Powells is down on Hayes, around Octavia, I'll hit it up one of these days.
For a few days in SF:
drive to these places around town for great views
Yerba Buena Island (in the middle of the bay bridge)
top of twin peaks (south edge of town)
top of Rodeo drive. go over the Golden Gate Bridge north of town, Rodeo is the first exit after the 'scenic vista' turnoff parking lot at the end of the bridge. Rodeo goes under the road and up a hill, park up there.
same shot Sasha used for his SF Global Underground album.
while you're over on the north end of the bridge you can drop down into Sausalito, nice little super rich town on the bay.
Muir Woods is north of SF too, amazing redwood forest, that's where the speederbike/Ewok scenes were shot in The Empire Strikes Back.
then there's Coit tower around the North Beach (Italian neighborhood)/Chinatown. this can be crowded. the tower itself looks phallic but is shaped like a fireman's hose to honor firefighters after some fire, maybe the big earthquake.
North Beach and Chinatown are right next to each other, kill two birds with one stone. park the car at the garage here (this is a great tip, you'll thank me later
)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/north-beach-par ... -francisco
Mona Lisa and Francino's are two of my favorites to eat at up there.
the bay cruises are wonderful, I love taking people from out of town there. pick it up around Pier 39 off of Fisherman's Warf. ~$25 for about an hour, very cool tour.
the Alcatraz tour is also really cool, another guilty pleasure when people are coming in from out of town.
Haight Street - look for the corner of Haight/Ashbury on a map, it's literally the center of town (and just a few blocks from where I live.)
Golden Gate Park - pretty
Sutro Bath House ruins/Lands End park - my favorite spot to watch waves and a really cool park that you'd never think could be in a large city.
it looked like this back in the early 1900s
looks like this now
really weird though, there's always a dozen or so people to photo shoots there.
Lands End shot
there's a decent restaurant just south of all that along Ocean Beach, called the Beach Chalet, it's a microbrewery (get their beer sampler) with a nice view of Ocean Beach.
http://www.beachchalet.com/
Fort Point is another cool spot to drive to, it's a military fort under the SF end of the Golden Gate Bridge built during the civil war. now it's just a parking lot and if you're lucky there's surfers doing there thing.
close to Fort Point is 'The Presidio', a former military base turned into a park, some amazing views up there.
some downtown views with bars-
The Marriot
the Equinox which is a rotating restaurant/bar
http://dinesite.com/info/rstrnt-252592/
for a drive south of town, follow the coast to Santa Cruz, Pacifica with it's Taco Bell on the beach (I love that spot.)
the Grand Canyon is amazing, hike to the bottom and back up if you can, 26 miles, takes all day and the hard part is at the end, very very cool spot.
also you'll be in the area of Hoover Dam which has to be seen to believed, freaking huge!!
then there's Joshua Tree National Park in that area, the only place in the world where Joshua trees grow (as in the U2 album.)
agreed on the tips around Yosemite, beautiful country.
that's a good start, I might think of more. if there's anything particular you'd like to know about let me know.
love this town, I still get a kick out of being a tourist here myself.
