Along the Way
Palace of Fine Arts
© Tara J Graves The Palace of Fine Arts served as an exhibition hall of fine art during the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, a world’s fair that was not only a celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, but also showcased San Francisco’s rapid recovery from the 1906 earthquake. Spread across 635 acres of [...]
Tom and Jerry’s Christmas Tree
A bright star shines like a beacon, calling San Franciscans to climb the steep hill to the top of Dolores Heights. Its location, Tom and Jerry’s house on 21st Street, off Church, where one of San Francisco’s most decorative Christmas trees awaits. A Norfolk pine towers more than 50 feet above the front yard, transformed [...]
Urban Hikes
Presidio — Batteries to Bluffs Trail
The Batteries to Bluffs trail seemed as good a place as any to begin my exploration of the Presidio, a corner of the city I haven’t spent any time in. This trail is a short loop off the portion of the California Coastal Trail that connects Baker Beach to the Golden Gate Bridge. Though this is one of the shortest trails in the park, it makes up for what it lacks in length with pure rugged beauty.
Land’s End — The Wildest Place in San Francisco
Do not approach coyotes. People have fallen to their deaths. Just a few of the cautionary reminders along the Land’s End coastal trail, a trail that wraps around the extreme northwest corner of San Francisco, hugging the rugged sea cliffs. I started my journey across this landscape at the trail’s south end, at Point Lobos, [...]
Watering Holes
Rosamunde Sausage Grill’s Tuesday Burger
May is National Hamburger Month and there’s no better place to celebrate this American tradition than at Rosamunde Sausage Grill on Lower Haight. I went back and forth about sharing this tip. Rosamunde’s Tuesday burger is by no means a secret, a line forms down the block every Tuesday beginning around 11am; however, the burgers [...]
House of Shields
House of Shields is a timeless San Francisco bar, and not because there are no clocks hanging from the walls or televisions broadcasting the Giants game. It is one of few bars in San Francisco that hasn’t changed much since its doors first opened in 1908. After being closed for most of 2010 — to [...]