There was a bar called 333 Ritchie St., in SOMA that i went to in, uh, 2001. It was good. More a club. Some brit-pop night.
If you go to alcatraz, do the audio tour -- it's award winning, and not the usual touristy crap.
The Marina was interesting in the way Yonge and Eglinton is interesting.
I walked and walked. Then went out at night - knew a few places to go, then there, met people who told us about other places. Friendly city, it seemed (must be a hippy holdover). Walk around the Tenderloin...neat old buildings. Then to Market street, such a wonderful grand shopping avenue. SF feels like it should be in Europe, but it's better, cuz it's American. It's one of the few places in America where i felt that the idea of America is still alive.
West on Market, towards where it gets into the Castro, has some neat places. The Castro itself is a pretty generic shopping street...the gay revolution wears khaki's now.
Walk by the Grateful dead house in the Haight. Nice victorian, looks like Toronto (as does many parts of SF). Note, the house across the street is the Hells Angels house, where Hunter S. Thomson visited for his hells angels book.
We took the Bart to Berkeley. Walked around the People's Park (more hippy holdover). UCB is a pretty campus, but famous Telegraph ave. is standard american uni town coffee shops and use clothes.
Do go to the Amoeba Records in the Haight or on Telegraph. Such an awesome store.
We stayed at a motel on Van Ness, near the bay. At night i'd go for walks out one of piers, people made fires and stuff. I'd also go for runs through Pacific Heights and Nob Hill -- nice rich people. Nob Hill is neat because of its proximity to the tenderloin.
Drove up to Marin county. very pretty, kinda boring rich democrats though.
