Visit our expanded San Francisco Survival Guide --
with more listings, cool pix and a downloadable "San Francisco
Soundtrack." Click HERE for everything you need, from convention
logistics to entertainment listings to our favorite places to duck out
-- whether you have an hour or a day to spare. Here are just a few
highlights:
Not Your Average
Sightseeing
Feeling like indulging your inner tourist? Let's just
say that a city that hosts 15 million visitors a year can hook you up.
You can tour San Francisco by motorcoach, but why go the ordinary route?
Try tandem
bike, "scootcar", amphibious "duck" tour, helicopter
or even a Segway
tour. Rent a convertible, Mini or a bug by the hour. Charter a yacht.
Tour film locations in a "movie bus," complete with screen. But if you want
to look -- and feel -- like a local, the best way to see the city is on
foot. Need some direction? Download a cool MP3 city guide from www.sanfrancisco.com/audiosteps or
www.cdbaby.com/cd/waypoint4. And don't wear a
fannypack.
Urban
Wildlife
While you're out and about, keep your eyes peeled, and
you may catch a glimpse of a large flock of wild parrots roaming the
city -- stairway gardens in Russian and Telegraph Hill are good places
to look for these beautiful birds. The flock was made famous in the
documentary "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" -- check out
documentarian (and feeder) Mark Bittner's site at www.markbittner.net/parrot_pages/wildparrots.html
for more information including recent sightings, or www.wildparrotsfilm.com for more on the documentary,
which is now playing at Theatre 39 @ Pier 39.
Audio Oddities
If you're an audio geek -- and we know you
are -- we've got some funky trips for you. Founded in the late-'50s by
some forward-thinking composers and designers, the Audium (Fridays and
Saturdays, $12) is a theater dedicated to "the exploration of space in
music," via some very retro synth recordings -- manipulated live via a
custom console -- and 169 speakers. Or, check out The Wave Organ, an acoustic sculpture built into a
jetty in the San Francisco Bay. The sculpture features 25 concrete and
PVC "organ pipes," with building materials salvaged from a demolished
cemetery. Go near high tide for the best performance.
Before Pac Man
One of San Francisco's truly great
treasures, Musée Mécanique houses the world's largest
private collections of mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade
machines, ranging from Victorian hand-cranked music boxes to modern
arcade games. Admission is free, but you will be tempted to get a roll
of quarters and check these out first hand. Pier 45, Shed A -- at the
end of Taylor Street, near Fisherman's Wharf.
Playing Steve McQueen in Your Rental Car
Okay, so you're
probably not tearing around town in a '68 Mustang GT 390 Fastback, but
you can still have a little stomach-dropping fun in your Hertz special
on the slopes of Russian Hill. Head to the neighborhood outlined by
Hyde, Pacific, Taylor and Bay streets for the biggest brake burners --
particularly Taylor Street between Broadway and Green, and Leavenworth
Street between Union and Broadway. And of course, everyone has to drive
the famously curvy Lombard Street once. But my all-time favorite drop is
two blocks south: The stretch of Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth,
with a 31.5-percent grade, is the steepest slope in the city. Bonus
points for taking air.
