San Francisco, CA

Will the environment be a factor in who you decide to vote for in the 2008 Presidential election?
Sound off with this election survey.

Ron Paul, 2008 Presidential Candidate will be coming to San Francisco for a fundraiser on September 13th, 2007.

While in San Francisco, he will attend two fund raising events sponsored by the San Francisco Ron Paul Meetup.com group.

 A “Breakfast with Ron Paul” will be at the Palace Hotel on New Montgomery Street, in the Presidential Suite, beginning at 9am -11am. Afterwards, around noon, he will attend a event entitled “Lunch with Ron Paul” at Palio D’Asti Restaurant, located in the Financial District, at 640 Sacramento Street.

If you love freedom and liberty, and you want to help elect someone who will truly make government smaller and lawful, come out and support Ron Paul for President in 2008.

Did you know that there are ghosts haunting San Francisco? If you believe in that sort of thing, it makes sense that San Francisco would be a place where spirits would linger since it’s a place that’s filled with rich history and some definite periods of trauma (such as the 1906 Earthquake). Even if you don’t quite believe in the haunted tales, they’re interesting to learn about. Here are some of the places where you can go to learn more about the ghosts of San Francisco:

- The Ghosts of San Francisco - Admittedly I know quite a bit about this book since I’m its author. But I’m not ashamed to spread the word because I worked hard to do a significant amount of research on the topic, relating tales gathered from a variety of different sources.
- San Francisco Ghost Society - This is one of the most extensive resources on ghosts in San Francisco. Make sure to listen to their podcasts which provide a wealth of interesting information.
- Walking Tours - There are walking tours in the area that show off the history and information about ghosts in San Francisco. Learn more from last week’s post on the topic.
- SF Heart’s list of haunted places in San Francisco gives you the brief story about a number of reported ghost sightings. See that here.
- About.com has an interesting article on one specific haunted location in San Francisco: The Queen Anne Hotel.
- Haunted San Francisco: Ghost Stories from the City’s Past is another book about the topic. This one is by Rand Richards.

Music is important to me and so is San Francisco so it’s no wonder that I’ve got something of a collection going of songs that are about San Francisco or which reference San Francisco in some way. Here are just a few of those songs:

I Left My Heart In San Francisco - I think everyone knows this song or at least that line from the song. Admittedly, it’s not even my favorite song but I reference the line every time that I leave the city and my heart leaps out and remains behind.

Little Boxes - This song by Pete Seeger was a favorite of mine as a kid, introduced to me by my dad. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that the ticky tacky houses references in the song were related to San Francisco. Go figure, the life in SF is less tolerant of a ticky tacky kind of mainstream way of living than it is of all the oddities to be found throughout the city.

The Village People song about San Francisco. What can I say, it’s the Village People.

Lyrics by local singer songwriter Shane Papatolicas reference San Francisco in a way that is familiar to people who have spent time recently in the city.

The Be Sure To Wear Flowers in Your Hair song by Scott McKenzie is all about the hippie days in SF. And it’s perfect this year on the 40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love.

Furry Sings the Blues by Joni Mitchell. I don’t actually know if this song has anything at all to do with San Francisco but I think of it every single time that I have a reason to be on Beale Street.

There are more San Francisco songs listed on this Amazon list and at SF Heart. There’s a list of California songs on Wikipedia.

I happen to be one of those people that loves Craigslist. I use it for everything. Craigslist was the way that I found my apartment, all of my closest SF friends, and the guy that I’m seeing along with some casual dates, some tickets to stuff, rides to different cities and information about area events. I’m a firm believer in the thought that if you know what you want and you can articulate it clearly, you can get it on Craigslist, at least in San Francisco. But not everyone agrees with me. Some of my good friends say that it’s great for getting certain things and not so good for others. Here are some of the things to use Craigslist for:

- Jobs. As a freelancer, I check the gigs and writing jobs on CL every day. I check other cities as well as SF. I also regularly check the creative gigs and I contact other artists through posts in the community section for collaborative work. But I’ve heard rumors that CL isn’t so good for getting work that’s more “normal” or “steady”. Apparently this is because the jobs posted there are highly competitive so people use bigger sites like Monster.com to get jobs. So they tell me.

- Rides. Many people I know say that they feel safe using CL for things like renting an apartment but not for getting rides from random strangers. I successfully used CL to get rides to other cities and states, but I’m fairly cautious about who I meet and how I screen them. I’ve found that it’s basically normal people just like myself on CL in San Francisco which may not be as true of others areas where online interaction isn’t as common. So I think it’s fine to get rides here if you’re safe and sensible about it but I don’t know that I’d do it everywhere that CL has a portal.

- Friends, casual dates, hook-ups and relationships. Worked for me on every level. Again, I screen carefully, make common sense choices and try to be very clear about what I’m seeking and what my boundaries are. And again, I think it’s common in San Francisco for a wide range of people to be on CL.

- Apartments. I actually don’t even know how I would go about trying to get an apartment in San Francisco other than by using Craigslist. It’s how everyone does it here.

- Tickets. I actually don’t think this is the best thing to use CL for. But I know people who do it. For me, I’d rather just buy my tickets to events straight out, rather than trying to scheme for a discounted rate on anything. But that’s just a personal preference.

- Free stuff. This one is hard for me because I don’t have a car in San Francisco and anything I’d want would be big enough that I’d need a car. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a rideshare post to get a free item that I really wanted. For people who have time and transportation, the amount of free stuff you can get is endless.

What else do you use CL for?

If you live, or are planning a visit to San Francisco, you may not be aware that a delicious delight, is manufactured right at your city’s back door.

If you travel east of San Francisco towards Sacramento, there’s a town off the highway called Fairfield, where the gourmat jelly bean, known as Jelly Bellies, is produced. All 50 something flavors for your choosing.

When you get off the highway you will be in a industrial zone with many warehouses and manufacturing centers, I’m assuming.
As you enter the building the company logo is front and center, so you’ll know you are there.

Greeted while waiting for the tour, a worker may approach you and ask if you would like to try a  certain flavor of a “Jelly Belly” jellybean. Which of course you reply, Yes!

You will be led on a guided tour of their factory, and will see the process of these famous little jellybeans being made. From start to labelled and packaged. It’s really quite an interesting tour, with video clips of the history of the company, the jelly belly bean, as well as other candies they produce.

At the end of the 15 minute tour, you can check out their gift and candy shop, to buy your favorite candy, and flavors. They also offer assorted flavors in nice gift boxes. Logo Shirts, caps, the whole nine yards.
If your hungry for more than candy they even have a little restaurant inside, that will serve you up pizza or burgers in the shape of a jelly beans.

Great trip for the kids, with quite a bit of interesting displays of “JellyBelly” portraits of famous people from Ronald Reagan to Elvis Presley.

I was impressed at every turn of the factory tour. Nice place to visit while in San Francisco and I would definitely recommend it for the kid of all ages who loves candy.

I was reading the SF Gate this morning where I came across an article, claiming that most Californian Republicans favor Giuliani as their choice for President. Then Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson came in second, with around 14% each, followed by John McCain with 9%.

Of course, I was disappointed to hear this, because I think there is a better candidate running.

If Californians haven’t heard of Ron Paul yet, I would suggest that you check him out.
His website is http://www.ronpaul2008.com/.

He is a strict Constitutionalists, leans Libertarian on social issues, and wants to curb the current trend of mega-government and massive waste, by restoring the federal government to a healthy Constitutional level.
If your like me, your probably worried about future generations who will be burdened by the gluttonous spending of our out of control politicians of today.
As of right now,  America has a debt of 9 trillion dollars and growing by the second. We borrow money from other countries, while we have this debt and continue to run deficits.
You know if something isn’t done soon about our reckless spending, we could see a collapse in this country that makes the Great Depression look like a stroll on the wharf.

Ron Paul received a warm welcome at Google headquarters in Mountain View back in July. He has often been first place in many internet polls and continues to gain ground everywhere he speaks. His message is simple,… Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom.

He doesn’t want to legislate what you do in your home, your bedroom, or on your property. He doesn’t want to pretend to run the economy, in fact he wants you to be more responsible for yourselves. Paul often tells you what he will not do, instead of promising what he will do. He has a clear understanding that mega government is the problem, rather than the solution to most things.

He wants to do away with the unfair tax code we have now, and also wants to eliminate the IRS. Paul also wants to restore strength to the dollar, by backing it with something tangible like Gold, rather than nothing or thin air.

The media often labels him the anti-war candidate. He voted against the Iraq invasion, but did vote to go after Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Paul placed 5th in the famous Iowa straw poll this last weekend, where Giuliani didn’t even receive 5% of the vote, nor cared to even show up.

Unlike Giuliani, Paul would secure the borders, eliminating welfare incentives for illegals who would risk life and limb, to come to America for the freebies, and the easy life.
I’m sure Californians can appreciate a candidate who would actually provide solutions for illegal immigration.

Giuliani has a law firm, that would benefit in a major way from the little known sellout of American sovereignty known as the North American Union, where a super highway would be constructed from Mexico to Canada, a new currency called the Amero would be created, leaving North America to resemble something like the European Union.
So for Rudy, clear and secure borders, as well as America’s sovereignty, is not much of a incentive for his future intentions.

I encourage Californians and people in the Bay area, who considered themselves libertarian or conservative, to check out Ron Paul for President in 2008.

If your in San Francisco, and you don’t mind exploring the state of California a little bit, plan a visit a few hundred miles north on Highway 101, to see the famous California Redwoods.

Breath-taking views of over 300ft giant trees, with trunks that span large enough for cars to drive-thru, to build houses and campers out of.

A 31 mile stretch of road runs along side Highway 101, called “The Avenue of Giants” where you can drive-thru some of the thickest Redwood groves, drive-thru Redwoods in your car, and shop in tiny rustic towns. Great trip for motorcyclist, bikers, day-trippers, as well as even runners. I’m sure you could even boat in lakes, kayak the rivers, a definite camper and outdoors-mans’ paradise.

Along the drive up Highway 101, you will drive thru bustling suburbs, and eventually sleepy little mountain towns. You could even drive not to far off the beaten to the Pacific Ocean, it’s so close.

As we were driving from Washington State down into California, we happened to come across an attraction that left us all saying we gotta stop and look. It was another Giant we weren’t quite expecting, that we found along the way. Paul Bunyan and Babe, his Blue Ox. Paul standing tall with his axe, sporting his lumberjack flannel shirt and logging boots.
Nice little gift-shop on site with some history behind the area.
Somebody talking for Paul Bunyan on a PA system, greeting people and saying Hi, to all the little kids. Great stop for a family with kids.
I believe it even had a sky-ride that you could take an aerial view of a Redwood grove.

San Francisco has  a lot of places within a few hours drive that can definitely add to your experiences when in California. These giants of Northern California are one of nature’s finest beauties and more than worth the drive while in San Francisco, if you have some time.

August 6th, my family and I were in San Francisco to watch a Giants game at AT&T Park, where we were hoping to see Barry Bonds hit his 756 record breaking home-run, as the 6th was a predicted date by SI, as a good night for this to very well happen.

We’ll unfortunately we were a day too early, but the experience of a sell out crowd that night, with the anticipation of Bonds hitting the record, every bat at the plate, was pretty intense. 

The crowd rose to their feet every time Bonds went to bat, with chants of Barry, Barry, rising up and thundering across the stadium. The excitement was the kind of thrill you love and thrive for, as a sport fan.

The Giants won that night against the Nationals, even though no records were broken.

The experience itself was nice. Great garlic fries, and to my surprise, you could even order up some Jack Daniels.
I also have to applaud that the park still allows smokers a place to smoke inside the stadium, rather than throwing them out of the entire park.

Great food, nice people, and a good game, what could be better.
Yeah seeing that record breaking home run would have been better, but it was still a good time.
For the fanatic sportsperson, San Francisco has a great stadium and baseball franchise too offer those who live and visit this pretty exciting city.

 Fisherman’s Wharf is a “must-see” when visiting San Francisco, with quaint little shops of souvenir’s and interesting items that will leave you in awe.
Convenient stands with the aromas of good food, from waffle cone ice cream to barbecue and seafood on the grill. Fresh fruit at it’s best and some bigger than I’ve ever seen in my market back home.
Views of the skyline of downtown San Francisco to your left, and Alcatraz Island with the Golden Gate Bridge to the north. The Trans America tower does just that, it towers most of San Francisco other skyscrapers.

The famous trolley cars zipping around town, up and down, just adds to the experience of what you would expect from hearing about this place from it’s rich history. If your lucky enough to ride on one, which I didn’t get to, because of budget and time, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. They looked fun to ride and I’m sure it’s a tour like no other.

Parking is a little expensive, if you plan to be on the wharf more than a couple of hours. We found a parking garage at $6 an hour nearby, with a minimum of $30, which seems reasonable, if you planned to stay over a half a day in downtown San Francisco.

All in all, I enjoyed downtown San Francisco for someone who has never been there before.
Coming in from the north on Highway 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, was not a bad drive in, nor did it take but about 10 min to get to Fisherman’s Wharf. There were sign clearly posted in bright red or orange directing you to the Wharf.

If you go to San Francisco don’t miss Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s worth it if you like travelling and seeing different places. If you have more than a day in town, there is so much more to see like Chinatown and even Oakland which is across the bay as well.

If your planning on travelling to San Francisco, there are a few attractions your going to want to see.
The Golden Gate Bridge is probably one of the most famous landmarks we think of, when thinking about San Francisco.

Of course we’ve all seen the beautiful pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, but you haven’t seen it until you’ve crossed over the bridge.
At first site it is an amazing view coming from the North on Highway 101. As you wind through the hills and approach San Francisco, it appears out of nowhere and is gigantic in scope.
The bridge in it’s all it’s reddish glory spans at least a mile, I would say.
For those like my wife who hate crossing bridges, they will be pleased with the 5 or 6 lane bridge and should feel very comfortable as they drive or walk across the bay.
Going into San Francisco you will pay a $5 toll, and if you drive out of town going north you’ll have smooth sailing, as the toll is only charged coming into San Francisco.

With views of Alcatraz and the city of San Francisco, from the Golden Gate it might be well worth the time to stop and walk the bridge or even bike it. We saw hundreds crossing the bridge on foot and pedal when we crossed over.

One thing I noticed while travelling in California, was there were alot of people who rode bikes, and it didn’t appear they just rode their bikes around the block, they were using them to travel afar.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a traveller’s “must-see” when going to San Francisco.

One of the cafes that I go to regularly is located on the corner of Lombard Street and Columbus Avenue, right near where a majority of tourist traffic is located. On the wall outside of this café, right there on Lombard Street, there are two paintings. On a regular basis, I see tourists stopping to eye these paintings, because one of them depicts nudity. No, you can’t really see anything. This isn’t porn, it’s just a painting. And yet, people stop in shock at the fact that this is on one of our city’s walls.

The other painting is the one that I really love. It’s a fairly simple painting, depicting two people in black and white set against a background of vivid color. It’s a gorgeous, magical painting. But it’s often overlooked because of the shock value of the other painting. What’s really funny is that you can probably see much more shocking things on the streets all around San Francisco. We’re not exactly a cover-up-and-be-shy kind of city. But the people who are walking up to the curvy part of Lombard Street must not know this yet.

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The first time that I got tickets to an audio tour (at Alcatraz), I was skeptical. I just didn’t think that listening to someone tell a tale to me through headphones while I walked around was something that sounded nearly as good as getting the inside info from a live tour guide with whom I could interact and ask questions. But then I took the Alcatraz tour and I found out that I loved it. I didn’t have to listen to the questions of others in the group; I could travel along the sites at my own pace, lingering on those that actually interested me and passing by those that didn’t. I could take bathroom breaks without missing anything.

For that reason, audio tours now have my heart, and I’m happy to say that it’s possible to take tours of almost everywhere in San Francisco. That’s because Stroll San Francisco offers 33 different audio tours for the city. Each one brings you the voices of the past and relays the research of historians and journalists so that you can learn all of the inside info on the places that you want to see in San Francisco. And it’s nice and easy – you can load the tours right on to your own iPod.

You can hear samples on the website (here). You can even hear the story of Emperor Norton, the eccentric man who fit in so well in eclectic San Francisco and was welcomed as the emperor of the city during his time. Other off-the-wall audio tours available through Stroll San Francisco include Janis Joplin’s House, The Golden Dragon Restaurant Massacre and the debauchery of Maiden Lane. Of course, if you just want to learn about the history of places like North Beach and Chinatown, those tours are available as well.

You can buy the tours right on the website and access them from your computer. It’s less than $20 for the full 33-tour set or a little bit less for about a third of the major sites. It’s not just for tourists either – these tales give locals a way to explore the history of their own beautiful backyard.

Most people know that there are plenty of activities going on in San Francisco all of the time, but they don’t know where to find out about them. Here are some of my favorite spots for learning about off-the-wall events (and major activities) happening in San Francisco on any given day.

• SF Station: San Francisco’s City Guide – SF Station is the spot that’s got the most listings for various events. It can be overwhelming but they have ways of narrowing down the search results, like letting you check what’s going on any particular day or letting you search by type of event. This is a good spot for finding out about city events like festivals.
• Craigslist calendar – There are all kinds of random things posted on the Craigslist calendar, some of which are worth checking out. You just go to the main page and then click on the date you want to search on the calendar that’s located on the left-hand column of the page. The results are divided into “events” and “classes” so scroll down if you think you might want to learn something on any given day. Really, they’ve got everything from erotic dance classes to learning business marketing techniques.
• Specific venue listings – Oftentimes, I’ll just check the calendar listings for my favorite venues. These include Red Devil Lounge, Café du Nord, and The Independent for music and Space Gallery, 111 Minna and Madrone Lounge for art and other events.
• The social networking calendar sites – There are a lot of people in the city who post events that they’re going to on the various sites so it’s a good way to find out what’s going on. Eventful, Zvents and Upcoming are the ones I use most often.

San Francisco is an expensive city, there’s no doubt about it. But you can do things for free around here if you bother to try. After all, it’s a city filled with people who find creative ways to make a life for themselves in a place that’s got the highest rents in the country. Here are eight free things to do in San Francisco on any given day:

1. People watch. It doesn’t matter where you go in the city, you’ll find people there that are interesting. You can sit anywhere, walk anywhere, wait in line anywhere and if you pay attention to the people around you for even a few minutes, you’ll find that your attention is captured. I’m convinced that nowhere has more unique people on a regular basis.

2. Museums. You can get into a number of the museums in this city for free on the first Tuesday or Wednesday of this month. This includes major museums like the SFMoMA and the DeYoung Museum as well as some spots that you’re less likely to think of as museums like The Exploratorium and The San Francisco Zoo.

3. Beach and bay. We don’t often think about hanging out by the beach in San Francisco because it’s not exactly beachy as far as California goes. After all, you’re not sunning in a place that’s often got fog, right? But there are beaches all around us, off of both the Pacific Coast and the Bay. Sure, you may have to wear a windbreaker but you can still spend lots of free hours doing beach activities.

4. Live music. Okay, so you have to pay for your drinks if you’re going out but San Francisco is really a city where it’s easy to find no-cover music. Grant and Green and Girodano Bros. are two North Beach examples of spots that have almost nightly music and no cover. But it’s happening in bars in basically every neighborhood.

5. Neighborhood exploration. That’s right, just walking around seeing what there is to see is totally free. And it’s fun in San Francisco because of the vast differences between all of the neighborhoods here. Every place has its own charm and its hidden secrets so check them out at no cost just to see what’s around you.

6. Libraries. Okay, so maybe you don’t usually go on vacation to kick it at the library. But have you seen the main library down by The Civic Center? It’s HUGE. Plus, there are always random free events at San Francisco’s libraries like lectures and readings.

7. Festivals. San Francisco loves its festivals. We have them for everything all year round. During the summer, there’s one going on basically every weekend. So, chances are, if you want to find one, you can. Check out the “city events” listings at the calendar at SF Station to see if there’s one coming up.

8. Window shop. It’s fun in San Francisco because it’s not a boring mall activity. Sure, there are all kinds of mall-like stores that you can window shop at, but you can do it in the open air down in the Union Square area. It feels very city to people who aren’t from here. And there are also all kinds of different boutiques in various neighborhoods (Grant Street has some good ones, Hayes Valley and Union Street are known for theirs). These places have unique designs and strange shops that you might not find in other cities so you get that San Francisco flavor just from checking them out.