Travel Questions: San Francisco Bay Area

[urban_phx]

nice picture I like how they have the islands with wilderness so close to the city

[vadin]

Originally Posted by urban_phx

nice picture I like how they have the islands with wilderness so close to the city

I don't think that is "wilderness". If I'm not mistaken, that picture looks like it was taken from Alcatraz.

[Ian604]

Another awesome San Francisco picture.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by vadin

I don't think that is "wilderness". If I'm not mistaken, that picture looks like it was taken from Alcatraz.

it must be. if not, Alcatraz would have to appear in the waters north of the Wharf/Pier 39 area and clearly it does not. Yet from sheer perspective, the picture looks so much further out than Alcatraz, almost an Angel Island perspective.

[612bv3]

You can see one of the GGB towers.

[Rainier Meadows]

That fog pic is whack!

[StevenW]

Awesome aerials!!!

[Badgers77]

Whenever I am in SF, I feel like everyone I see in a tourist. I feel like it's Prague or something. The area around Pier 39 (or whatever) just seemed very tacky and fake, and although I loved the city (and especially Golden Gate Park), it just seemed like either I hadn't seen it all, or it was kind of a fake city like Las Vegas.

[Westsidelife]

You mean SF not LA...

[ryskillz]

Go to fillmore street. Lots of cute shops and cafes.

[bay_area]

oh, no.

its all a tourist trap....I hear LA is better.

[techniques1200s]

Originally Posted by Badgers77

Whenever I am in SF, I feel like everyone I see in a tourist. I feel like it's Prague or something. The area around Pier 39 (or whatever) just seemed very tacky and fake, and although I loved the city (and especially Golden Gate Park), it just seemed like either I hadn't seen it all, or it was kind of a fake city like Las Vegas.

Do you go anywhere in SF besides the tourist areas? That might explain something.
For future reference, SF residents basically never go to Pier 39/fisherman's wharf (because yes, it IS fake. Very fake). Except with visiting friends...or to go to In and Out Burger.

And you kind of answered your own question...You said you liked the city, but you hadn't seen it all. Next time be more adventurous. Most tourist maps neglect to show or even mention almost half of the city, afterall.

[Badgers77]

I just go with my parents and my parents are such your average tourists. We had to ride the trolley even though I didn't really want to. I found GG Park to be freaking amazing, though.

Also, does the BART offer reasonably cheap airport to rest of bay area service?

[JAB323]

I love San Francisco. When I stayed there I went everywhere and had a blast! It seemed like there were pretty much NO bad areas, and there were places w/o tourists.

[Badgers77]

San Francisco is an example of an absolute insane amount of gentrification.

[Whiked918]

Everyone there is a tourist, Bill Gates would have a hard time keeping up with the rent over there.

[Silicon Francisco]

It probably wouldn't hurt to see the Palace of Fine Arts, the Asian Art Museum and the Palace of the Legion of Honor (fine arts museum, 75% scale replica of the one in Paris, with a neat French interior) Grand View Park offers well, a grand view. For a more typical view you could cross the Golden Gate bridge to the little lookout area, and then keep going north to see some of the natural beauty. A popular tourist thing to do (yet somehow untouristy) is checking out the mansions in Pacific Heights (going west on Washington to the Presidio is a good street to keep on for this). Also when you see the Presidio if you opt to, bask in the glory of America's longest continually operating military base in history, although its no longer active as of the 1990's. Keeping in mind the legacy of San Francisco's sand dunes, which have mostly been built on by now, you could check out the beach on the western side of the city.

San Francisco's own "barren" dunes drew the ire of many early visitors to the young city. "There was absolutely no level ground" above the tide flats of the town's harbor, one forty-niner recalled. "There was here and there a little sheltered valley, but immense sand dunes covered what is now the fairest part of the city."

Esteban Richardson, grandson of a Presidio comandante, remembered growing up in the early 1840s among "a wilderness of desolate, forbidding sand dunes, often shifting their positions overnight." The massive dunes, some more than 100 feet tall, were replenished and set in motion by the winds that swept unimpeded across the peninsula from the Pacific seven miles to the west. The wind "carried with it an almost incredible burden of both fine and coarse sand that got into clothes, eyes, nose, mouth - anything that was open in short--besides penetrating the innermost recesses of a household."

[Badgers77]

I've sadly seen most of those things (the lookout point, Grand View, the military base, and others I think). I meant more food-ish areas. Hang out areas, nightspot areas, that are not infested with tourists.

[Whiked918]

Originally Posted by Badgers77

I've sadly seen most of those things (the lookout point, Grand View, the military base, and others I think). I meant more food-ish areas. Hang out areas, nightspot areas, that are not infested with tourists.

Some of the people who you thank are tourist actually live there. I know people that walk around with a phanny pack and an I love SF T-shirt that live there. Also Tourism is San Francisco's main cash cow. If the money is there you got to take advantage of it. You can walk around in a shit mood and say it's tacky and fake or you can loosen up and have a good time. Just think of it as an outdoor mall.

[Badgers77]

It's funny (not really) that it's called the East Bay. I worked at Eastbay for over 3 years here in Wisconsin, never knew there was any other East Bay.