I left my heart in San Francisco

Must-sees: The Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Alcatraz, the Painted Ladies

Quick Tips:

It's worth the effort to visit Pier 39's Visitor Information center. The attendant was extremely helpful and affable. He was very knowledgeable about the city and where you should go to experience SFO to the fullest. He also handed us a discount coupon book that came in handy when we visited Bubba Gump's seafood restaurant. We also found the coupon book that we bought at entertainment.com to be well worth the price. We were able to get b.o.g.o. tickets for the wax museum and Ghiradelli's.

Best Way To Get Around:

The city's MUNI system is pretty well-organized, and if you choose not to buy their one- (), three- () or seven-day pass (), you can make your money stretch by holding on to the transfer that you are given once you board the bus.

You will be able to use it to transfer to another bus, should that be necessary, OR to return to your point of origin if you can beat the deadline stated on the transfer slip.

Please note that you will be able to ride the cable cars if you purchase the passports. You will NOT be able to use a transfer to ride them.

For more info about transit systems in the Bay area and specifically how to plan trips using them, visit here: http://www.transitinfo.org/tripplanner/index.asp

We chose the Nob Hill Motor Inn at 1630 Pacific Avenue in the Russian Hill/Pacific Heights area due to its wonderful reviews on www.tripadvisor.com.

We were very pleased with our room: it had two queen beds, a table with two chairs, free wi-fi, in-room coffee maker with coffee, several lamps, working A/C and heat, refrigerator, microwave, TV with cable/HBO, FREE PARKING (miraculous in SFO), and the place was kept immaculately.

We paid $94 a night for the first three nights and $114 on the last (Friday) night.

However, the thing that makes this a true jewel are the motel's owners--especially Judy, who went above and beyond to assist us in every way imaginable during our stay.

http://www.staysf.com/nobhill/

We ordered the "Bucket of Boat Trash" ($18.99) entree that consisted of fried baby lobster, shrimp, fries, and mahimahi--delish! Our server was very sweet and helpful. She even quizzed us on some of the scenes in the Forrest Gump movies; unfortunately, the prize was free tea refills and more napkins! I particularly liked the "Run Forrest Run" and "Stop Forrest Stop" signs that you could use to get any server to either stop by your table to assist you or keep going if you were satisfied. Very clever!

It was a very interesting selection of wax figures from Mussolini to Marilyn Monroe. It's one of the touristy things that one feels one must do, but to be honest, some of the renderings looked nothing like their subjects. But nobody's perfect, right?

We ordered our tour via Alcatraz Tours, LLC, and we requested that they pick us up from our motel (which was a scheduled pickup point for them anyway). They took us to their offices, where we boarded the official tour bus depending on which tour we had selected. The tour price was $38.50 per person, and we were lucky to have such an informed and spirited tour guide who took us to the following landmarks:

Fisherman's Wharf
The Marina District
San Francisco Bay
Palace of Fine Arts
Presidio National Park
Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Park
Cliff House
Ocean Beach and Pacific Ocean
Chinatown
Italian North Beach
Victorian Homes (Painted Ladies)
Cable Cars
Nob Hill
Civic Center
City Hall
Opera House
Financial District
Union Square
Coit Tower
Bay Bridge
Twin Peaks
Ghirardelli Square

We had a great time, and I highly recommend all newcomers to do a city tour first to familiarize themselves, and they can discover the city on their own after that.