Specifically, my cousins (13 & 15). They are from South America and while they’ve done some travelling (their father is from the UK), their familiarity with the US is pretty slight. Their parents will be with them, of course, and everyone’s English is sound. It’s just that they don’t know much about SF, so I don’t want to take them to the typical places that have no cultural resonance or meaning for them (Alcatraz, the Haight, etc.). I think the parents will be open to anything (well, they’re fairly religious/conservative, so not anything-anything), so I do want to cater some of our destinations to what might interest the girls specifically. My wife and I don’t have kids and don’t know much about teenagers, so don’t know the first thing about what they might like.
Our few ideas thus far:[ul][li]Cable Car ride–natch–up to Fisherman’s Wharf. Touristy, yes, but they’ll get the hills, the marina, and some of the shops that are SOP here but fairly novel to them. Musee Mecanique’s up there, too.Bay ferry, either from Jack London to SF, or Sausalito/Tiburon to the Wharf. The latter would include visiting the Marin Headlands & the GG bridge (the only iconic thing they know about the city, though not by name)[/li][li]We’ll first be meeting them down in Monterey (they’re driving up from SoCal), so they’ll see the aquarium there[/ul][/li]
Because they’re coming 4th of July weekend, we’re also trying to avoid The Crazy as much as possible. Given Bay Area weather, we know that it’s not usually worth the effort staking out a place for fireworks, but we expect there to be tons of crowds so only want to pursue something if it’s really going to be enjoyable for them.
Yeah, the aquarium in Monterey is definitely a must-see.
You didn’t mention whether they’re urban-dwellers or country folks. Also, how far do you want to travel? Yosemite National Park is absolutely spectacular, and Sequoia or Big Trees is unique, too.
If they’re country types, hit some of the big shopping areas in San Francisco. If they’re city types, go to the shopping district in Carmel or up to Mendocino. If they’re typical teenage girls, shopping is good.
I can’t remember the migration schedule. Is whale-watching a possibility?
If they don’t live near an ocean, a day on the beach might be fun and novel (but warn them the water’s colder than they expect!!!)
I think Road Trips would be more viable if it wasn’t for that holiday weekend. We’ve done stuff on the 4th weekend in the past (modest ventures) to know how nuts it can get, which precludes Yosemite or Mendocino (though Muir Woods might work).
Coming from SoCal, I think they’ll be getting plenty of shopping mall exposure, so I was more interested in showing them something a bit more distinctive in the retail dept–hence Sausalito. Carmel’s a good hop-skip from Monterey, so that’s definitely a possibility, depending on how much time they spend w/the fishies.
The whale-watching is a great idea. I’ll have to look that up (I don’t think even my wife has done that up here).
The California Academy of Sciences and/or the Exploratorium come to mind, right off the bat. They’re pretty spectacular to behold—even just for the architecture of the buildings!—even if one’s not heavily into science, and the latter is delightfully hands-on for youngins.
Though you said their parents are “fairly religious/conservative”—so does that mean “no hippie orgies” or “don’t mention the Copernican system”?
How “nature-lovin” are they? A favorite I like to take people from out of town is the Point Bonita Lighthouse. It includes a drive across the GGB, then a drive in the Headlands with fun-dramatic roads where you can stop and get those iconic pictures of the bridge and downtown.
Once at the lighthouse, it’s a cool hike down and through a tunnel, ending up across a tiny suspension bridge that only allows five people across at a time, then a cool view from the lighthouse back up the coast north, or south with a view of Ocean Beach. Afterwards you can go home by continung in the same direction and get a view of the military base with missle silo, then winding down through the headlands, through a one-lane tunnel, then back onto Alexandria and 101.
Close to SF, and free. (Except for the bridge toll).
Too bad about the “religious/conservative” part, as I would suggest letting them shop in the very gayest parts of the town. My niece and a friend visited Chicago when she was 17 and wanted to wander around shopping by themselves for a bit. We took them to the Halsted street area, also known as “Boystown”. Friendly place, nice folks, great window shopping and the most effective community watch in the city. I would have a hard time imagining a safer place for two naive girls.
If you’re coming up from Monterey, stay on Highway 1 and go through Santa Cruz and then go up the peninsula. Stop at the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum and then stay for a bit watch the surfers at Steamer Lane. Not too far out of the way and a definitely a slice of classic California.
You can get fireworks on the Peninsula with no weather problems. Might want to visit some top universities if they are in the least academically oriented - Stanford and Berkeley never fail to impress and you might plant a seed that will change their lives!
My niece (14 y.o.) loves Chinatown. Just walking up and down the hills, stopping in stores, checking out the merchandise.
The CityGuides guided walking tours (free, but donations gratefully accepted) are great for locals and tourists. You get some history, a sense of the neighborhood, and an appreciation of what makes the City unique. Instead of a whirlwind tour of the whole City, you spend an hour or two walking through a small part of it.
Some other possibilities (in no particular order):
Take the cable car from Powell to Ghirardelli Square.
Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Walk Fisherman’s Wharf, take F streetcar back
Walk North Beach
Walk thru Golden Gate Park: Stop at
[ul]
[li]California Academy of Sciences[/li][li] De Young Museum[/li][li] Japanese Tea Garden[/li][li] Conservatory of Flowers [/li][li] Arboretum[/li][li] Stow Lake[/li][/ul]
Shop Union Square / Downtown
Grab some eats at Tommy’s Joint
Walk the Castro / lower Market St.
Mission Dolores
Exploratorium
Walk down Mission St.
Drive to the top of Twin Peaks
Stroll Ocean Beach
Cable Car Museum
Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill
Nob Hill and the hotels (the Mark, the Fairmont, etc.)
Hike the trail at Land’s End (look for 3 shipwrecks)
Kayak along the waterfront
Ferry Building farmer’s market
Yet another vote for the Exploratorium - especially for kids (of any age). I try to go at least once a year, and there always seems to be something new and fascinating.
SF Zoo is also a good kid-friendly place (less one tiger), but they might have seen the one in San Diego, which is definitely superior.
Definitely another vote for Chinatown.
Also, down in San Jose, the Tech Museum is mind-boggling.
Yup - most of the Grays have already moved on, but midsummer is usually good for Humpbacks and dolphins & porpoises. July is usually a little early for Blues and albatrosses, but it’s been a windy spring, and if upwelling is good, they’ll show up earlier than usual.
(I’m a naturalist on whalewatch trips running out of San Francisco. I even have a trip scheduled the weekend before the 4th of July, so if you PM me I can let you know what kind of conditions and species to expect.)
I also highly recommend coming to see the new Marine Mammal Center - we’ve just rebuilt and will be open to the public by then. No charge or fee, and teenage girls generally like seeing the seals and sea lions.
I’ll echo The Exploratorium suggestion; it’s great for kids of all ages! Leave plenty of time though, I took my daughter and sister there (8 and 16, at the time) and we were there for five hours and still hadn’t seen everything. Also, buy tickets online because there are special exhibits (The Tactile Dome) that always sell out.
Chinatown is awesome!
Wicked and Spamalot are both showing in SF during that time and there’s a King Tut exhibit at The DeYoung.
If you want to come down to San Jose: The Winchester Mystery House (2 hours, maximum, book online), The Tech Museum (3 hours, unless you take in an IMAX movie) and The Rosicrucian Museum (totally campy) could take up a whole day.
One thing I really love that no one has mentioned is Angel Island. I used to go there a lot when I was a kid, but hadn’t been in years until my mom and I went in 2006. It’s beautiful, with great views, and it has an interesting history, too.
“Teenage girls”? A few years back I visited my sister who was staying in San Francisco; our teenage years were back in the 60’s.
The City has no shortage of sights, from the official ones to interesting neighborhoods to walk through. But she insisted on taking me to Fisherman’s Wharf, which is sort of a tourist trap.* Her real reason for the visit: Ogling the sea lions!
A tourist trap in a beautiful setting, I’ll admit.
Downtown Monterey has a park with some information about the first capital of California, which was there, and a lot about the Spanish period. They might be interested in that.
if they like Egypt, the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose is very cool, not very expensive, and free from them pushing their beliefs on you. It’s not well enough known, and wasn’t very crowded when we went. It also has a very nice garden, and a retro planetarium.
I’ve heard plenty of radio ads about this place but have never been–I think it might well be worth checking out, though I’m always wary of taking guests places I’ve never been, mostly because I’m learning about crowds and traffic and negotiating bodies for the first time, too.
Enough so that the Castro is a definite O-U-T.
Morbo, that sounds awesome, so even if we don’t do it that weekend, I’ll be sure to take the Mrs. out and do it on our own ourselves.
Yeah, that would be fun, and it’s been a while since I’ve done so myself. We’ll just stop short of that Broadway/Columbus intersection. :eek: And walking tours (especially self-guided ones) are fine–I remember them being fairly active so taking on a few hills to see some of the neighborhoods and Painted Ladies should be fine.
My experience with GG Park is that it’s a nightmare of traffic & parking; I get around the city very well, but I always get turned around in there, and unless they’re early risers so we can get a head start on the traffic, I’m more inclined to forget about it–or at least let my wife take them around while I deal with the car issue separately.
Everything else you mentioned are good ideas–in close proximity to stuff I already mentioned, or natural offshoots once I gauge more specific levels of interest (I love Farmer’s Markets, for example, but don’t know if they do; ditto going out to Sushi or exploring museums–everyone’s different, I have to remind myself).
I’ll also take a look at the Pink Section to see if there’s anything special going on that weekend which might be off my radar currently.
Thanks for the tips. They’ve talked about the possibility of going swimming with dolphins. I told them Monterey was out, but they can up at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (though it’s a bit pricey). I agree that my mom will definitely take them to the Zoo in SD, so nothing up here comes close, but we’ll see if the dolphin thing is important enough for them to pursue. I’ll look into the whale tours though (and I’ve warned them to bundle up, since they’ll probably be caught off-guards after June in SoCal).
:eek: And walking tours (especially self-guided ones) are fine–I remember them being fairly active so taking on a few hills to see some of the neighborhoods and Painted Ladies should be fine.