Frommer's San Francisco 2012 - Matthew Poole [129]
FIRST TUESDAY
• Legion of Honor
• Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens
• de Young Museum
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
FIRST WEDNESDAY
• Exploratorium
• San Francisco Zoo
THIRD WEDNESDAY
• California Academy of Sciences
Always Free
• Cable Car Museum
• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and Museum (there’s a fee to board ships)
• Musée Mécanique
• Wells Fargo History Museum
• Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
Zeum/The Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center ★ Also in Yerba Buena Gardens you’ll find Zeum, an innovative, hands-on multimedia, arts and technology museum for kids of all ages. Next to Zeum is the fabulous 1906 carousel that once graced the city’s bygone oceanside amusement park, Playland-at-the-Beach, and there’s a Children’s Garden, a cafe, and a fun store. Right behind Zeum, you’ll find the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center, a great stopover if you’re looking for fun indoor activities, including a 12-lane bowling alley and an ice-skating rink with public sessions daily.
Zeum: 221 Fourth St. (at Howard St.). 415/820-3320. www.zeum.org. Admission $10 adults; $8 seniors, students, and youth 3–18; free for children 2 and under. Summer Tues–Sun 11am–5pm; during the school year Wed–Fri 1–5pm, Sat–Sun 11am–5pm. Carousel $3 per person, each ticket good for 2 rides. Daily 11am–6pm. Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center: 750 Folsom St. 415/820-3521. Bowling alley: $34–$40 per lane/per hour. Sun–Thurs 10am–10pm; Fri–Sat 10am–midnight. Skating rink: Call for hours and admission. Bus: 5, 9, 14, 15, 30, or 45. Streetcar: Powell or Montgomery.
NEIGHBORHOODS WORTH A VISIT
To really get to know San Francisco, break out of the downtown and Fisherman’s Wharf areas to explore the ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Walk the streets, browse the shops, grab a bite at a local restaurant; you’ll find that San Francisco’s beauty and charm are around every corner, not just at the popular tourist destinations.
Note: For information on Fisherman’s Wharf, see its entry under “Famous San Francisco Sights,”. For information on San Francisco neighborhoods and districts that aren’t discussed here, see “Neighborhoods in Brief,” in chapter 3.
Nob Hill
When the cable car started operating in 1873, this hill became the city’s exclusive residential area. Newly wealthy residents who had struck it rich in the gold rush and the railroad boom (and were known by names such as the “Big Four” and the “Bonanza kings”) built their mansions here, but they were almost all destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. The only two surviving buildings are the Flood Mansion, which serves today as the Pacific Union Club, and the Fairmont Hotel, which was under construction when the earthquake struck and was damaged but not destroyed. Today, the sites of former mansions hold the city’s luxury hotels—the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, the Stanford Court, the Huntington Hotel, and spectacular Grace Cathedral, which stands on the Crocker mansion site. Nob Hill is worth a visit if only to stroll around delightful Huntington Park with its cherubic fountain (a copy of the Tartarughe fountain in Rome), attend a Sunday service at the cathedral, or ooh and aah your way around the Fairmont’s spectacular lobby.
We’re Number One!
It’s the kind of old news that we never get tired of hearing: San Francisco was voted the number-one city in the United States to visit in the latest Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey. This is the 18th time San Francisco has topped the annual poll’s “Top Cities—United States” category since it debuted in 1990. It is the 17th consecutive year that San Francisco has scored the highest (Santa Fe won in 1992).
Huntington Park.
South of Market (SoMa)
From Market Street to Townsend Street and the Embarcadero to Division