of sea lions have made their home on the docks of Pier 39, and you can watch them slip on and off the docks, bark, and even fight for space.
Haight Ashbury is a hippie mecca and you still feel a bit of the atmosphere from the 60's. They don't allow any chain stores except Ben & Jerry's...probably because of their Cherry Garcia flavor. The hop on/hop off bus took us here and told us that prior to the summer of love in 68, 10-20 thousand people lived in this area...that year? 300,000 more showed up. "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair."
Full House was a family show for years and always opened up on the "Painted Ladies" of the lower Pacific Heights area.
Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest group of Chinese outside of China! It's also a really cool area to walk around in and shop for cool Chinese decorations and knick knacks and some VERY interesting vegetables.
Or go into Little Italy and you can see the church where Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio...or so you'd think. This Catholic church wouldn't marry them because they'd both been divorced prior, so they were married before and came here to take wedding pictures outside!
San Francisco is also known for shopping and has a shopping district that rivals Beverly Hills at the Union Square area. It's filled with all the stores like Bloomingdales and Macy's that you can think of.
Coit Tower is another famous landmark in San Francisco, and if you climb to the top of it, you get a great view of the city. The Lillian Coit Memorial Tower, 210 feet tall, sits high up in the Telegraph Hill area and memorializes the famous socialite, Miss Coit, that used to dress as a man so she could gamble and chase and help fight fires back in the late 1800's.
Catch a Giants or 49ers game while in town! I went to see the Giants and was reminded of the Mark Twain quote, "the coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Francisco." It was July, and I could see my breath!
Don't forget to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial near the Moscone Center. San Francisco has always been a place of acceptance, tolerance, and equality, so it's natural that they'd have a memorial to Dr. King. It's amazing, and they did a wonderful job immortalizing the man's dream and that famous speech.
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most iconic structures in the world...and one of the most visible structures from space! (It's more visible than the Great Wall of China...because that one blends.) However, do be prepared, it's often covered in fog, so getting pictures may not always be easy.
Speaking of photography, many San Francisco visitors love to get photos of the world's curviest road: Lombard Street.
Last, but certainly not least, is the infamous prison, Alcatraz. This prison has been memorialized by countless movies, housed some of the scariest criminals (like Al Capone), was a fort during the Civil War, and was even taken hostage by Native Americans during 1969 and 1970 as part of a protest to get the US government to treat the American Indians better.
Be aware, if you want to tour this place, be SURE to get your tickets early, or it may be impossible to get into once you're in San Francisco. Plan out at least a couple of months ahead to be sure.
