Below are links to interesting things I found while researching for this trip. I sent out this information in a email called "San Francisco Tidbits" to our friends who will will be meeting us for a couple of the days we will be there. Items below in bold are links.

San Francisco Tidbit #1

The Google Map for San Francisco has been started.

San Francisco Tidbit #2- Free Walking Tours

"San Francisco City Guides" offers free walking tours in just about every neighborhood in the city. They are run by the public library and volunteer guides.
Interesting ones include North Beach Victorian San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury, Castro: Tales of the Village, Bawdy & Naughty, Theater in SF, 1906 Earthquake, and many more...

San Francisco Tidbit #3- The Ferry Building Marketplace

http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/

The old Ferry building has been turned into a fantastic food marketplace with food stalls, restaurants and a farmer's market on Saturday and Tuesday mornings.
Cool places there include:
The Slanted Door-upscale Vietnamese restaurant
Cow Girl Creamery shop- some of the best cheese out there.
Hog Island Oyster Bar-excellent oysters, freshly shucked, need I say more? Oh, ok...they have "happy hour" on Mondays and Thursdays from 5-7pm.
Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker-mmmmmmm

San Francisco Tidbit #4- Alcatraz

I’ve never been to Alcatraz. Shocking, huh? Looks really neat and I want to go!

This is the government park website for Alcatraz:
http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/

Alcatraz is free, but you have to pay for the ferry to get out there. The ticket comes with an audio guide. $26
https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/index.aspx
Tickets are limited and they say during “high season” (not sure when that is, summer?) they can sell out a week in advance.

San Francisco Tidbit #5- MUNI Passports

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfares/passports.htm

San Francisco has some good transportation passes which cover 1, 3, or 7 days and all busses and cable cars. They do not cover BART, but if you plan on taking the BART from SFO into the city, you can buy the MUNI passes at the airport and then use them to get to your hotel from the BART station.

Basic fare is $1.50 for the bus and $5 for a cable car.
Passes are:
1-day Passport $11
3-day Passport $18
7-day Passport $24

http://transit.511.org/accessible/tripplanner/index.aspx
This is a great route/trip planner for using ANY public transportation in San Francisco.

San Francisco Tidbit #6- Museums

There are tons of museums in SF, no time to see them all of course.

Two of the best are the Fine arts museums, the De Young and the Legion of Honor. http://www.famsf.org/index.asp
Both are FREE on the first Tuesday of each month, otherwise $10 admission covers both (same day only). Special exhibits are $10 more. They are closed on Mondays. They also offer free docent led tours so we might want to try to time it to take one of those (assuming you want to visit).

There is also a Museum of Modern Art which looks super interesting.
http://www.sfmoma.org/
$12.50 admission, also free the first Tuesday of the month. Closed Wednesdays.

Then there is the Exploratorium which is fun, especially for kids. http://www.exploratorium.edu/index.html
Free the first Wednesday of the month, otherwise $14. Closed Mondays.

Restaurants are linked on the Google map.

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