Things to see if your coming this way:
Starting from Reno:
Virginia City, NV: Site of the Comstock Lode, the biggest silver bonanza in history, where Twain, George Hearst (WR's father), Chas. Crocker, William C.Ralston, Adolph Sutro, and a bunch of other minor characters got their start. A ghost town that is still alive and kicking. Lots to see and explore.
Carson City - Smallest state capital in the USA (with the possible exception of Juneau). Presently being inundated by over rich retiring Californians seeking paradise. But still quaint, if you stay off of Hwy 50. Good brothels just minutes away (Bring money and rubbers)
Tahoe: Lunch at some lakeside eatery with the little lady. Stay away from the South Shore. Totally crowded and filled with cretins in either jacked-up 4WD pickups with diesels in them or rice rockets blasting out P-Daddy "songs" which you can here over in Hope Valley, 35 miles away. Frankly, if you haven't seen a big lake with a lot of marginally blue water, it's worth it. Otherwise stay out of the Tahoe Valley altogether.
Hwy 88 (Kit Carson Pass) from Gardnerville, NV to CA Hwy 49) - Beautiful ride (preferably in a moto) across the Sierras and into the CA gold country. Breathtaking scenery. Be sure to stop in Markleeville for a bite. Road fallows the So. fork of the Carson river for the first few miles, then into pristine Hope Valley, which at one time was going to be a sewage treatment receptacle for Tahoe on the other side of Luther Pass to the north.
Hwy 49 - Runs from Mariposa in the south (gateway to Yosemite Valley) to way up in far, far, Northern CA. Best and most convenient places to visit are between Auburn and Sonora. Basically runs through where the Gold Rush was going on in '49. Lots of antique joints and refurbished hotels, restaurants, B & B's.
San Joaquin Valley - Just get across it AFAP. Nothing more than a highly polluted food factory. Only exception I can think of is "Old Town" Sacramento, which is the restored old riverfront town for turistas, but they have a great old steam railroad museum there which has a couple of steamers going up and down the levee.
OPTIONAL ROUTE: So. from Reno on US 395 along "the backbone of the Sierras" then west on CA Hwy 120 from Lee Vining and into Yosemite NP and Tuolumne Meadows. Highest mountain pass in the Sierras. Generally snowed in until late spring/early summer. Check before attempting. Along the way stop in Bodie, which is a REAL ghost town in arrested decay and preserved by the state park system. Views are beyond spectacular the whole way along. Europeans usually fall down in disbelief when they see this. It's what they had always thought The West should look like. You can drop down into Yosemite Valley from CA120 but be prepared to be a prisoner in your own car. The Valley is overcrowded with tourists, but it's the only way to see El Capitan, Bridal Veil &Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, yadda yadda. If you can, make a reservation well ahead of time to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel dining room. Spendy but really top notch. $$$$
San Francisco: Get a book. Or.....take my advice on where to eat: Probably the best town in the country for restaurants. All cuisines, all prices can be had.
Cafe Riggio on Geary St. out in the avenues. Tuscan. V. Good the last time I was there. $$
Il Fornaio, very good Italian food on Battery St. (at Filbert) across along the waterfront. As the name implies, they specialize in baked goods. But the linguini and clams are dynamite, too. $$$
Fog City Diner - literally across the street from Il Fornaio. Very good food. Very trendy. $$
Moose's - On Washington Square in North Beach. (Stockton St. bet. Union and Filbert) Ed Moose is a transplanted St. Louisan who found fame and fortune in San Francisco. He opened the original Washington Square Bar & Grill (aka "the Washbag"), sold it to some Iranians and opened up across the square. They used to be customers of mine when I was in the supply business. Good people. Exceptional food. $$$
North Beach Restaurant: An institution in North Beach. Spendy, but very good. (Stockton St. at Columbus and Green) Northern Italian. $$$$
Fior D'Italia - Same as North Beach Restaurant (corner of Union and Stockton) $$$
Buena Vista Cafe - (Hyde and Beach) – aka “the BV,” where the "glitterati" and people ogling them hang out. Irish coffee is supposed to have been invented there. Really usually packed with people but you may spot a Herb Gold, a Danielle Steele, or a Joan Baez, or some such there, looking oh-so-unconcerned.
New Pisa Restaurant - (Green St. bet Grant Ave and Stockton St.) Probably the last of the old family style "****" restaurants in town that serves salad, a fish course, a meat course, veggies, potatoes, bread, etc., at a common table, until you're ready to burst. Oh, and probably red wine that's been sitting in casks in the basement and will rot your stomach lining. Used to be full of old "Mustache Pete's" arguing over who won the bocce ball game in Italian. $$
Carnelian Room - On the 53rd story of the Bank of America Building (California and Kearney Sts.) Strickly for the view. Food is better than okay, but very standard fare. $$$$
Yank Sing Restaurant – (in the Rincon Center at Mission at Spear St.) If you’ve never eaten Dim Sum, you’re in for a treat. This place is the real deal. Top notch Chinese food. But you must eat the DS, which are steamed dumplings stuffed with everything known to man. For me, this place is a must. $$$
Tarentino's - (Fisherman's Wharf) If you must do the tourist thing, probably the best of the lot at the Wharf. Nice view of the harbor, passable food. They do a good job with fish. Stay away from crab. And salmon - unless it's wild and not farm raised. $$-1/2
Greens Restaurant – (Fort Mason Center) Owned and operated by the San Francisco Zen Center. Vegetarian restaurant but delightful in every way. Interesting food and great view of the GG Bridge. Don’t order a “King Henry VIII cut” of prime rib. You won’t get it here. You will get a dynamite eggplant parmangiano, though. $$-1/2
CHINATOWN - There are no restaurants in Chinatown worthy of the name. Crap, crap, crap. [index fingers forming a cross!]
Gordon Biersch Restaurant - The original. (foot of Harrison St. and Embarcadero) Started out making microbrew here (used to be the old Folger's Coffee roasting plant) and have very good food---well, pretty darned good anyway. Great beer. They're big time now, with stores all over the place and a retail operation. $$-1/2
Gaylord India Restaurant - Usually I think of Indian food as crap. But these folks have elevated it to a high level. Haven't eaten there in years, but their lamb curry and onion "nan" was to die for.
Mission Rock - Just a piece of s--t restaurant way south of the Bay Bridge and Qualcomm (aka Pacbell) Park on China Basin St. where it becomes Mariposa St. A great mix of blue collar workers, bohemians, the artsy/crafty crown and ordinary schmucks like me. Burgers and fries. If the weather's nice a great place for a cheap lunch and a beer and eat outdoors and look at the bay and shipyard across the channel. I heard this place may have gone upscale. What a shame, if so. BTW, if you have the time and they're in town. Buy a ticket to see the Giants play. Best ball park in the West. $
The Cliff House - Recently completely gone through. A very nice restaurant to eat out literally over the ocean. All the way out on Geary St. $$
COOL PLACES:
Fort Point - Access via The Presidio (GGNRA) You can drive right below the Golden Gate Bridge and also visit a Civil War era Fort Winfield Scott, and looks like a mini Ft. Sumpter. Great view of "The Gate" and surfers who ride incoming rollers.
Palace of the Legion of Honor (34th Ave and Clement St. in western part of the city) Museum built in the early 20th century by Alma Spreckels, who was the heir to the Spreckels sugar fortune and a Francophile of the 1st order. Modeled on the Palace of Versailles and contains a ton of old masters and a huge permanent collection of Rodin sculptures. Great view of the Gate from up there.
Alamo Square - This is the park across the street from probably the four most photographed Victorian homes in San Francisco. (Steiner and Fulton Sts.)
Pacific Heights - Location of a lot of old SF mansions which survived the earthquake and fire. Still where the "old money" lives.
SF MOMA - On 3rd St. bet Howard and Folsom. Very, very good museum. Collections of Rothko, Picasso, De Kooning, *******, Johns, Kahlo, etc., etc if you enjoy modern art.
DeYoung Museum/Golden Gate Park - Just recently completely renovated. Oldest in SF and has a little of all the visual arts represented. Worth it. Free! GG Park, well worth a drive (or a nice walk) from end to end. At the eastern end, along Stanyan St. is the Haight-Ashbury district, "hippie hill," Kezar Stadium (where the 49ers played for years). On the western end is the Pacific Ocean. Great to bike through. Rentals at bike shops on Stanyan.
Mission Dolores - (Dolores St. at 16th St.) founded in 1776 by Spanish Franciscan missionaries. Cemetary contains the remains of early Indian and whites who lived in SF.
Twin Peaks – Follow Market Street all the way to the top. Signs will guide you. The best view of San Francisco without being in an airplane. Practically a 360 degree vista of the city from about 500 feet up
Cable Cars – There are two lines. One starts at the foot of Powell St (at Market) and goes all the way over to Aquatic Park, the BV, Ghirardelli Square and the Hyde St. Pier. Also crosses Nob Hill and California and Powell. The other line starts at the foot of California St., goes through the financial district, Chinatown and Nob Hill to Polk Gulch. Take your pick. Powell line is by far the most popular with tourists.
Grant Ave. - (between Columbus and Lombard) A narrow, one-way extension of Grant which starts in Unions Square and goes through Chinatown. At Columbus, Grant becomes Italian. Echoes of the Beat Movement can be heard here. Best to walk it all. The area still maintains a lot of its Italian charm, but you won’t hear much Italian spoken anymore. The old La Pantera Café, on the 1100 block, where I spent a lot of my youth, is still there but only the façade. Sadly, it’s no more.
Broadway & Columbus – The area used to be call the Barbary Coast where sailors used to hang out and drink rot gut only to be “Shanghaied” on the next square rigger heading out the Gate for China. The area still retains a lot of “nudie joints” though nothing like I was in the 60’s and 70’s. The Condor Club, where Carol Doda got her start dancing on top of a hydraulically descending grand piano (and where a bouncer, in the middle of coitus with a waitress inadvertently flipped the switch with his foot and was crushed to death as the piano ascended into the ceiling) is still there.
City Lights Books – Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s book store. Do your research on the Beat movement here. Good micro brew joint just across Keroac Alley (virtually next door).
Lombard St – “The Crookedest Street in the World” Start at Hyde St., follow it down and continue on Lombard all the way to Coit Tower on top of Telegraph Hill. Terrific view from up there. The Tower lobby has some great WPA artists’ murals in it.
BEST WALKS/RIDES:
Columbus Ave from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Transamerica Pyramid – Columbus used to be the main thoroughfare for the Italian fish mongers to bring their catch to sell downtown, which was basically the financial District. It passes by Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Washington Square, through the North Beach Area, through the old Barbary Coast area and down to Montgomery Street where it ends.
Golden Gate Park – Wonderful, quiet urban park with plenty of walking paths, and sites to see. Look for all the hidden statuary scattered here and there.
Land’s End – (El Camino del Mar) A fairly short walk along the cliffs over the ocean. Magnificent views of the GG Bridge and Marin Headlands
Chinatown – (Grant from Columbus Ave. to Sacramento St.) Very touristy but worth the walk. Lots of interesting little stores and even more interesting smells. One of the oldest parts of San Francisco. Rebuilt after the fire.
The Embarcadero – From Ghirardelli Square to Qualcomm Park. Delightful waterfront hike. All level. Lots of joggers, walkers, bicyclers. Passes through Fisherman’s Wharf. Great bay views.
Ft. Mason to the GG Bridge – A lot of people run this 5 mile or so stretch of the shoreline. I used to bike it. A good foot and bike trail the whole distance. You start out at the old Army embarkation point at Ft. Mason. Passes along the yacht harbor, into the old Presidio (now the Golden Gate National Recreation Area) and on to Fort Point.
Marin Headlands – Cross the GG bridge, talk the Sausalito Exit, then turn left into what used to be Fort Baker. Old gun emplacements and bunkers, lots of wildlife, peace and quiet. Part of the GGNRA.
Alcatraz Island – What can I say? It used to be a prison. Windy. Bring warm clothing. Get a ferry boat ticket at Fisherman’s Wharf.
Angel Island – Tremendous walking. In comparable view of San Francisco, the bridges…everything! Catch a ferry from Tiburon, across the bay, or from Fisherman’s Wharf (Blue and Gold Fleet at Pier 39) Windy in the summer. Bring warm clothing and a picnic lunch. Sit on the lawn at Hospital Cove and munch on some good French bread (Parisian brand only) some REAL Italian salami and a bottle of red wine. Nothing better! NOTHING. Also, you can bring rented bikes aboard the ferry boats.
Muir Woods – A 45 minute drive across the GG Bridge to a great state park containing a typical redwood forest. If you’ve never seen them, now’s your chance. Very convenient to The City.
You can probably “Google” most of these places and get more information. This is just a quick list of things I would be sure to show friends if they came into town. I was born there.
