......Bleh. This weekend. It's a FREE vacation.  It's alone-time with the girlfriend.  It's an escape from the grind.  But, it's F'ing Kalifornia.  Been to LA, was unimpressed except for the food.....air quality was awful.  Anybody have any impressions\opinions of SF?  I'd like to think that it will be a good trip.  However, I dont like the fact that Kalifornia wants me to be an unarmed victim by default.  If I bought a folder\pocket knive once there, could I carry it legally?  It's just hard for a CCW person to be so completely unarmed in a strange city.

--ZERO

SF, what a wonderful place. The city sprays a water-chlorine solution on the streets to de-contaminate the urine and feces left by the winos.(hep-C) If you drop your wallet, kick it to Oakland before you pick it up, otherwise you might become popular in a hurry.

I like SF, but you're right about homeless people everywhere.  The UN Plaza is full of them, and the whole place smells like pee.

If you just try to ignore the politics of most residents there, SF is real nice to visit. It's very small and easy to get around without a car. I think living there would drive me nuts though.  

Check out the museum at the Presidio.
Romantic dinner in lil Italy
Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf for sight seeing and seafood.
Chinatown for the experience and great Chinese food.
Sony center and SOMA for the night life.
Cliff house for the view.
Fillmore district for bar hopping
Tenderloin dist. for the hookers
Hunters point for drugs

Go across the bridge to Sonoma for some winery tours and wine tasting.

Stay away from Oakland.

BTW I am going there this weekend as well to visit my family. [:)]

Oh yeah.  My friend's roomates went to visit friends of their in Oakland this spring.  They were chilling on the porch when a brother with a gun stuck it into one of the girl's side and ordered them all into the house.  He robbed them of all their money and computers. Welcome to Kalifornistan where only the criminals carry guns.

Hey, I live 30mi from SF down the Peninsula.  The only reason I go into SF is for the Symphony (world-class), concerts and food.

Can't give you much input on non-beef food...
but:

Harris' steak house on Van Ness (near Broadway or Pacific, can't remember) was, I recall, rated as one of the 10 best in USA.

For a great dining experience, you also might wish to try the House of Prime Rib (also on Van Ness, cross-street Washington).  And prices aren't too bad - esp for what you get!

Try North Beach area for Italian. Good coffee houses (+ desserts) too. And if you're into Chinese there's tons of top-notch places and even hole-in-wall places with special stuff.

Homeless are everywhere.  When walking down the street, walk quite a bit away from doorways of closed businesses as homeless sleep in them. I had one (in North Beach) try to grab my leg once, but he just got a good kick from my Tony Lamas. Even worse than the regular homeless are the homeless raving maniacs that wander the street.

Some streets do smell of dried urine.

Market Street gets interesting. There are some excellent French pay-toilet advertising kiosks, which are self-cleaning, etc. Great - but homeless camp in them, shoot drugs in them, etc.
I hear they've cut the time limit down to 10 min. before the automatic doors open again.

Union St. has lotsa nice little shops and restaurants. (I like Prego myself.)

But you couldn't pay me to live there. [Well, on top of Nob Hill maybe.]

Bill Wiese
San Mateo, CA

All, thanks so much fro the advice\info so far.  Exactly the kind of stuff i want.  The GF has a guide book, but I like first hand experience.

Lordtrader:  cant wait to take my lady for some romantic Italian cuisine and then for hookers and drugs afterwards!  

We are planning on staying in SF the whole time as we have no car nor will be renting one.  Staying in the Financial district (again for FREE) so I imagine we'll hit Chinatown and other areas close by for the most part.  We will certainly try\look in to any suggestions though!  Thanks and keep the adivice coming!

--ZERO

I liked this restaurant, Suppenkuche [url]http://www.suppenkuche.com/welcome.html[/url] Really cool atmosphere, all sorts of German beer I've never had before, good hearty German food.

Joking mode:


Be sure to wear flowers in your hair.....

SF is a great place to visit - I just wouldn't want to live there.  Besides all the other suggestions, I'd suggest taking one or more of the narrated bus tours around the city.  It's very informative and give you a good overview of the city.  There are also tours of Muir woods which is a beautiful redwood forest.  You can combine that with a boat trip accoss the bay.

I love SF for the archetecture and the weather. If it wasn't in CA I would live there.

May I recommend a trip to Muir Woods in Marin.  It has some big, old redwoods and is very peaceful and beautiful.  When you're there it's so quiet and isolated it's hard to believe you're only a few miles from San Francisco.

San Francisco..the place where the phrase "God save the Queen" takes on an entirely new meaning

Robin Williams

You can carry up to a 3" blade concealed, or any length pig sticker as long as it's not concealed. But I would advise against the latter, especially in SF.

If you don't have a car, you're still okay because you're close to the cable cars and taxis are always available. Try dinner at the Mark Hopkins or dinner at the wharf and drinks at the Mark Hopkins. Take the Powell Street cable car to get to the wharf. Anyway, if you're in the financial district, it's pretty easy to get everywhere cool from there. Also, for a nice after dinner view, try Coit Tower.

LMFAO.

LordTrader what a joker [:D]

I'm not impressed either and I live here.

The best places to go in L.A. are outside of L.A.

If you want the experience of BOTH L.A. and S.F., visit West Hollywood.

There you can see L.A. and STILL HAVE TO KICK YOUR WALLET TO ANOTHER CITY before picking it up. Otherwise, you'll be *VERY* popular [sex] there too!

Excellent info from all that replied and again, many thanks to you.  We leave tomorrow morning at the buttcrack of dawn.  I forsee many cocktails on the plane as the start to what ought to be a fun getaway.  We're certainly going ot try North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  Good woman, good food, good drinks, and good views should make for a great vacation.  mattja:  thanks for the heads up on knife carrying, that's what I needed to know.  Any last minute suggestions before tomorrow are welcome!

--ZERO

What is wrong with LA?

duh...

What is good about LA?

Its only three hour to Las Vagas!
(where you will find MP5 rental with $30/20rd)

Haight Ashbury is good if you wanna do some freak watching.