Five Favorite Free Things in San Francisco

With the holidays over you might be looking at your bank account and thinking that it's time for some frugality. Luckily, there's a lot you can do in San Francisco without spending much money. Here are five of my favorite free things in the city. There are many more that I can think of but these were the first that came to mind. What are your favorite free -- or relatively cheap -- things to do in San Francisco?

*The San Francisco Botanical Garden. In 20009, there was a bit of a panic when city officials floated the idea of charging an entrance fee here, but the move was quashed by a group of passionate garden supporters. This corner of Golden Gate Park, which houses 7,000 plants from all over the world, is one of the loveliest and most peaceful places in San Francisco. Free guided walks start at the bookstore each day at 1:30 p.m.
*San Francisco's Public Libraries. When I first moved to San Francisco I was charmed by the neighborhood libraries, some of which are little architectural gems. I'm lucky to live just a couple of blocks from one of them, the Richmond library, an Andrew Carnegie-funded facility from the early 1900s which completed a beautiful renovation just last year as part of the city's neighborhood library improvement plan. Check out the Friends of the Library site for talks, presentations and book club events at the libraries -- and also the Book Bay, the Friends' bookstore at Fort Mason, where there are good deals on books.
*San Francisco City Guides. I've taken more than a dozen walking tours with this local nonprofit organization and am always amazed by how the volunteer guides can turn what seems like the most mundane of city blocks into something fascinating. But San Francisco's history is like that. My favorite is the Sutro Park tour (Saturdays at 2 p.m.) which describes the life of Adolph Sutro, the San Francisco mayor who built the huge cliffside swimming facility and the private steam train that carried thousands from downtown to the edge of the Pacific (the Land's End walking trail is the former railroad grade).
*Amoeba Records. Okay, maybe in the era of iTunes and Netflix, there's no need for an actual physical music and DVD store. Maybe. But spend an hour in Amoeba and you'll discover albums and movies you'd never find online. The store, at 1855 Haight Street, also hosts free concerts.
*Crissy Field. The best free activities in San Francisco usually involve simply walking and taking in the scenery. There's no better place than Crissy Field, 100 acres of shoreline with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay and Marin headlands and the downtown skyline. You'll see a variety of birds in the lagoon, a parade of joggers and walkers, and windsurfers skimming the waters of the bay. The new visitor center on the east end at the parking lot is set to open any day now and, like a bookend on the walking path a mile or so to the west, you'll find the cozy Warming Hut and bookstore/gift shop.

A New Star in Point Reyes

There's a new little star -- stellina, in Italian -- in Point Reyes Station. After reading reviews that described Osteria Stellina as a restaurant worth driving long distances for, I headed over with a friend on a recent sparkling clear day.
Stellina is smack in the middle of this small West Marin town, across the street from Toby's Feed Barn and a few steps from two other of my usual stops: Bovine Bakery and Point Reyes Books. It's a casual place (everyone seems to be in jeans and hiking boots) , in a corner building where a bare-bones Mexican restaurant once stood.
The food reminded me a bit of Delfina in San Francisco, with clean flavors of simple, local ingredients prepared very well. We started with conserved tuna and bean salad that had a hint of fennel, then split a pasta dish and entree: orecchiete with rapini and housemade sausage and a Tomales Bay seafood stew full of mussels and clams in a rich flavorful broth. The earthy, crispy bread served to sop up the broth is from Brickmaiden, a bakery set up in a backyard cabin of a nearby house that produces one of my favorite breads in the world. Everything was delicious and, to cap it off, the dessert was a dreamy -- and tangy, creamy -- chevre cheesecake topped with caramelized almonds and surrounded by huckleberry sauce.
You can't visit this area without taking a long walk somewhere beautiful -- this is, after all, a terrific place for a weekend getaway. We headed out to the long swath of white sand and surf at Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore for a stroll and nap in soft, cushy dunes. The beach, a Marinite favorite for dog walking, kite flying, bird watching and simply enjoying, is about a 20- to 25-minute minute drive west of Point Reyes Station.
My life isn't usually this decadent but this was the second day of great eating. The previous day I met up with two friends at Della Fattoria in downtown Petaluma. Lunch at this bakery-cafe turned out to be sandwich heaven because of the lovely breads made from a variety of organic flours that Della Fattoria bakes in its wood-fired brick ovens (in San Francisco, the loaves are sold on Saturday mornings at the Ferry Building). We split three grilled panini: a croque baton of ham and gruyere, a gruyere and apple and a smoked salmon and egg salad, which were served with a crispy green salad. Sorry that I forgot my camera that day. Trust me, these are some terrific sandwiches.

San Francisco's Best Burger?

After years of wondering what the fuss was about, I finally made it over to the corner of Mission and Silver in San Francisco's Excelsior District to try a burger at Joe's Cable Car restaurant. This is the place that's often cited as serving up the best burgers in the city. The reason is relatively simple: they grind their own beef steak fresh every day. I brought my nephew, Nick, an ice hockey player who knows burgers. We loved the atmosphere: kitschy, bright and with lots of crazy stuff hanging from the walls and the ceiling. Wonderful neon signs illuminate the big windows. It's hard not to smile when you're seated at one of the comfortable booths and look around at the surroundings. The choices on the menu are straight-forward: you choose patties of 4, 6, or 8 ounces and toppings, including the usual cheese, bacon, mushrooms, grilled onions, etc. We were served in a few minutes. The sesame bun was toasted and the meat was very good, no question about it. The fries, however, were disappointing. They lacked that nice crispness that make fries irresistible. And, although I enjoyed it, my 6-ounce burger, which came to $13.75, was plopped and served unattractively on a small black styrofoam plate. For a premium burger at a rather hefty price I expect a real plate. But if you're looking for a fun, casual evening and a real meat burger, head to Joe's. You may want to bring your own plate, though.

Fall Color at its Peak -- Here in California

In the Eastern Sierra, the aspen, poplars and cottonwoods are at their peak of fall color this week and, with the weather report forecasting a sunny weekend, it's the time to go. I wish I could get away. For me, this year, looking at photos like these will have to do. Next October, I'm there.
The photo of June Lake (above) in the Eastern Sierra is by Greg Newbry and taken last Friday. The Napa Valley vineyard photo is by John Poimiroo, longtime tourism official at Yosemite and for the state of California. He shot it last weekend.
John, who is behind the wonderful web site, www.californiafallcolor.com, points out that Lake County is a good place for fall colors. It's a closer drive to San Francisco than the Eastern Sierra. The leaves turn first along the shores of Clear Lake and then in the higher elevation on Cobb Mountain. "The cottonwoods are a riot of gold at Forest Lake, backgrounded by dogwoods and oaks," he says. And, "Near Loch Lomond off CA-175 at 2,500 feet at the site of the historic 19th century Salmina's Resort, the trees are at their prime color." Thanks for the report, John.

Walt Disney Museum Makes its Debut

The Presidio just keeps getting better and better. Yesterday, what is destined to become a star attraction opened: the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Diane Disney Miller and Walter E.D. Miller, daughter and grandson of the creator of Mickey Mouse, Disneyland and dozens of beloved movies, cartoons and TV shows, designed a place where they and the public can celebrate the life, the work and, most of all, the inventiveness of Walt Disney, the man -- not the big corporation he founded.
It's located in one of those handsome red-brick barracks buildings that line the Presidio's old parade ground. Inside, there's no doubt where the $110 million that the Walt Disney Family Foundation spent went: everything in the building was renovated with high quality materials, and the result is stunning, including one gallery with floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
The museum is expected to draw 450,000 visitors a year, 80% of them 45- to 65-year olds, said Richard Benefield, museum director. It's a "walk down memory lane" for baby boomers who grew up with Disney.
The museum does not disappoint. Those who love Disney will spend hours here and even those with just mild enthusiasm for his creations will enjoy it. Anyone interested in animation and movie-making will visit again and again.
For one, it's a terrific history lesson in Americana. The ten galleries trace Disney's life from his childhood in the Midwest, the move to California, the struggles in building his business and, most of all, the creativeness in designing his enchanting characters, the first animated movies and, finally, Disneyland.
There are scores of interactive exhibits, display cases of fascinating memorabilia and large video screens playing snippets of movies and interviews with the main himself. Even some of the controversies are addressed: you can listen to Disney's testimony before the House Un-American Committee where he stated that he thought the studio strike that shut down his studio for several weeks was the work of Communists.
One of the final galleries contains a model of Disneyland as Disney envisioned it (left). There's also a large gift shop with merchandise unique to this museum (which is operated separately from Walt Disney Co.), a small cafe and a theater that shows Disney movies three times a day (separate admission charge).
Tickets are $20, with discounts for seniors, students and children. They are sold online at www.waltdisney.org using a timed-entry system allowing 60 visitors to enter every 50 minutes. Local residents may enjoy museum membership that allows unlimited visits per year.

Epicurean Travel Radio

Catch me on the Epicurean Travel radio show on Thursday Oct. 1, at 8 p.m on KUSF-FM 90.3 in San Francisco.

I'll be talking about what to look for while wandering the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero.

Photo at left is from the market last Thursday.

A Moveable Feast: Walking the Embarcadero

It's out, finally. Visual Travel Tours, a California company that produces audio/visual travel programs, has released my tour of the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero.
I worked on this -- a new type of writing and photography for me -- for some time early this summer, spending several days walking the Embarcadero and getting to know the Ferry Building inside and out. I then wrote a script, uploaded dozens of photographs and Visual Travel Tours' audio/visual specialists put together a very cool program, complete with professional narration.
What is it, exactly?
It's basically a walking tour of the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero that you buy online, download and can take with you, using your cell phone, Ipod or other mobile device to follow along, learn some history and pick up tips on enjoying the area to its fullest. The tour is also available in CD format or to simply download to your computer.
Think about those audio tours at museums. It's like that. You can start and stop the program when you like.
The tour starts in front of the Ferry Building, takes you upstairs where the arrivals and departures of the old ferryboats used to be, through the new food hall and Saturday farmers' market and then north and south of the landmark building, giving history of the Embarcadero and visiting the Muni Railway Museum, the waterfront promenades and some historic sites, such as Rincon Post Office.
Today, I was back there to check out the Thursday market, which has become another culinary attraction with some terrific food booths, including Pizza Politana (which cooks up crackling pizzas in a wood-burning oven, photo at right), Korean food specialist Namu and Tacolicious from the people behind wonderful Laiola in the Marina district. In the other stalls, tomatoes and dahlias were at their most brilliant (upper photos).
For more about my walking tour check out the youtube video. Or to purchase, go to the VTT site. Enjoy!

Sonoma's Hollywood Connection

Anyone growing up watching "My Three Sons" with Fred MacMurray would never guess that the big-time Hollywood actor ("The Apartment" is one of my favorite movies) actually spent a lot of his time not on a southern California backlot but on a sprawling ranch in Sonoma County. It's where he and his wife raised their four children. The ranch is now a winery, MacMurray Ranch, and it's owned by E.J. Gallo. But there's still an actual MacMurray connection: Fred's daughter, Kate (right), who lives on the property, in a cabin built by her father decades ago.

She works for Gallo promoting the MacMurray Ranch label. I recently had the chance to chat with Kate in the main house on the idyllic property (upper left), tucked in a lush, redwood-ringed valley off of Westside Road between Healdsburg and Forestville. Her love of the place is obvious. She said her father discovered the land on flyfishing trips in the 1930s when it was owned by the descendants of the Potter family who first came to the ranch in 1840 from Arkansas. After years of asking the Potters whether they would sell, he was finally able to purchase the property in 1941. Fred made more than 100 films and spent 12 years on "My Three Sons" but he was able to spend enough time here to turn the property -- a plum orchard under the Potters -- into a cattle ranch, with Black Angus he had shipped from Scotland. She recalls long driving trips between Sonoma County and their house in Los Angeles (this was before Interstate 5 was built) and stopping at a Foster's Freeze in Gilroy, all four kids and their movie star father climbing out for burgers and milkshakes. There was no TV and little Hollywood-style glamour at the ranch, only some hard work and lots of old-fashioned fun as the children were free to roam the property, ride horses and explore. "We didn't have a lot of worries. We were allowed to run free and go outdoors. It was magical," she said.

The 1,500-acre spread is not open to the public normally but you have a chance to spend time there over Labor Day Weekend when MacMurray hosts the Sonoma County Vintners' 30th annual Taste of Sonoma, which features 150 wineries offering samples of thousands of wines and 60 local chefs cooking up dishes to pair with the pourings. It all takes place around the charming old home where Kate grew up and in the barn that her father built with his own hands. General admission is $150 per person, although Visa Signature cardholders receive a special price of $95. Make sure you sample some of MacMurray's yummy pinot noir and pinot gris.