San Francisco is one of the world’s great cities to visit, and some say to live. It is certainly the best the USA has to offer. Years ago business took me from Washington DC to San Francisco several times, making San Francisco one of my favorite destinations until I got to know London, Prague, Rome and Vienna. After the first trip, I planned my visits so that I stayed in the hotel furthest away from the work site by cable car, a spectacular way to commute, but times change. We visited San Francisco over Labor Day weekend (2008) and didn’t even ride the cable cars which had been transformed from part of the local mass transit system into an expensive ($5 per trip) tourist ride with long lines to board. Our local host said the natives have abandoned the cable cars to tourists.

Based on several visits and a exceptional local host, a friend who live in and knows San Francisco from top to bottom, the top sights in San Francisco are: 1] the ferry boat ride to Sausalito on clear day; 2] a cable car ride; 3] Architecture, including Alamo Square and environs, Victorian houses, the Financial District, San Francisco row houses, and "little houses on the hillside, little houses made of ticky-tacky"; 4] the views from the top of Coit Tower or the Crown Room at the Fairmont Hotel (day and night views) if it should reopen. Be sure to ride the glass exterior elevator and see the hotel lobby; 5] the coast from Cliff House to the Golden Gate bridge; 6] Alcatraz is reached by ferry and visited on a guided tour. Advanced reservations are mandatory.; 7] Fort Point, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge; 8] Golden Gate Park and the nearby San Francisco zoo.

Beware: Chinatown (Grant St.), Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39 are tacky tourist traps, overpriced and overrun with tourists who don’t know they should have stayed away and seen things worth seeing instead. Our local host insisted on taking us the waterfront. I asked, "Why did you bring us here?" He replied, "Everybody wants to come here." I said, "Everybody is a fool." He did not disagree. Still, we found some minor amusements. Pier 39 is so gross that its fun. The colony of sea lions that hangs out near Pier 39 are best seen from Pier 41. The Victorian game machines museum on Pier 43 are almost worth a trip to the waterfront, free entry, 25-50 cents to make the things go– see the great Earthquake in live 3-D photos. The National Maritime Museum on Hyde St Pier has a collection of old ships that can be sometimes visited. The problem is staff shortage in the National Park Service brought about by conservative Republican budget cutting. At high noon on our visit, only two of nearly a dozen ships were open. A commercial attraction next to the Victorian Games Museum has visits to a WWII Liberty ship and WWII submarine(fee).

Some other sights worth seeing after the above are 1] City Hall under the dome, the setting for several scenes in "Dirty Harry" movies; 2] St Mary’s Cathedral; 3] The California Legion of Honor, a small art museum with a good collection; 4] the Cable Car Museum; 5] the Grennwich Steps descending from Coit Tower; 5] The Garden Court(restaurant) at the Palace Hotel; 6] Yerba Buena Garden

There are a lot of decent but overpriced seafood restaurants along the waterfront. Be prepared to wait at high season for a high priced lunch.

Public operated facilities– the ferry to Sausalito, Tiburon, Larkspur, and Angle Island; Muni(buses and trams); The Legion of Honor Art Museum; etc.-- have good discounts for those over 65. The Muni fare drops from $1.50 a ride to 50 cents for seniors.

Getting Around

San Francisco is a walking city. Our local host took us uphill by bus and then we would walk down, a wise plan but I don’t know if a casual visitor could pull it off. Some of the better walks are 1] a tour of the fountains of the financial district (our local host knows this. I don’t know how you can do it on your own, but see what you can Google); 2] Ferry to Sausalito, then walk back over the Golden Gate bridge and though the Presideo; 3] downhill from any place.

Parking is difficult or costly. In three days, we saw one available parking space, and lots of double parked cars. Parking at the Marriott was $50 a day, near Fisherman’s Wharf, $18, which might have been just for the work day. On the other hand, public transit is pretty good, although a bit slow.

It used to be that the cable cars were a great way to travel around parts of the city, but with their transformation into a tourist industry, maybe son so much today. At $5 a ride, no transfers, the most sensible way to travel is with the 1, or 5 day Muni pass which covers busses, trollies, and cable cars at a greatly reduced rate– $15 for 3 days, unlimited rides. However, note that these are not 24 hour days timed from when you first use the pass. Instead, the first day you use it, even if it is at 11:59 pm, counts as day one gone regardless of the time. The problem here is the lines at the cable cars. These are really long in high season and your chances of getting on board at any stop between the termini is nil.

If you are not going to gamble on being able to use cable cars for routine trips, consider not getting a day or multi-day pass. Other Muni(busses, trolley) rides cost $1.50 per trip and include a transfer that is good for unlimited riding for 90 minutes, but figure two hours as the transfer slips are are only approximate in their timing.

The F line trolley, Market St to Fisherman’s wharf is a working museum of old, authentic trolley cars. During high season, it is packed with tourists making the mistake of visiting Fisherman’s Wharf. If you stay at hotel near the Civic Center, you stand a chance of actually getting on board.

BART is not part of the Muni system, and changes by distance traveled. It is of little use to the visitor except for the lines to SFO and Oakland Airport. It is also exceptionally noisy, you don’t want to ride BART if it can be avoided.

The least expensive way to get to SFO is by bus. It leaves the Transbay Bay terminal every 30 minutes and makes several stops on Market St. The Airport express bus does not allow luggage on board. BART from downtown to SFO costs $5-6, you can take luggage, and don’t have to worry about traffic tie-ups on the expressway. It takes about an hour.

To use BART, find the fare card machines, look up the cost to your destination, insert cash or credit cad in the ticket machine, select the cost of your fare (it starts at $20, handy for commuters, but tourists have to work down), etc. The ticket machine will issue a ticket. Insert it in the gate to enter. Keep the ticket, because you have to insert in the gate to exit at your destination. If you entered the exact fare, the gate opens and the machine eats your ticket. If you entered too much or too little, the farecard pops out of the gate machine.

San Francisco is basically divided into several districts. I definitely would plan your trip itinerary with that in mind. I also would consider renting a car for a few days. There are a lot of transportation options in some areas and none in others. When choosing accommodations, I would look at a map and pick a hotel that is near the trolleys lines or some kind of public transportation. I had accommodations in Union Square which was great; lots of bars, places to shop, and buses and both trolley lines run through this district.

San Francisco has much to offer and it is nearly impossible to do everything in one week, especially if your itinerary includes excursion tours. The following are San Francisco essential experiences.

Fisherman's Wharf is a complete tourist trap, but it is where to catch the boat to Alcatraz, see pier 39, visit Ghirardelli’s, and do your souvenir shopping; and if you want real Irish coffee, visit Buena Vista. Once you’re at the far end of the Wharf near Ghirardelli’s, you can walk a few blocks to Lombard St, (crookedest street). Warning: the few blocks are extremely steep and uphill. When in Chinatown, enter where the gate is, on Bush and Grant, visit the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, and eat some dim sum. Coit Tower offers great views and is in the North Beach area which has lots of cafes, Italian restaurants, and if you’re in the area, check out St. Peter and Paul church. In the Mission District, all you Hitchcock fans should check out Mission Dolores' cemetery; filming location of Vertigo. Also check out Balmy Alley and make a stop to try some tapas. While in the chic Haight-Ashbury, district do a little window shopping, definitely try a crepe, and check out some famous hippy sites – (http://www.43places.com/tag/hippie+history/1338862). In the Golden Gate Park, a definite must is the Japanese Tea Garden. Visit the Embarcadero and stop by the Ferry Plaza Farmer's market. If you have an afternoon free, walk across the street to the Ferry Building, grab a bite to eat and take a ferry to Sausalito. If you’re into art, definitely check out SOMA and The Legion of Honor.

The scattered isolated sites and stuff to see on the western side of San Francisco is when a rented car comes in handy. Transportation is these areas seems to be scarce or nonexistent. First, there is Alamo Square where Postcard Row is located. Then there is The Palace of Fine Arts which is great for pictures. Finally, I highly recommend Queen Wilhelmina tulip garden & Dutch windmill (check out my pics)! Also, if you just walk across the road, the beach and the Pacific Ocean awaits. Since you’re already in the area, eat at the Cliff House bistro. This bistro has great views of the ocean. I was lucky enough to have the sun setting while I was eating. They also have a restaurant there, but the bistro is less expensive.

It was 10 years ago, when I was returning from a ski trip in Banff with four other guys I played hockey with, that I started my quest. We got stuck at the San Francisco airport so we sat down at the airport bar and started throwing back Sierra Nevadas and Jager shots. When there was the possibility that we might be stuck overnight, someone suggested we check the schedule to see if the San Jose Sharks were in town. They weren't but after a few more beers, we came up with a brilliant idea. Wouldn't it be great to rent an RV and put our skis, boards, and hockey equipment in it? We could then ski and board during the day, play pick-up hockey at night and go to all the NHL arenas west of the Mississippi. So we mapped out our proposed route. Our plane was finally ready to leave, but we had just planned out our next adventure. The next morning when we sobered up, we realized that we didn't have the time or the money to accomplish such a feat.

Next month, I flew back to Philadelphia for the baptism of my niece. I thought about our dream trip and wondered if it was possible to go to a game in every city in a season. It's a fairly long flight, so I mapped another dream trip. On the way back home, I started seriously thinking about that dream trip. It was then that I decided to embark on a quest to visit every single NHL arena.

I had already been to some, but I decided that I needed to save my ticket stubs and buy a puck at every rink. When I completed my quest, I would build a big frame and hang it in my office. I travel a little for work, so I tried to plan my trips around the NHL schedule. I also made some trips to a city for one express purpose, to see an NHL game. Edmonton is not exactly a vacation destination, not to offend anyone from Edmonton because I had a really good time there. In fact, I sat next to the goal judge Friday night and he asked if I was going to the game tomorrow night. I said I didn't even know they were playing. He asked for a card and left me two tickets for Saturday night's game, in the Molson Club.

I have many stories about each of the rinks, some friends want me to create a website with sections on where to stay, eat, and drink, and descriptions of the rinks and towns. Someday I may do it. I completed my journey at the end of the 2003 season because I was fearful the NHL might go on strike the following season, which they did.

My final game was Toronto at Ottawa in the playoffs, Zdeno Chara scored the game winner in overtime. How I got that ticket is a separate story.

Giant Robot
618 Shrader St.

Kid Robot
1512 Haight Street

If you can't afford a ticket to Tokyo, San Francisco's not a bad second choice. There's an entire neighborhood of Japanese expats and immigrants, sushi restaurants on every block, and within earshot of each other, two stores specializing in the more rarefied artifacts of Japanese-style mass culture - the consumerism-as-art-form urge to collect, the forced scarcity of deliberately-limited editions of things like keychains, and the fine line between street and gallery art (if you're still convinced graffiti is never capable of being more than vandalism, take a pass). This is the stuff you buy when you're a well-paid adult who grew up on Sanrio or an art director who still owns a skateboard. The rest of us are free to browse to our hearts' content. Both Kid Robot and Giant Robot have exactly three stores each - in NY, SF, and LA - and are about as hip as those addresses would lead you to believe. That cool co-worker who listens to all the bands and has interesting eyeglasses? He may have gotten a lot of his cute-but-sometimes-creepy cubicle decorations or that copy of I Am Plastic from one of these stores.

Kid Robot is the smaller, more esoteric shop, stocking primarily vinyl sculpture (the naive will call them toys). Most of the stock is custom works in limited edition, sold exclusively by Kid Robot, in prices starting at around five dollars. Kid Robot commissions clothing, sculptures, the occasional piece of jewelry, de rigeur cell-phone straps, and art prints and posters. Rarer pieces can cost several hundred dollars, and are protected from your filthy fingers in locked glass cases. These are serious toys, people!

Giant Robot is a little more easygoing (it doesn't feel like an art gallery), a little more book-heavy (it's the retail face of a long-standing magazine about Asian pop culture) and, most importantly, they sell t-shirts at lower prices than Kid Robot. They also tend to focus on a slightly different group of artists than Kid Robot, making the two stores less direct competitors than symbiotic partners.

Both are big fans of my favorite toy designer Mori Chack - his Gloomy Bear character is featured on the cover of the current issue of Giant Robot, and in vinyl figures at Kid Robot (with and without bloody claws and muzzle). You'll see a few of the same products at both stores, but not that many overall, and both are worth visiting, especially because they're so close to each other.

Full House Victorian Houses are internationally known, but when you arrive there you expect to see a bigger amount of houses more than those that appear in the TV show... but there is not more than those 6 houses. They are very beautiful though.