Weekend Excursions in San Francisco

San Francisco has many interesting tourist and local spots to explore. We arrived on a weekend in October armed with a long list of potential places to explore and photograph, but found it difficult to see them all.

The first tactic in planning a trip is to visit your local library and check out as many guidebooks as you can find on the place you want to visit. It is also helpful to ask folks who have either lived there, toured there or were prior city tour guides - most of my San Francisco information was gleaned through chat channels, email forums or on facebook. Of course you should also pick your favorite search engine and "google" online for places of interest. Then take the best combination of all the research and recommendations, noting your key areas of interest, to come up with potential itineraries for the duration of your stay. We went for a long weekend but could have stayed for weeks.

It is also very helpful to grab a San Francisco AAA city map and a highlighter to mark the locations of each photo op, along with notations of points of interest in each area you plan to visit. The most difficult part of our itinerary was figuring out what local transportation would get us to each site. Luckily our hotel had a concierge that was very helpful in telling us which bus, streetcar or cable car (BSC) to hop to each destination. The transit map is quite busy and somewhat difficult to understand and the highly visited tourist areas have jam packed BSC's.




Everyone loves to ride the cable cars on the hilly roads to get a great tour of the city. We really enjoyed getting on at the end of the line and watching the operator turn the cable car around.



There are many choices for great food in San Fran. We stumbled upon a very festive "world famous" cafe near our cable car stop called Pat's Cafe and had a fabulous breakfast before heading out for the day. The walls inside the cafe are filled with artwork and it is a small, friendly place.

We decided to take a ferry to Sausalito and roam around the quaint little town for awhile. Ferry tickets are available at Fisherman's Wharf. We were able to walk up to the ticket counter and buy round trip tickets on the spot for the next scheduled departure. The ferry ride takes you past the famous Alcatraz Island and offers plenty of opportunities for photos of the prison as well as the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.

When we returned from Sausalito we moseyed over to Pier 39 for some non-stop entertainment and great photo ops of the hundreds of sea lions that hang out and basically take over the place. The Wharf is also a great place to people-watch and find some delicious seafood, as well as plenty of boutique shops. This is a very busy area so have a few options in mind for mass transit if you do not want to wait for a specific bus or trolley to take you to your next destination.

High on my list was to photograph the murals of the Mission District. We had a long, interesting bus ride to the heart of the district but it was worth it. There are some fantastic artists displaying their talents alongside many buildings, garage doors and pretty much any paintable surface. It is a diverse neighborhood so be aware of your surroundings at all times. It was fun to try to find all of the murals - we barely scratched the surface but saw quite a few.

We spent a good portion of one day at Golden Gate Park. There are numerous places to see and plentiful activities in the Park. We spent quite a bit of time photographing the Dahlia gardens - tons of variety and absolutely gorgeous flowers. The Conservatory of Flowers was under rennovation so we did not get a chance to visit. There was also a local fair going on with musicians, craft booths and plenty of food. You can go to the top of the De Young Museum tower for a free view of the city - it is a great place for panoramic shots and to see what is going on in the park as well. The architecture is quite unique and there are many photo ops on the grounds near the museum.

This is just a sampling of the many places we visited over a long weekend. Have a great time if you plan to visit and be sure to drop me a line if you find another great photo location!

Happy Trails!

Jan