39. Things to do in San Francisco

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I'm Johnny Mack and Travel is back
this week. We're in San Francisco,

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California, one of my favorite cities
in the world. We'll just do

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San Francisco proper. We will not
head to the North, which is its

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own awesome adventure, nor will we
head to Oakland. Just San Francisco.

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Now. When I stay there,
I usually stay downtown, either over by

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the baseball stadium or often in Chinatown, and I make my way along the

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Embarcadero. Unless I'm heading either to
Oakland or to the North. I never

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get a car, and I almost
never use the subway other than from the

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airport up into wherever I'm staying.
I find the area very, very walkable.

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So let's start over by Market Street, which is more or less where

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my hotel would be, and let's
make our way over to the Ferry Building.

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You're going to look at this from
a distance and be like, oh,

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that's where the commuter is get the
boats and stuff. Oh no,

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no, no, you are missing
a whole thing. The historic Ferry Building

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is a marketplace offering local delights from
sweet snacks at the doughnut Farm. I'm

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into frothy beers offered by Four Point
Beer Company. I'm also in I mean

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donuts and beer. Yes, So
this building, yeah, it is a

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ferry terminal, but it's also a
market. There's a whole bunch of foodstalls,

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like I mean like a lot and
those actives, small restaurants, snack

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shops, grocery stores. You get
burgers, Mexican food, lots of coffee,

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Japanese food and empanada stand and nuts
shop, a cheese and dairy bar.

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There a couple of restaurants in there. There's a place right out front

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and they have like really good ice
cream shakes. So if you walk down

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Market Street until the end and hit
the water, you will find the ferry

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terminal. You can't miss it.
If you somehow miss it, I don't

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know how you missed it. Here's
the directions Market Street until you hit the

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water. Then there's a terminal.
Got it. Do that, It's awesome.

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So along the embark at Arrow is
actually one of my favorite places in

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the country to run. And I
usually start from the ferry terminal and head

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towards the Golden Gate Bridge. So
let's do that. If you run along

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the water there there's a lot of
undeveloped area along the water. You'll pass

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a few they're not quite dive bar
is, but they're like cool, quirky

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waterfront bars that are fun to hang
out. I think I've hung out there

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once or twice at night. Maybe
I don't remember it because I had a

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couple of beers, But run along
the water there, you know it's nice,

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and then you will come to Fisherman's
Wharf. So the premise of travel

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is back is what I do when
I go to cities and what I like

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to do when I'm there. This
is not a local's guide to San Francisco.

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If you are a local and you're
listening to this and right now you're

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like, oh my god, is
he sending them to Fisherman's Wharf, I'd

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totally get it. Look, man, when you come to New York City,

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I'm gonna I roll what you do
in New York City. Totally get

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it. But hey, if you're
in San Francisco for a day or two,

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go over to Fisherman's Wharf. Is
it touristy? Oh my god,

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it's touristy. And even since I
started going there, I mean it's twenty

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years ago, I've seen it get
more and more touristy. It used to

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be like fun, touristy, and
now it's like, why is there a

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target here? Kind of touristy,
but it's fun. Head on over to

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Fisherman's Wharf along the water. Plenty
of shopping, plenty of restaurants, plenty

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of chain stores now which sucks,
but all right, some really nice views

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of the bay. You can look
over to Alcatraz. If you're lucky,

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you'll see some sea lions. Take
some pictures with those guys. There's a

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Madame Tisso's I don't know, don't
do that or Ripley's believe it or not,

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don't do that. Stay outside.
It's fun. There's a lot to

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do. All the other chores will
be there. Like I said, the

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locals are gonna be like, what
are you doing? But it's fun,

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all right. So now that we've
done that, keep heading towards the bridge.

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You will see the bridge. If
you don't see the bridge, I

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can't help you. Keep walking towards
the bridge. Stick along the water.

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Anytime you have to make a decision
of which way do I go, keep

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the water on your right shoulder.
We're going to hit the grounds of the

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Presidio. It's a fifteen hundred acre
public park, you can jog there.

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The hills will definitely give you a
little bit of workout on that initial climb.

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Been there, done that. Take
your bike. There's a paved two

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point one mile trail that cuts through
the northeast section of the National Park.

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You'll get some great views and then
you know, I've had your running on

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this. Drop down on walk and
let's just explore the Presidio area. One

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of the things you'll find there is
the Letterman Digital Arts Center at one Letterman

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Drive. Now, why is that
interesting? It is the home of Lucasfilm.

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Outside you will find a really cool
statue of Yoda to take your picture

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with Yoda. In another life,
I got to go inside that building.

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I used to do some work with
the Star Wars folks, and boy,

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it is beautiful inside. You won't
be able to get inside Johnny Max being

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a tease here, but boy,
if you walk around, the Lucasfilm office

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is gorgeous. And they have this
cafeteria that has a view of the Golden

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gate Bridge. No better view in
the world, I'm telling you. Make

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sure you check out Fort Point,
described as the Gibraltar of the West Coast

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and one of the most perfect models
of masonry in America. It sits underneath

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the Golden Gate Bridge is beams under
an arc design specifically to protect the fort.

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So that whole area is fun.
Spend a lot of time walking around

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there. It's just cool. You're
gonna want to see the Yoda Fountain.

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There's the Walt Disney Family Museum,
some great views of the bridge. We're

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going to do the bridge separately.
You can walk along the water, really

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fabulous, and then head south from
there and check out Golden Gate Park.

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Golden Gate Park sometimes compared with New
York City's Central Park. All right,

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I'll allow it. I see what
you're saying. Okay, my kind of

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stuff. Trails, picnic spaces,
playgrounds, sports courts, gardens, museums.

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A Japanese tea garden features five acres
of manicured gardens outfitted with cherry trees,

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bamboo lined pathways, cooiponds, a
five story pagoda, a zen garden,

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an actual tea house, and more. There's also the Conservatory of Flowers,

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the oldest existing public conservatory in the
Western Hemisphere, that offers a chance

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to learn about two thousand species of
plants. Another standout in the park is

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the California Academy of Sciences that features
an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum,

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and the Oshan Rainforest, a ninety
foot tall doom shaped facility that this

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sixteen hundred live animals. Do it
even if you don't have a lot of

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time, do Golden Gate Park.
So now we're going to turn around and

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head back towards our hotel. We've
got plenty more to do, so if

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you look at a map of San
Francisco, we're really just doing this top

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part here. There's a lot more
to the city, a lot of other

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areas to check out, but my
particular experience has been in that top part.

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Just for business. I'm always up
there, and I love the water

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and I love the views, so
I tend to spend most of my time

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up there. Let's make our way
to Lombard Street. You've seen this.

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It's the curvey zigzagged hilly street that
shows up in movies and stuff. You've

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seen it. You'll know it when
you see it. Do it. You

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can walk it. I took a
cab through it, which was a good

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way to do it. Fans of
zigging and zagging and charming thoroughfares will appreciate

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Lombard Streets. Victorian mansions line the
street. Beautiful flowers and shrubbery fill the

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space between its eight switchbacks. There
are great views from the top. Now,

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one thing you could do is take
a cable car to the top of

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the hill and then walk down.
That might be a good way to go.

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All right, Now, let's make
our way over to Geerdeli Square.

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You've heard of this possibly. It
is home to the famed chocolate company of

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the same name. There's a big
store there. Buy some chocolate. You're

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there, It's awesome. It's also
a bunch of restaurants and bars right there.

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So so Geerdeli Square is something you
want to do. Now, let's

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make our way over to North Beach
Slash Little Italy. The neighborhood is San

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Francisco's Little Italy, packed with legendary
pizzeria's, cafes and gelato shops. How

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do you know where you're in the
right place. The light poles are painted

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with the Italian flag. You definitely
want to spend some time there. You

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definitely want to eat there. And
as we leave a North Beach Slash Little

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Italy, we're right at Chinatown.
It is twenty four city blocks. Yeah,

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restaurants. Guess what kind of food? You figured it out. Grant

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Avenue is the main thoroughfare there.
It is the most tourist heavy. You'll

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find the Chinatown Gate there, as
well as of souvenir shops as I've mentioned,

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a good place to stay all right. Other things to do in San

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Francisco that we haven't talked about yet. There's this bridge, have you heard

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of it. It is called the
Golden Gate Bridge. You might want to

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bike over that. Walking across the
bridge not a bad idea either. You

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know you're in San Francisco. You
kind of have to do it right now.

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On the other side of the bridge, you will come to Golden Gate

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National Recreation Area. I should probably
do an entire episode on this. It

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is beautiful. If you want pictures
of San Francisco, go over there.

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Make sure you take the camera.
Eighty thousand acres spread across several counties north

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of the Golden Gate Bridge. The
County of Marin offers beachy options, such

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as the trails at Marine Headlands,
Mure Beachmure Beach Overlook, Stinson Beach.

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You can do lands End Trail,
a moderate three point four mile loop inside

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lands End Park, the chrissy Field
Promenade popular with joggers. Hello, This

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flat trail goes for about two point
three miles and runs alongside chrissy Field and

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East Beach. Perfect place to enjoy
a leisurely stroll while taking in views of

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the bay and the bridge. Again, all I have to do is go

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over the Golden Gate Bridge and you
will say, hey, that looks like

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that giant park Johnny Mack was talking
about. Yep, that's it, all

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right, Mack. Over into San
Francisco proper. Some things we haven't done.

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Go see the San Francisco Giants played
baseball at what's now called Oracle Park.

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Great stadium on my list of stadium
rankings currently maybe number three behind Wrigley

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and Fenway, definitely number one of
the modern parks. I'd recommend sitting in

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right field. You've got the water
behind you and it's kind of a nice

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vantage. Spend the money sit in
the lower deck. In the upper deck,

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I found some plexiglass issues that block
your view. But the lower deck,

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every seat is good, so spend
the money on there. We did

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not talk about Alcatraz. I've never
made it over to Alcatraz, but that

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is something you can do as well, and I lightly touched upon taking a

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trolley ride, not something I have
done. I mostly just walk around San

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Francisco. Again, I stay in
that North area, and you know,

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it's eight miles or ten miles maybe
from the stadium over towards Golden Gate Park,

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but that is the area I tend
to spend my time in. Very

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walkable and bring your comfortable shoes.
But San Francisco thumbs up. Yes,

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I know tons of neighborhoods I didn't
even touch upon, but this is what

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I like to do when I'm in
San Francisco. If I had one day

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in San Francisco, let's see what
I would do. I think I would

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do my usual Embarcadero run, so
I'd head over to the ferry and I'd

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walk or run along the water,
run through Fisherman's Wharf, head up into

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the Presidio, bounce around up there, enjoy some time, come back,

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run back to the ferry terminal,
and I'd probably get one of those ice

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cream shakes right there. That's a
really basic day in San Francisco for me,

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but I've done it many times and
it is a great time. You

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can follow this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or if you get your

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shows next week. Pacific Coast Highway. We're in San Francisco. Let's make

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our way down to Los Angeles and
see what we see