Duckin' Out
Feb 4, 2008 3:52 PM
Mix Editors' Duckin' Out Picks
BEWARE BEFORE YOU READ THE NEXT PICK!
If you’re going anywhere that has an address of “Pier…,” it can be awfully confusing when you try walking there. Here’s a handy tip that has saved me way too many times to count. All pier numbers start at the Ferry Building. If you go to the right, the pier numbers are even; if you go to the left, they’re odd. —Sarah Benzuly
The “Cool” Wharf
Fisherman’s Wharf is San Francisco’s Number One tourist destination, drawing nearly 12 million people a year to its gorgeous bay views and piers ruled by restaurants, souvenir shops, street entertainers and ornery sea lions. Of course, the flipside of these same attractions are the things that make San Franciscans love to hate the Wharf: tacky trinkets, bad food and cheesy “museums.” Although we may try to steer you away, we will eventually let you in on a couple of standouts to make the most of your excursion. The highlight of any trip to the wharf is a visit to Alcatraz: Unlike the wax museums and candy factory tours, this experience is worth the price of admission, not to mention carving a couple hours out of your day. If you go, be sure to book a reservation far in advance and definitely sign up for the ultraspooky night tour, when you’ll get a true feel for prison life on the cold, dark rock.
Musee Mecanique on Pier 45 is one of the world’s largest collections of vintage coin-operated arcade machines from turn-of-the-century fortune tellers to Pole Position (see related item). Or, if you’ve had your fill of that Disney-esque feeling, head to Pier 23 Café to hang with the locals at a low-key waterfront bar featuring live music, a patio overlooking the bay, no-frills seafood and a conspicuous absence of “I Love S.F.” sweatshirts, silver guys and plastic cablecar figurines. —Sarah Jones
Bookworm Paradise
City Lights Books: Co-founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti; publishers of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl; ground zero for the Beat movement. Lose yourself for a whole afternoon in the maze of sometimes dusty, often overcrowded shelves. The layout begins to make sense after about three hours, and then you discover there’s another floor! But the collection of books is amazing‹hard-to-find books; obscure art books; leftist pamphlets; even bestsellers. If you’re a reader, you already know all this. Midway up Columbus, in North Beach. www.citylights.com —Tom Kenny
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. —Sarah Benzuly
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus