The Ferry Building along the Bay has great places to eat. Nice walk along the Embarcadero.
Also, take Geary Blvd west out to the coast, where you will find the Cliff House restaurant, and the former Sutro Baths, where you can walk around. There you are, along the coast. walk along the beach, and drive about one mile to get into Golden Gate Park. There's a pond where they sail boats, and the Botanical Garden with the glass enclosed tropical plants.
Feel free to ask, as time may constrain you to "take the initiative" .
P.S. If you know anyone with a medical marijuana card, perhaps you can get a tour of a facility, though you won't be allowed to medicate. I'm out of town, or I would offer. Try 350 Divisadero St.

This doesn't necessarily qualify as different - but my wife and I did it last year and had a good time:

Do a walking tour of the city - because SF is so compact you can hit so many of the highlights on foot.

Start out near SBC Pack and head out toward the Embarcadero. Walk along the bay stopping at some of the more interesting piers and certainly the Ferry Building. You could also hit the Equinox atop the Hyatt across the street from the Ferry Building on Market. Eventually you'll get to Pier 39, Fisherman�s Warf area.

Toward the end of the "tourist" area of the Warf you can cut up and head back across town - I forget the exact street but you'll be able to walk through the North Beach area (lots of great Italian places to eat), through China Town and you'll end of in the financial district. From there it's about a 15 - 20 minute walk back to your starting location, and if you time it right you can then catch a game at SBC Park.

Plan on 3-4 hours minimum, add appropriate time if you stop to eat, etc. You won't see anything that unique or different, but you'll experience SF on foot and that is quite fun.

Bruce

Saw some negatives about Chinatown-about it being crowded etc. Well it is-and thats great-its the locals doing their thing. I recommend a guided tour by the Wok Wiz group(wokwiz.com) I have done it several times. The operation is owned by Shirley Fong-Torres, a local lady that is also a culinary expert.The tour takes you off the main strrets -and includes a dim sum lunch(already ordered in advance and delicious). The tour takes about three hours and costs $40 each -well worth it.

If you want to do something truly unusual in San Francisco, go to lunch at McDonald's and then boast about it to your friends. Or you could keep walking until you find at least five consecutive blocks where you aren't panhandled. How about getting a big sign saying "You Can Choose to be Hetero" and picketing up and down the Castro with it? There's LOTS of unusual things that most tourists don't do.

Richard, my late aunt (may she rest in peace), did indeed have lunch at McDonald's in her SF visit, and, yes, she later boasted about it to her friends back in Wisconsin. She was a bit nutty, to put it mildly.

She wanted to have great clam chowder soup in the Wharf, so, being the dutiful nephew, I granted her wish. Of course, that soup is available at dozens of restaurants in the Wharf. The problem, though, is that it was overpriced. I assured her that I could handle the $4 for soup that should be about $2.50. She would have none of that. We walked around for about 45 minutes until she saw a sign: "Clam Chowder Soup -- $1.75".

Yep, we ate at Mickey D's. She loved it, and when her friends back home asked her about her SF vacation, it was the first thing she told them about.

Since there has been a "Muir Woods Parking Lot Full" sign on 101 every time I've driven by the Muir Woods exit I think maybe a lot of tourists are going there. Ah, getting back to nature and away from it all...

Muir Woods is very beautiful, but much of the point of going there would be defeated if it's crowded -- similar to Yosemite Valley in the summer.

Just wanted to thank you all for the great ideas.

I didn't have as much freetime as I'd have hoped.

But you guys are right, SF is a pretty compact city and that made it fun for the time that I did have.

I ended up hitting Ghirardelli Square. Didn't hit that last time, and I needed to pick up some chocolate to share with the folks at work (kind of a tradition that you pick something up from a business trip to share with the folks who didn't go). Did the walking tour there and found out about some ships there. As I walked down the street a block or two, I realized I was in Fisherman's Wharf. I was going to see some of the old ships, but they were closed. I did tour the USS Pampatino (sp?) ... an old WWII sub. That was neat. Also hung out for a bit at the Musee Mecanique. They had a lot of old time entertainments that were fun to mess around with, and some classic video games I haven't played in ages.

I'm going to have to spend more time there. Maybe work can send me again soon.

Next trip would recommend Angel Island just as a leisurely hike & Twin Peaks for a phenomenal view of the city. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is spotty, but is worth it just to see the colors in Monet's Waterlilies.

The street is Columbus. At the cross street of Broadway, on the right side you will see Grant (chinatown). If you want to see something else that's intresting, on Broadway there is an elementary school across the street from a strip club.

Yep - that's San Francisco - go figure!

Portsmouth Square, Upper Level, near elevator

I am interested in the walking tours which are sponsored by the Public Library according to one response. Could someone tell me if this meeting place for Chinatown is near (with in walking distance) of the Hyatt Regency?

If you could only do one of the walking tours...which one would it be?

Yes, that's about half a mile. If you like, you could take the California line of the cable car to Kearney St., and walk two blocks north to Portsmouth Square from there.

This sounds like a terrific walking tour. Portsmouth Square is largely where San Francisco began (along with Mission Dolores and the Presidio). That area has enormous historical significance related to Chinese immigration (leading to Chinatown, of course), the Gold Rush and the rebuilding after the 1906 Earthquake & Fire.

Indeed, San Francisco's devastation in 1906 is particularly interesting in light of New Orleans' present trauma.

I'm not a video person, and tend to avoid arcades, but with that being said, my 11 year old and I just returned from SF and one of the funnest (sp) things we did was "virtual bowling" at the Metreon. Try it. It's really pretty fun, and you get a choice of backdrops. We first tried Tokyo, then the Ship, and finally Cable Cars in SF.

It definitely qualifies as different!

keith

As an SF local, what I enjoy most about my city is being able to walk around from neightborhood to neighborhood, enjoying the uniqueness of each. It always amazes me that visitors stick to the same well-travelled areas, most of which are completely ignored by locals, Fisherman's Wharf I'm looking in your direction.

Besides the excellent walking tour recommended earlier in this thread. Spend some time hitting some of the less touristed neighborhoods of the City. Just a sample if you want to go well off the beaten tourist path...

- The Mission is an amazing corner, great ethnic food, the murals, the people, the Mission itself, Dolores Park.
- Lower Haight neighborhood is as close as you will get to what Haight Ashbury once was.
- Cole Valley is my favorite neighborhood to just walk around in. Easy access to GG Park, Inner Sunset (see below) and the NEW NEW NEW DeYoung museum that open yesterday. http://www.thinker.org/deyoung/index.asp
- Inner Sunset - no tourists here, just locals
- Crissy Field - an amazing park at the foot of the GG Bridge.