Bay Area Tourist Attractions

Whenever people come to visit, they want to know what there is to do around here. Since I rarely go to tourist attractions, I am usually at a loss. So I spent some time gathering up a list of places to visit and things to do around Berkeley (well, some of them are 2-3 hours' drive away, but it depends on where you're coming from).

Most of the descriptions here are verbatim from the web sites in question. Some of them have additional notes added by me, or have been slightly modified by me for readability. I admit that I've been to relatively few of these places. I left off open hours and entrance fees because those change too often, and that would make this page way too high-maintenance. That information is almost always available on the attraction's web site or by phone.

Contents

Classics

All the places people think of when they think of this area.

Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge has been heralded as one of the top ten construction achievements of the 20th Century.

Alcatraz Island
Information on the island, plus schedules for the ferry, tours, and so on. Infamous and notorious former federal prison -- home to the likes of Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelley, and Robert "The Birdman" Stroud. The National Park presents a captioned orientation video with historical footage, self-guided walks, exhibits and Ranger-interpretive talks on topics such as "Famous Escapes." Also featured is an award-winning audio tour in the prison Cell House with actual interviews of former guards and inmates NOTE: To reach the Cell House, you must walk up a steep hill. There is a tram which runs irregularly for those with heart conditions or disabilities.

Pier 39
San Francisco
Touristy area of shops and restaurants. Sea lions sun themselves on some floating piers for you to admire.

Jack London Square
Embarcadero, Oakland
Shopping and restaurants in a touristy area. Ferry to San Francisco. See Jack London's cabin, brought down from Alaska.

Ghiradelli Square
900 North Point Street (between Beach and Larkin), San Francisco
A historic San Francisco destination, offering shopping San Francisco style, waterfront dining near Fisherman's Wharf, art galleries, family events, walking tours and more.

Cable Car Museum
1201 Mason Street, San Francisco (at Mason and Washington)
Inside the historic Cable Car Barn & Powerhouse,visitors can view the actual cable winding machinery from an elevated gallery, as well as the path of the cable entering the building and leaving underneath the street in the sheave room viewing area.

Filming Locations in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas.
Famous filming locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Adventure Bicycle Company
Bicycle rentals and tour packages for San Francisco.

City Guides of San Francisco
Schedule and description of free walking tours of the City.

Victorianwalk.com
Take a trip back to San Francisco's rich Victorian past. Learn about the architecture, lifestyle and history of this fascinating era. The group is small, the pace leisurely and the walk low impact.

California History

Historical sites and museums of California history.

California Historical Society
678 Mission Street, San Francisco, (415) 357-1848
The California Historical Society is a statewide membership-based organization. Its mission is to engage the public’s interest and participation in collecting, preserving, and presenting art, artifacts, and written materials relevant to the history of California and to support historical research, publication, and educational activities.

Museum of the City of San Francisco
945 Taraval Street, San Francisco, (415) 928-0289
The Museum traces San Francisco history from its origins as a Spanish garrison, to renown as a Gold-Rush boom town –- to world attention as the famous "Earthquake City." Exhibits include a celebration of the end of World War II, memorabilia from the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire, as well as photographs and exhibits about the 1989 earthquake that devastated the Marina District.

Angel Island
The Immigration Station Museum: the history of the "Ellis Island of the West Coast," operated from 1910 to 1941 for mainly immigration from Asia.

San Francisco Fire Museum
655 Presidio Avenue, San Francisco (415) 563-4630
All about the firefighting in San Francisco.

Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street, Oakland (888) OAK-MUSE.
The Oakland Museum of California provides unique collections, exhibitions and educational opportunities designed to generate a broader and deeper understanding of and interest in California's environment, history, art and people.

Oddities

Museums and attractions that are just a bit off the beaten path.

Musee Mecanique at the Cliff House
1090 Point Lobos Road, San Francisco (415) 386-1170
Down below the Cliff House at San Francisco's Ocean Beach, is a wonderful little hidden treasure: The Musee Mechanique. Filled with all sorts of coin-operated entertainment machines from the past, it's easy to spend handfuls of quarters there. There are pianos that will play songs, little figures that will dance, fortune-telling machines, and lots of old-fashioned folk-art -- most for only a quarter a piece.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum
175 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, (415) 771-6188
In 1933, almost 2 million people visited Ripley's first "Odditorium" at the Chicago World's Fair. Inside, there were posters of Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoons, as well as artifacts from his travels and live performers. Today, many of Ripley's personal treasures can be seen in Believe It or Not! museums located around the world. Each museum is unique in its collecion of oddities and in their presentation. There is a careful balance between the strange, the shocking, and the beautiful.

The Wax Museum
145 Jefferson Street (Between Taylor & Mason) (415) 885-4975
Step back in time and enjoy the ancient art of Wax Sculpting. You'll visit with Hollywood Celebrities, US Presidents, Scientist, World Leaders and, of course, a Chamber of Horrors.

Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street, San Francisco (415) CAR-TOON
The Cartoon Art Museum is one of two museums in the United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of cartoon art in all its forms. This unique institution houses approximately 11,000 original pieces in its permanent collection; a complete volume research/library facility is located on the museum's premises. In addition to seven major exhibitions a year, the museum has a classroom for cartoon art and a bookstore.

Museum Of Pez Memorabilia
214 California Dr., Burlingame. (650) 347-2301.

Winchester Mystery House
525 S. Winchester Blvd.Phone: (408) 247-2000
In 1884, Sarah L. Winchester, the heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune, began a construction project that lasted until her death 38 years later. According to legend, a psychic told Winchester that continuous building would appease the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles.

The Mystery Spot
1953 Branciforte Drive Box 2817, Santa Cruz, Calif., (831) 423-8897
Even the trees here do not stand perpendicular. The sensational Mystery Spot is a series of surprises that are unique, different, inexplainable.

Santa Cruz Surfing Museum
Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, Lighthouse Point, West Cliff Dr., Santa Cruz, Calif. (831) 420-6289.
Overlooking the internationally renowned surfing spot Steamer Lane.

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
1342 Naglee Ave., San Jose, Calif., (408) 947-3635
The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, architecturally inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak, houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on exhibit in the western United States. The Rosicrucians are a secret society which pretends to date back to Egyptian times, but was really forms in the 1950's.

Parks and Gardens

Golden Gate Park
Historical Walking Tours
Visual Golden Gate Park.

Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers is the oldest and only remaining wood-frame municipal greenhouse left in the United States.

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, (415) 752-4227
originally built as part of the sprawling Midwinter Fair. Begun by an Australian in 1894, this intricate and private (depending on the season) complex of paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also hidden throughout its five acres are beautiful sculptures and bridges. Makato Hagiwara, a Japanese gardener whose family took over the garden from 1895 to 1942, was also the inventor of the fortune cookie.

Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens
In Golden Gate Park off 9th Ave., San Francisco, (415) 661-1716
One of the finest botanical gardens in the United States, Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens features a spectacular array of plants from the world's Mediterranean and mild temperate climates, to high-elevation tropical cloud forests.

Berkeley Rose Garden
Euclid Avenue between Eunice St and Bay View Place, Berkeley
Situated on 3.6 acres in a dramatic canyon with spectacular views of the SF Bay and Marin, the Berkeley Rose Garden is a cherished City of Berkeley landmark. Built by the WPA between 1933 and 1937, the semi-circular stone terraces and wood pergola represent the strong design and craftsmanship of the period.

Tilden Park
Berkeley, Calif.
One of the East Bay Park District's three oldest parks, Tilden has been called the jewel of the system, and its recreational activities have become a happy tradition for generations of East Bay youngsters. From a pony ride to a carousel ride, from a picnic and swim at Lake Anza to a stroll through the Botanic Garden, Tilden has variety to delight everyone. Yet there are plenty of quiet places in Tilden's 2,077 acres to shelter the wildlife and preserve natural beauty. Tilden was named for Charles Lee Tilden, first president of the Park District Board of Directors. The park is reached via Canon Drive, Shasta Road, or South Park Drive, all off Grizzly Peak Boulevard in Berkeley.

Berkeley Botanical Garden
Centennial Drive between the Cal Memorial Stadium and the Lawrence Hall of Science
The Garden features one of the most diverse plant collections in the United States. Established in 1890, the Garden's 34 acres contain over 13,000 species and more than 21,000 plants from all over the world arranged by region. The Garden is famous for its large number of rare and endangered species.

Point Bonita Lighthouse
Marin County, (415) 331-1540
The current Pt. Bonita Light, dating from 1877, sits atop a rugged outcrop on the Pacific side of the Marin Peninsula. Access to the site is from Golden Gate National Recreation Area, down a 1 mile road, through a tunnel, and across a suspension bridge. The view is amazing.

Zoos and Aquaria

Aquarium of the Bay
Pier 39, San Francisco, (888) SEA-DIVE
The Aquarium adventure continues with a descent into the hidden world of life under San Francisco Bay. A moving walkway will take you through two crystal clear tunnels, 300 feet in length. You'll be surrounded by 700,000 gallons of filtered Bay water and more than 23,000 aquatic animals.

Steinhart Aquarium
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, (415) 750-7145
Oldest municipal aquarium in the U.S. containing one of the most diverse collections of aquatic animals worldwide. An aquatic world of 165 individual tanks exhibiting the interactions of more than 6,000 representatives of diverse underwater environments. Visitors come face to face with nearly 600 species of fishes, large invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians and even black-footed penguins.

Monterey Bay Aquarium
886 Cannery Row, Monterey, Calif., (831) 648-4888
Exhibits take you into the hidden world of Monterey Bay, a spectacular ocean realm at the heart of the nation's largest marine sanctuary. The exhibits re-create the bay's habitats, from shallow tide pools to the open ocean and deep sea. NOTE: This is a 2-3 hour drive from Berkeley.

San Francisco Zoo
On Sloat at 45th Ave., San Francisco, (415) 753-7080
The largest zoological park in Northern California and one of the Bay Area's most popular cultural and recreational attractions, the San Francisco Zoo is home to over 250 species of exotic and domestic mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates.

Oakland Zoo
9777 Golf Links Road, Oakland, Calif. (510) 632-9525
The Oakland Zoo is nestled in the rolling hills of 525-acre Knowland Park. Each year thousands of families and school groups from around the Bay Area come to visit over 300 native and exotic animals that live in naturalistic habitats at the Zoo.

Science Museums

Exploratorium
Marina Blvd. and Lyon, (415) 561-0360
One of the most awarded museum sites on the web. You'll find new educational interactive exhibits, sound, video and clever effects which may challenge your computer and expand your mind. Located at the Palace of Fine Arts close to the Presidio's beach and the Marina Green boat docks.

Bay Area Discovery Museum
Fort Baker, 557 MacReynolds Road, Sausalito (415) 487-4398
The family-oriented museum Featuring at the foot of the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the best places to bring the kid's. Many special programs.

The Tech Museum of Innovation
The brand-new museum in striking 132,000-square-foot space has four galleries, an IMAX theater, a learning center, a changing exhibit hall and the permanent home of the National Medal of Technology.

Chabot Space Science Center
10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland, CA 94619, (510) 336-7300
Chabot Space & Science Center (CSSC) is an innovative teaching and learning center focusing on astronomy and the space sciences and the interrelationships of all sciences. Its observatory, planetarium, exhibits, and natural park setting are a place where a diverse population of students, teachers, and the public can imagine, understand, and learn to shape their future through science.

Morrison Planetarium
California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, (415) 750-7127
The Academy Projector was built between 1948 and 1952 under the supervision of Albert S. Getten and G Dallas Hannah. Its design was based largely on that of the Zeiss, but with changes. The star spheres were placed closer to the center and the planet cages moved to the outside (the opposite of the mass distribution of the Zeiss). As a result, the Academy Projector was better-balanced and required less power and, hence, quieter motors to rotate. This design was so successful that it was imitated by another company some years later.

Essig Museum of Entomology
Room 211 of Wellman Hall on the Berkeley campus, (510) 643-0804
The Essig Museum of Entomology was originally founded as the collection component of the California Insect Survey (CIS) at the University of California, Berkeley. Most of the collection dates to the inception of the CIS in 1940. The museum houses one of the largest and most active research collections of arthropods in the United States, with more than 5 million specimens, primarily from western North America and the northern neotropics.

Hall of Health
2230 Shattuck Ave. (Lower Level), Berkeley (510) 549-1564
The Hall of Health, sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland, is a community health-education museum and science center dedicated to promoting wellness and individual responsibility for health.

Lawrence Hall of Science
Lawrence Hall of Science #5200, University of California, Berkeley, 510-642-5132
Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) is a singular resource center for preschool through high school science and mathematics education, and a public science center with exciting hands-on experiences for learners of all ages.

University of California Museum of Paleontology
1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, (510) 642-1821
UCMP is more like a library representing more than a billion years of life on Earth. It is an active center of research, housing one of the nation's largest fossil collections as well as state-of-the-art facilities for the study of these fossils.

Cultural Centers

Insert-your-ethnicity here and there's a cultural center in the Bay Area for you.

American Indian Contemporary Arts
23 Grant Avenue, San Francisco (415) 989-7003
AICA is a non-profit arts center dedicated to celebrating, supporting and promoting artistic expressions of contemporary Native American artists. The San Francisco gallery presents five exhibits a year and has three traveling exhibitions as well. Founded in 1983, AICA is the only non-profit independent Native arts center of its kind in California.

California Indian Museum and Cultural Center
5250 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa, Calif., (707) 579-3004
The museum will provide California Indians with a first class museum facility in which to portray California Indian history and culture from an Indian perspective. In addition, the museum will showcase and encourage the present-day renaissance of California Indian culture, affirming its survival and continued vitality in the face of extreme adversity. Finally, the museum will provide opportunities for Native Americans to receive training and experience in a variety of fields such as museum direction, curation, design and interpretation.

Asian Art Museum
Golden Gate Park. (415) 379-8800
The largest museum of its kind in the Western World spanning 6,000 years of history... The Book of Changes or I Ching was the world's first book and it is used to guide you on the path of life intuitively.

Chinese Culture Center
750 Kearny Street, San Francisco (415) 986-1822
The Center offers a variety of educational and cultural programs. These programs range from lectures, workshops, and classes to art exhibitions, dance and musical performances, and cultural exchanges--all of which enable members of the Chinese American community and the general public alike to gain a deeper knowledge of historical as well as contemporary Chinese and Chinese American culture.

Galleria de la Raza
2857 24th Street, (415) 826-8009.
Hispanic culture and arts center.

The Mexican Museum
204 Bay Street, Fort Mason Center, (415) 202-9700
Established in 1975, it moved from the Mission District to Fort Mason in 1982 and currently mounts exhibits in a 2,900-square foot gallery. Since 1991 the museum has endeavored to build a historic building commemorating the intrinsic Mexican contribution to San Francisco at a prominent Yerba Buena Garden Museum site.

Jewish Museum
121 Steuart Street, (between Mission and Howard), San Francisco (415) 543-8880
With the help of a prominent site near Mission & 3rd courtesy of SF Redevelopment and the Mexican Museum the museum will expand to rival New York's East Coast perspective on contemporary Jewish identity and the ongoing contributions of the American Jewish community the 3rd largest Jewish Museum in the USA.

Judah L. Magnes Jewish Museum
2911 Russell St., Berkeley, (510) 549-6950
Art and culture of Jews in the US.

Museo ItaloAmericano
Fort Mason Center, Building C Buchanan Street and Marina Boulevard, (415) 673-2200
Small ambitious museum which has famous Venice Carnavale Balls.

Russian Cultural Center and Museum
2450 Sutter Street, San Francisco (415) 921-4082
Between Divisadero and Broderick Streets.
Russian Center annually produces many cultural activities including operas, dance concerts, folk dance classes, social gatherings and lectures. The Russian Festival, held every February, is a three day showcase of food, art, music and dance, and attracts thousands of people from all over the San Francisco Bay Area and the world. The Russian Center is home to Teremok, a State certified Russian pre-school, Neva Russian Dance Ensemble, Congress of Russian Americans, Museum of Russian Culture, Russian Life Daily Newspaper, a library of Russian books, Russian Center Opera Company and the Russian American Chamber Orchestra. The Russian Center co-sponsors the city-wide "Days of Russia" celebration. The Russian Center also presents many guest artists from Russia and other parts of the world.

Portuguese Historical Museum
1650 Senter Rd, San Jose, Calif.
The Portuguese Historical Museum opened on Portugal Day--June 7, 1997. It is one of the major attractions of the History Museums of San Jose Park. In keeping with the theme of the historical park, which depicts life as it was in the Santa Clara Valley (now nicknamed Silicon Valley) at the turn of the 20th century, the Portuguese Historical Museum is a replica of the first permanent império built in San Jose circa 1915 on the present site of the I.E.S. Hall on East Santa Clara Street and U.S. 101.

Art Museums

Fine arts and crafts all lumped together, rather than arbitrarily sorted out.

Legion of Honor/Palace of Fine Arts
Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, (415) 750-3600
Dramatically overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in Lincoln Park near Land's End the museum was built in 1924 and extensively expanded and remodeled in '95. Major collections include Rodin sculptures (the entry features his "Thinker" as well as the new lit, glass pyramid and other noble sculptures), 60,000 prints, and a number of European masterpieces.

De Young Museum
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (415) 863-3330
San Francisco's oldest Museum, set in Golden Gate Park across from the California Hall of Sciences and Aquarium, has a great many comprehensive collections including West Coast American paintings, African art, pre-Colombian America art and textile arts.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 3rd Street, (415) 357-4000
Also affectionately referred to as MOMA. Opened in 1995, the beautiful building by Italian Swiss architect Mario Botta gave the foreground of San Francisco's famous skyline a striking feminine feature. Inside, dramatic space stars at this most visited museum. Devoted exclusively to 20th-century art, their extensive archival collection raises questions about whether the intellectually defined art of the late 20th century will hold up as its novelty declines.

San Jose Museum of Art
110 South Market Street (at San Fernando), San Jose, Calif. (408) 294-2787
San Jose Museum of Art is dedicated to fostering an awareness, appreciation and understanding of twentieth-and twenty-first-century art in the diverse audiences of the Bay Area.

San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum
204 Bay St # A , Fort Mason Center, San Francisco (415) 775-0990
The mission is to foster an appreciation of the artistic qualities of contemporary craft and the recognition of the vigor and richness of folk art from diverse cultures through exhibitions, educational programs and research publications.

San Jose Museum Of Quilts And Textiles
110 Paseo de San Antonio on the Paseo Mall, between Third and Fourth Streets and San Fernando and San Carlos Streets, San Jose. 408-971-0323, ext. 10
The mission of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is to promote the art, craft and history of quilts and textiles. The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, recognized as the oldest quilt museum in the United States, was founded in 1977 by the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association and was incorporated in 1986 as a nonprofit public benefit museum.

Performing Arts Library and Museum
401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. 415-255-4800.
PALM preserves materials about the performing arts, with a local emphasis.

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive
2626 and 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley (510) 642-0808
Home to the acclaimed Pacific Film Archive the huge museum covers much ground in its permanent collection and generally has some of the most interesting shows on display in the East Bay. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is one of a handful of places in the world equally renowned for exceptional art and film programs, and this reputation is built on the philosophy that a great museum starts with the people it serves. Film programs, art exhibitions, and special programs created to widen horizons and enrich the way people look at the world.

Military, Nautical, and Aviation

And trains, too. Guy things.

Fort Mason Center
Fort Mason Center, Building A, San Francisco (415) 441-3400
This former military complex hosts hundreds of events and hosts dozens of major non-profit orgamizations at a spectacular Bay side location.

Liberty Ship Jeremiah O'Brien
Fort Mason Center, Bldg A, San Francisco (415) 441-3101.

USS Potomac
Jack London Square, Oakland, Calif.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Floating White House". The U.S.S. Potomac originally was built in 1934 as the Coast Guard cutter Electra. The 165-foot-long vessel, weighing 376 gross tons and with a cruising speed of 10 to 13 knots, was converted to the presidential yacht U.S.S. Potomac by FDR, who had her recommissioned as a U.S. Navy vessel in 1936. As former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR had a deep love for the sea and the Navy tradition. He hated to fly and preferred to travel by train or ship throughout his presidency.

Golden Gate Railroad Museum
Hunter's Point, San Francisco, (415) 363-3472
The Golden Gate Railroad Museum (GGRM) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of steam and passenger railroad equipment, and the interpretation of local railroad history. This is a secure facility, so check the web site or call for information on getting through the security guards.

Roaring Camp Railroads
Graham Hill Road P.O. Box G-1Felton, CA 95018
Phone: (831) 335-4484 (Call for hours)Recorded Message: (831) 335-4400
America's last steam-powered passenger railroad with year-round passenger train service.

National Maritime Museum
900 Beach Street, San Francisco (415) 556-3002
A not-for-profit organization dedicated to maritime preservation and education in order to enhance public understanding, appreciation, & enjoyment of our national maritime heritage. Operates several old ships on Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf including a W.W.II Submarine and the square rigger Balcutha.

Hangar One, Moffett Field
Moffett Boulevard, off State Highway 101, Mountain View. 650-603-9827.
Dedicated to planes and other memorabilia of the military housed in Hangar One, a huge building the size of seven football fields, built to house the airship Macon. Free, but you must call ahead because this is a secured facility.

Hiller Aviation Museum
San Carlos Airport, 601 Skyway Road, San Carlos. (650) 654-0200
The Hiller Aviation Institute is dedicated to the dreams of flight. Looking back 130 years and looking forward 100 years, vintage and futuristic aircraft chronicle the story of aviation's past, while leaving clues to its future. The experience is educational, casting new light onto the technical innovations native to Northern California. Before you leave, you'll be transformed from visitor to explorer.

Western Aerospace Museum
Oakland International Airport, North Field
This site was the take-off point for many famous flights, especially the first several across the Pacific. The museum has indoor and outdoor exhibit areas. Their most spectaclular exhibit is the Short Solent 4-engine Flying Boat, built in 1946. Restoration work is done by a staff of in-house volunteers.

Churches

Churches that are interesting as historical or architectural features, and not just as places of worship.

Mission San Francisco De Asis (Mission Dolores)
3321 16th Street, San Francisco (415) 621-8203
Walk along 16th St. from the BART station the Bay Area's oldest till when you reach Dolores Street and then look up the hill you'll have observed over a dozen churches at this energy power spot. Don't miss the beautiful Basilica where the Pope said mass in 1986. The native Olone story is a fascinating one and this is their monument too.

Grace Cathedral
1100 California St., at Taylor St., San Francisco
A beautiful cathedral, Episcopalean.

For Kids

Also look under: Science Museums, Zoos and Aquaria, Classic Tourism, Oddities, Amusement Parks. Entertainment and attractions specifically geared towards children. Adults may find this stuff boring.

Explorer's Club
Tours for children and/or their families.

Children's Discovery Museum
180 Woz Way, San Jose, CA 95110 (408) 298-5437
Since opening in June, 1990, the Museum has welcomed over 3 million visitors and has offered new interactive exhibits each year that respond to children's diverse educational needs. With the addition of the West Wing in 1997, the Museum expanded its size by twenty percent.

Randall Museum
199 Museum Way, San Francisco, (415) 554-9600
The Randall Museum offers a unique haven where children and adults can explore the creative aspects of art and science and make discoveries about nature and the environment by direct participation in classes, workshops, special events, and clubs.

Amusement Parks

Paramount's Great America
2401 Agnew Road, Santa Clara, CA 95054 Phone: (408) 988-1776.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
400 Beach Street Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Phone: (408) 423-5590
An Amusement park.

Marine World (Valllejo)
2001 Marine World Parkway Vallejo, Calif. (707) 643-ORCA (6722)
Large amusement park.

Children's Fairyland
505 14th Street , Oakland(510) 238-6877
A somewhat creepy amusement park for small children in the center of Oakland.

Neighborhoods

Places you may have heard about by reputation.

Haight-Ashbury ("The Haight")
San Francisco
Full of wannabe hippies. Very odd music and clothing shops, plus a full complement of stoned homeless people.

Pier 39
San Francisco
Touristy area of shops and restaurants. Sea lions sun themselves on some floating piers for you to admire.

Mission District
San Francisco
The heart of San Francisco's predominantly Hispanic neighborhood is 24th Street, a colorful collection of restaurants, taquerias, Mexican bakeries, fresh produce markets and specialty shops. Mission Dolores at 16th and Dolores Streets is the oldest structure in San Francisco.

Wine Tasting

One of the real treasures of of the area is the Mediterranean climate which yields some damned fine wines.

Napa Valley
Wineries and sightseeing. Be forewarned, this is the touristy place to taste wine. You will most likely have to pay for tastings. Very high drunken jerk factor.

Sonoma Valley
Another great wine-tasting region, Sonoma Valley is not nearly as over-trafficked as Napa. Many wineries offer free tastings, and wines tend to be cheaper. Places also tend not to be as overcrowded with drunken jerks as in Napa.

Santa Cruz Wineries
A well-kept secret is the quality of wine coming from Santa Cruz wineries. They are often completely empty, even during high season, and the wine ranges from experimental to excellent. It's unusual to have to pay for a tasting. Very low drunken jerk factor.