San Francisco Bay Area

Here is my collection of info and links.

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San Francisco

• TripSpot
• MuseumSpot
• KTVU's BayInsider.com
• 4SanFrancisco.com
• SF Station
• sanfrancisco.com
• z San Francisco

  Bay Area

• sfbay.craigslist
• BayArea.CitySearch
• DigitalCity
• Expedia
• Google: Regional > North America > United States > California > Central Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area

• BayArea.com
• Bay Area Public Library Web Pages
• Go City Kids
• San Francisco Bay Resource Net
• Yahoo! Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area

  Newspapers & Publications

• Yahoo! List of Bay Area Newspapers
• SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
• San Francisco Examiner
• Contra Costa Times
• Oakland Tribune
• San Jose Mercury News
• San Francisco Bay Guardian
• SF Weekly

• Restaurants associated with the United Airlines Mileage Plus Program (20% off) and

I Left My Heart In San Fransisco (Music by Cory George C. Jr./Words by Douglass Cross)
Tony Bennett's signature song, which peaked chart position 19 in 1962 on his album "Tony Bennett - All-Time Greatest Hits" and "The Essential Tony Bennett"
Frank Sinatra also recorded this.

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay.
The glory that was Rome is of another day.
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan.
I'm coming home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in San Francisco.
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars
climb halfway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air.

My love waits there (my love waits there) in San Francisco.
Above the blue and windy sea.
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
your golden sun will shine for me!

I left my heart in San Francisco.
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars.
Climb halfway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air.

I don't care.
My love waits there in San Francisco.
Above the blue and windy sea.

When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me!

NorthEast: Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf

For a whirlwind tour through the major tourist attractions, park your car in the 5th and Mission garage (the largest and, at $3 per hour, among the lowest cost) or take the BART train (from outlying cities) to the Powell street station.

Walk up to Market street and stand in line for the Powell Street cable car. It takes you past the best shopping and restaurants in the city on Union Square (tea at the St. Francis), around sNob Hill, and Chinatown. So instead of the one way ticket get an all-day pass if you want to stop for a meal.

Take the Hyde (not Mason) cable car Cable Car Museum, Lombard Street (a favorite stop for visitors as the "Crookedest Street in the World") and drops you off at the water's edge between Ghiradelli Square (chocolate museum) and the Cannery shops.

Walk to Pier 39 where you can bark back at the seals and ride the marry-go-round or tour ferry to Alcatraz. Other attractions around Pier 39:

• Ripley's Belief It Or Not Museum
• Scoma's and Neptune's Palace seafood restaurant
• Underwater World

To get back down Market street, walk to a station under the overhead cables used by the F-Train Streetcar (named Desire).

At night, see a movie in the 80x100 foot IMAX theatre (the largest in the world) at the Sony Metreon (off the Powell Street BART station).

If you get there early, check out the South of Market (SOMA) attractions:

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (at 151 3rd St at Howard Street, 415.357-4000, 11-6, -9 Thu)
• On weekends (11-5), walk across the street to Zeum at 221 4th St (Howard Street) for the treasure chest of multimedia tools. 415.777-2800

California Dreaming

1967 Papas & Mamas album
by John and Michelle Phillips (of Mamas and The Papas)

All the leaves are brown 
And the sky is grey 
I've been for a walk 
On a winter's day 
I'd be safe and warm 
If I was in L.A. 

California dreaming 
On such a winter's day 

Stopped into a church 
I passed along the way 
Well, I got down on my knees 
And I pretend to pray 
You know the preacher likes the cold 
He knows I'm gonna stay 

California dreaming 
On such a winter's day 

All the leaves are brown 
And the sky is grey 
I've been for a walk 
On a winter's day 
If I didn't tell her 
I could leave today 

California dreaming 
On such a winter's day 
On such a winter's day 
On such a winter's day 

Civic Center Walking Tours

On the First Thursday every month, fine art shops around Union Square (along Sutter Street, Market Street, Post Street and Geary Street) open 5pm to 8pm. Wear black if you want to blend.

If you're driving and want to see what it's like within the BART, take a round-trip ride between Powell and Civic Center during the day (don't do this after 5pm).

The San Francisco Municipal Library (opened in 1996 at 100 Larkin), sponsors free walking tours throughout the city mostly on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Next door, the Asian Art Museum (at 200 Larkin, 415.581-3500) open 10am-5pm, -9pm Thu has 40,000 sq. ft. housing 13,000 objects.

Movies and TV Filmed in San Francisco

1. Monk TV series
2. Sweet November with Keanu Reeve and Charlize Theron
3. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) features Robin Williams from 1200 Washington Street.
White Victorian at 2640 Steiner Street.
4. The Rock (1996), with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage breaking into Alcatraz island.
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
6. The Wedding Planner (2001) with J.Lo
7. Experiment in Terror
8. High Anxiety with Mel Brooks
9. Basic Instinct
10. The Woman in Red (1984) with Gene Wilder wooing Kelly LeBrock as a model
11. Magnum Force
12. Vertigo (1958), a classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller with James Stewart following Kim Novak around the city.
13. Time After Time
14. It Came from Beneath the Sea
15. The Fan
16. The Enforcer, starring Clint Eastwood
17. Tales of the City
18. More Tales of the City
19. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
20. Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood
21. Bullit (1968) features Steve McQueen racing a Ford Mustang around San Francisco.
22. D.O.A.
23. Flower Drum Song

Books San Francisco

• Sailor Richard Henry Dana's 1835 Two Years Before the Mast

East Bay (Oakland, Birkley)

I got the blues from my baby left me by the San Francisco Bay,
The ocean liner's gone so far away.
Didn't mean to treat her so bad.
She was the best girl I ever have had.
She said goodbye, I can take a cry.
I want to lay down and die.

I ain't got a nickel and I ain't got a lousy dime.
She don't come back, think I'm going to lose my mind.
If she ever gets back to stay,
it's going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.

Sitting down looking from my back door,
Wondering which way to go,
The woman I'm so crazy about, she don't love me no more.
Think I'll catch me a freight train, 'cause I'm feeling blue,
And ride all the way to the end of the line, thinking only of you.

Meanwhile, in another city, just about to go insane,
Thought I heard my baby, Lord, the way she used to call my name.
If I ever get her back to stay, it's going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.

West: Golden Gate Park & Height-Asbury District

The Summer of Love 1967.

Bummer.

Grateful Dead house.


In Golden Gate Park:

• The Arboretum
• de Young Asian Art Museum (under reconstruction until ___) 415.379-8801
• Walk through the tranquil and sip some tea in the Japanese Tea Garden (where the fortune cookie served at Chinese restaurants was invented by a Japanese gardener there).
• The California Academy of Sciences at Lincoln Way at 9th Avenue (first Wednesday every month) has a planetarium and aquarium.

  North of Golden Gate Park:

• Exploratorium (10-5 on 3601 Lyon St at Jefferson, 415.397-5673)
• Palace of the Legion of Honor featuring European art and sculpture (100 34th Ave at Clement Street, 415.750-3600)

'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)'
1967 by Scott McKenzie & John Phillips

If you're goin' to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're goin' to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation
Such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation
With a new explanation
People in motion, people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

South: Santa Clara Valley

Eating our way down South on the 101 San Francisco
1. San Mateo
2. San Carlos
3. Redwood City
4. Menlo Park
5. Palo Alto
6. Mountain View
7. Milpitas (East on 237)
8. Sunnyvale
9. Santa Clara

10. Rue De Paris 19 N Market San Jose 298-0704
11. White Rock Cafe 3116 Alum Rock Ave San Jose 729-4843
12. Emile's, 545 S 2nd San Jose 289-1960
13. Gervais Restaurant Francais 1798 Park Ave San Jose 275-8631
14. La Foret 21747 Bertram Road San Jose 997-3458
15. Le Papillion (the Butterfly) 410 Saratoga Ave, San Jose 408.296-3730

    South on the 85:

16. Cupertino
17. Campbell
18. Saratoga Big Basin Way (Hwy 9):
    • 14467 La Mere Michelle 867-5272
    • 14510 La Fondue 408.867-3332
    • 14510 La Mouton Noir 867-7017
    • 14555 The Plumed Horse 867-4711
    • 14583 Sent Sovi 867-3110

19. La Maison du Cafe 14103-C Winchester Blvd Los Gatos 378-2233
20. Tapestry 11 College Avenue Los Gatos 408.395-2508
21. Pigalle 27 N Santa Cruz Ave Los Gatos 395-7924

The Tech Museum of Innovation has a five story IMAX screen. 408.294-8324

Sheraton Sunnyvale 1100 N. Mathilda Ave. 94089 408.745-6000

Best Western Silicon Valley Inn 600 North Mathilda in Sunnyvale has internet and hot breakfast buffet for $92.

Seasonal Events in Southern California

Spring time (March/April/May)

Summer time (June/July/Aug)

Autumn time (Sep/Oct/Nov)

Attend an Open-Air Concert

Winter time (Dec/Jan/Feb)