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Northern California Babies
misscharlotte04
member
Suggestions for San Francisco area?
misscharlotte04
member
Hi! I am visiting your board for a quick question
My friend and I will be in the San Francisco area this week on a little getaway. We are staying in Burlingame and will have a rental car. Can any of you recommend some must see places to go/things to do? We have both been to SF before and done Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Lombard St - so we are looking for more "off the beaten path" type of things to do.
Thanks 
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Re: Suggestions for San Francisco area?
Shopping on Union Street or Hayes Valley.
Dinner in The Castro.
My ideas are mostly food related. :-) Nothing fancy either, just things that I crave when I'm back in town! I LOVE lunch at Mixt Greens. There are 3 locations in the city, all downtown. It's a made to order salad restaurant, which might not sound that exciting, but their salads are SO good. Really hearty, and even my husband that never touches salad likes to eat here.
Specialty's Cafe & Bakery is all over the city, and they have the best cookies. Any of their flavors are awesome - whatever you're into.
Not sure where you are visiting from either, but if you haven't eaten at In and Out, you must! It's one of my first stops when I'm back in CA.
My new discovery on this current visit is The Counter. There is one in San Mateo (which is near Burlingame). Big, indulgent, burgers. Best I've had in a long time!
My only non-food related suggestion is to check out Sausalito. It's just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco and IMO, is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I dream about it everyday! It's a little village on a hill with to die for views of the bay. Walk around on the waterfront, check out the cute stores, and take the ferry to San Francisco. The ferry ride is about 30 minutes and stunningly beautiful. It's easier to park in Sausalito, which is why I'd take the ferry from the Sausalito side. Once in SF, the SF Ferry Building has lots of cute shops and restaurants, and you can walk along the Embarcadero, shop, etc.
One other suggestion is to drive to Sonoma or Napa for wine tasting!
Take a drive out to the coast...Half Moon bay is just over the hill and has a cute little down town and you can drive up and down highway 1 and find nice beaches and cute little restaurants and shops all the way down to Santa Cruz (and further, but that starts to be a pretty big trek).
For San Francisco, depending on when you will be there, I love shopping in Union Square around Christmas. Everything is decorated, lots to see and do (aside from shopping, there is an ice skating rink, etc). Its more of a touristy area, but still fun none the less. I love taking in a play at one of the theaters. Shopping in the Haight Ashbury is fun, lots to see and people watch, with a few cute stores thrown in.
Ditto Sausalito, Napa, and Sonoma.
The peninsula has a lot of cute little towns to wander around with fantastic food.
There are also a ton of outdoorsy places to go hike around (I am just not a HUGE outdoorsy person, but that's just me) that I am sure other people can give you suggestions about.
It also depends on how far you are willing to drive. There is a TON to do outside the immediate bay area. Enjoy your trip!
Thanks for all the great suggestions! Now I am getting really excited
Sausilito was on our list (my friend has never been over there), and I know we'd both love to do a wine tasting.
Downtown burlingame itself has some great restaurants and shopping in their downtown strip - you can yelp the restaurants to see what you like, there is a good restaurant down there for most genres of food. ditto half moon bay if the weather is good. also I would consider going south to monterey (also if the weather is good) to check out the aquarium and santa cruz has some great wineries too if you want to go south instead of north to napa/sonoma.
For SF - if you like museums/art I highly recommend the Legion of Honor and the Cal Academy of Sciences (if you don't go to the aquarium) - there are a lot of fun districts in SF depending on your tastes - union street is similar to downtown burlingame - a nice shopping/restuarant area - it's also near fort mason/chrissy fields which is beautiful for just strolling and enjoying the views, dolores park area has some great restuarants too, and there's alwasy something fun going on at the park - or it's great for random people watching.
"Oh come on Gromit, a bit more, you know... alluring!!"