Vancouverscape, a Vancouver based blog covering travel, tech, and lifestyle

San Francisco offers an abundance of live music, theatre, museums, gorgeous parks, iconic views, vibrant neighborhoods, scenery, themed tours, cafés, bars, and great food. From family-owned dining establishments to historic venues, visitors to the City by the Bay are constantly spoiled for choice!

With the CityPASS, I’m able to check out some of the city’s finest museums, plus the Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco Zoo, and a bay cruise cruise with Blue & Gold Fleet. Once a ticket has been purchased, the QR code shows up on your phone’s notifications and with a tap, the code is revealed when visiting one of these attractions.

[Art of Noise: 60’s and 70’s era posters featured on two large walls on the 7th floor]

One of my favourite spaces to visit when in San Francisco is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). This LEED Gold-certified building is visually stunning, designed by global architects Snohetta and Mario Botta. Within 45,000 square feet is a wealth of media, including sculpture, design, painting and photography.

[A boombox encased in a cinder block, aka Model Thirty-Six, by Tom Sachs, 2014]

The Art of Noise, a look at how design has shaped the way we’ve experience music over the past century, has since wrapped up, but there’s a variety of exhibits and spaces to explore, as well as a beautiful gift shop when you’re through.

Close to SFMOMA is an Asian restaurant you definitely don’t want to miss when in town. Fang, the same family behind well-loved Chinatown restaurant House of Nanking since 1988, opened this gem back in 2009 on Howard near 3rd Street, and it’s been serving up a hungry, appreciative crowd since.

Not only has Fang been featured on the Food Network with their Chef Dynasty: House of Fang season, but Salesforce founder Marc Benioff is a long-time fan. And speaking of A-listers, Keanu Reeves, together with director Lana Wachowksi, filmed a few Matrix 4 scenes inside the House of Nanking.

[A gorgeous plate of sizzling fried rice arrives at our table]

Menu items include an array of delightful veggie dishes, the famed sizzling curry fried rice (a success on the Food Network, and my new fave) as well as satisfying fall-off-the-bone pork spareribs and other delicacies.

Fang is also available for private events to suit groups from 12 to 100. Visit Fang online for more information as well as to view their current menu. Bring an appetite!

[Presidio Tunnel Tops National Park]

Located in the Presidio and close to the Presidio Tunnel Tops (a gorgeous national park with stunning views!), the Walt Disney Family Museum is a must-see for fans of Disney’s extraordinary talents. The entire history is unveiled through two floors of exhibits, artifacts, and original animation cells from several Disney classics.

You’ll learn the origin of Mickey Mouse and how the studio took a huge risk in creating Snow White (Walt Disney invested a million and half dollars, never forsaking talent nor time), with Walt seated next to a Bank of America banker, trying to sell him “a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of faith.” An early full model of Disneyland is also on display, as is franchise memorabilia. It’s a complete exhibit from Disney’s humble start as a cartoonist to his 1966 death, when the world mourned a giant.

City Cruises offers a three-hour Signature Dinner Cruise departing from Pier 3, serving up a full buffet with a live DJ. Stunning city views with flocks of pelicans circling overhead make for a great evening on the water.

Groups are welcome (our cruise had a birthday celebration onboard). There’s a separate drink menu too.

Independently-owned SF Love Tours has been in business for five years. On a typical sunny/foggy summer morning, I joined SF native tour leader and driver Tianna on a two-hour 60’s music-infused tour, as she pointed out San Francisco’s sights, monuments, history, and stunning view points!

[Tianna posing on Haight and Ashbury on one of our tour stops]

Take a break from walking the city and enjoy a couple of hours in a colourful, hand-painted, renovated VW van, with a group of seven per tour max.

The founder of SF Love Tours is a devoted hippie bus fan, and owns a fleet of eight unique vans, ranging in age from 1967 to 1973.

On May 13, 1922 The Warfield Theatre opened as Loewe’s Warfield. The landmark building originally served as a movie and vaudeville theater, counting Charlie Chaplain, Shirley Temple, and Houdini amongst its performers.

[Original chandeliers married with Edison smart bulbs]

The backstage features an eight-floor spiral staircase leading up to the stage ceiling. Hundreds of performers have graced the Warfield stage since the transformation of vaudeville to live music, and the venue books around 90 shows a year.

I was able to get a rare behind-the-scenes backstage tour, plus the green room and the ultimate in fandom: the autograph room, filled with wall-to-wall autographs from touring musicians. Bill Clinton and Barak Obama have even scribbled their John Hancocks here.

Topping the list of performers is none other than former city resident Jerry Garcia, who played 125 shows here between 1980 and 1995, and became The Warfield’s unofficial house band (from 1987 to 1995, the year of his passing).

Portland, Oregon’s The Ghost Ease, led by Cuban-American singer Jem Marie, opened for Bikini Kill at The Warfield Theatre on a recent Sunday evening, bringing their blend of rock and grunge to the venue. Their debut LP RAW was produced by Steve Fisk, who’s previously worked with Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Beat Happening.

Riotgrrrl pioneers Bikini Kill later commanded the stage, belting out in a 90-minute set (plus encores) including This is Not a Test, Double Dare Ya, I Like F*cking, Reject All American, Rebel Girl, and more, to an appreciative audience towards the end of their reunion tour.

If you can time a visit with a free concert at China Basin Park, you’ll be treated to views of the Bay Bridge and Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. This recent addition to San Francisco contains an adjacent small beachfront space with loungers, lots of wooden benches, all encompassing a community with shops, cafes, local producers, makers and creators. It opened after 15 years of planning, before the SF Giants’ home opener back in early April.

I made sure to be town to enjoy a free show by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads and Adrian Belew of King Crimson, billed as the Remain in Light Tour. The duo performed a nearly two-hour set with Belew’s touring band that included Life During Wartime, Take Me to the River, Psycho Killer, Once in a Lifetime, and from Belew’s catalogue, Thela Hun Ginjeet – simply stunning with Belew’s voice intact and his trademark guitar riffs keeping the packed crowd on their feet. This show was produced by SF Parks Alliance, Noise Pop, and Great American Music Hall.

You can’t get more historic than dining where Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon was written. John’s Grill, a San Francisco tradition founded in 1908, is mentioned in the novel and as a result has attained literary status. As well, this was the first downtown SF restaurant to open following the big 1906 quake and fire.

I was honoured to sit at the very table where the novel was written, too.

John’s menu is filled with classic items including steaks, lobster bisque, and New England clam chowder to surf and turf (a New York steak with three fried jumbo prawns). There are also several salads and pastas to choose from.

I highly recommend the Main Lobster ravioli in a creamy tomato sauce, as well as the broiled salmon, served with roasted potatoes and seasoned vegetables.

Sam Spade’s Lamb Chops (served with a baked potato and sliced tomatoes) is literally lifted from the novel, where our protagonist asked his waiter to “hurry up with his order of chops, baked potato and sliced tomato…”. This is truly a dining experience with a side of history, right in the heart of downtown.

A large selection of international wines, spirits, cocktails, beer, mocktails, and after-dinner drinks rounds out the menu. Nightly live jazz music flows between the three-levelled restaurant, adorned with photos on the walls of past patrons (by my table are photos of Hammett, Peter Minton, and Robert Altman, novelist Herbert Gould, Booker T. & the M.G.’s guitarist Lee Cropper, and other luminaries).

My San Francisco visit, flights, dining, and tours were provided by the San Francisco Travel Association. All opinions expressed within this article remain my own.