Attractions

Everyone is always looking to find the perfect Christmas lights during the holidays, so I did the work for you and picked my five favorite spots in San Francisco!

Top 5 San Francisco Christmas Lights:

1. Union Square
2. Civic Center Plaza
3. Ghirardelli Square
4. Fisherman’s Wharf
5. San Francisco Skyline

Union Square

Macy's Tree in Union Square

Why not start off with one of the most popular Christmas trees in San Francisco? Tourists and San Franciscans alike come to Union Square to enjoy the present Macy gives to the city every year, an eighty foot Christmas tree. While you are there, grab a cup of hot chocolate from the local coffee spot and take a spin on the ice skating rink!

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San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker, photo courtesy of San Francisco Ballet

The highlight of my daughter’s holiday season last year was a trip to the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood. A trip to the City is always special during the holidays, but this trip was even more exciting! We dressed in our finest holiday outfits, packed binoculars and enjoyed the magic of the Nutcracker.

War Memorial Opera House is not a huge venue, so even the balcony seats feel close to the action. Tickets are expensive, however, but a worthy splurge. Balcony seats start at $18, with center box at $236 a ticket. Mid-week shows are less expensive, with weekend matinees the most costly.

Be sure to arrive early, you are going to want to enjoy the beautiful Opera House. The Opera House Café, in the lower lobby of the War Memorial Opera House, opens one and a half hours before each evening and Sunday matinee performance.

Another reason to love the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker? Local children from the San Francisco Ballet School participate in the Nutcracker, and it is always exciting to see names of friends from school in the performance!

San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker runs through December 27, 2009. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit San Francisco Ballet.

Related posts:

Holiday Lights and Events in San Francisco Bay Area
The Holidays and San Francisco = A Perfect Evening
Popular Holiday Events for Families in San Francisco

Still looking for holiday gifts? Run, don’t walk, over to the Third Street Warehouse Sale in San Francisco on Saturday, December 5th, from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m! This annual sale features treasures from manufacturers, distributors and importers who occupy the American Industrial Center.

Check out their website for a list of all the treasures. Children’s clothes, handbags, jewelry, clothing, soap, home decorator items – you will find it all. Personally, I am going to be on the lookout for women’s fashions, including Two Star Dog and Cutloose.

Third Street Warehouse Sale
665 2nd Street (between Third and Illinois)
San Francisco, California

Photo courtesy of 3rd Street Warehouse Holiday Sale.

Related articles:

Holiday Lights and Events in San Francisco Bay Area
The Holidays and San Francisco = A Perfect Evening
Popular Holiday Events for Families in San Francisco

Macy's Christmas Tree, photo courtesy of celesteh on Flickr

If you find yourself in Union Square, San Francisco, the day after Thanksgiving, be sure to stick around for the 20th Anniversary of the lighting of the Macy’s Great Tree. An annual tradition, the tree lighting ceremony is quite a worthy attraction in San Francisco. The ceremony begins at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 27, 2009.

An 85-foot Shasta Fir is brought into the middle of Union Square and over 21,000 lights are used to illuminate the tree. The evening event also includes live musical performers and a visit from Santa! You can adopt a light on the tree for $5, with all proceeds benefiting UCSF Children’s Hospital.

The Holiday Ice Rink will be up and ready for skaters, through January 18th. Visit Union Square Ice Rink for more details.

And, be sure to check out the beautifully decorated windows in the Macy’s store at Union Square. Macy’s partners with the San Francisco SPCA and presents the Holiday Pet Adoption windows. Cute and cuddly animals are featured in the windows and are available for adoption. My kids love to sit at the window for hours on end, looking at each animal, explaining to me how great it would be if Santa brought one to our house for Christmas. You have been warned!

Related Posts:

Top 10 Hotels for Holiday Shopping in USA
Holiday Lights and Events in the San Francisco Bay Area
New Delhi Indian Restaurant, San Francisco, California

Photo courtesy of celesteh.

Looking for a last minute event for Saturday or Sunday? Check out the Bridge School Benefit!

The proceeds from this annual fundraising concert, organized by Neil Young and his wife in 1986, benefit the Bridge School, a non-profit organization which supports the development of individuals with severe speech and physical impairments. The Bridge School is internationally known and recognized from their success with using augmentative and alternative communication and they continue to develop programs and train highly skilled professionals in the use of state of the art assistive technology.

Each year, Neil Young puts together a knock-out lineup. This year’s performers include:

• Neil Young
• No Doubt
• Jimmy Buffett (Saturday only)
• Chris Martin of Coldplay
• Adam Sandler (Sunday only)
• Sheryl Crow
• Fleet Foxes
• Monsters of Folk
• Wolfmother
• Gavin Rossdale

The concert is Saturday, October 24th, and Sunday, October 25th, at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. Tickets are available through Livenation.com. Advance tickets are $150.00 and $75.00 for reserved seating and $39.50 for general admission plus applicable service charges. Four packs of general admission tickets may be purchased for $99.00.

Photo Courtesy of the Bridge School.

You have decided to spend some time in the City, but you don’t want to rent a car, but you want to see lots of different parts of San Francisco. Renting a car can be expensive, to say nothing of the hassle of finding parking. Fortunately, there are at least five alternative transportation options to help you with your dilemma:

- Take Muni and/or BART and/or CalTrain

Vintage San Francisco Muni Train

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Popular folk artist, Joan Baez, offered a great program even to those lost in the trees.

View of the Golden Gate Bridge

by Gudrun Enger, of Kitchen Gadget Girl

When I went to check out Sutro Baths last week, I finally found Land’s End, and it is way more interesting than I ever expected!

Entering the Coastal Trail from the Point Lobos parking area, Land’s End is along the trail on the western side of San Francisco. The first thing I noticed is how accessible the trail is. In addition to being stroller friendly, the path also looks smooth enough for wheelchairs and walkers.

Land's End Trailhead

Volunteers have been working on trail reconstruction, and it really shows. Native plants are being restored and labeled, trails are delineated, and the whole place is being spruced up. Signs are easy to read and paths easy to follow.

Native California Poppy

I walked up the path until I reached the first curve, where to my surprise, the Golden Gate Bridge stretched out in front of me. Not quite as close as visiting from Strauss Point or Fort Point, but on a clear day, the view is beautiful.

Coast of California

If you are feeling ambitious, the trail connects the Cliff House to Eagle Point, around by China Beach.  With some shade, it is a beautiful walk in the spring, and remains so through the warmer summer months.

View of Sutro Baths from hilltop

by Gudrun Enger, of Kitchen Gadget Girl

Opened in 1896, as part of the grand Adolph Sutro’s development of the western edge of San Francisco, the Sutro Baths offered so many activities to local residents. Nowadays, they are the perfect place to remember what life was like in San Francisco in the last century!

Bathhouse ruins

The Sutro Baths were comprised of 7 separate pools, offering fresh and salt water at different temperatures, plus slides, diving platforms, trampolines and other clever ways to get into the pools. In addition, Sutro Baths also featured many items from Adolph Sutro’s diverse personal collections, including stuffed animals, pinned insects and Egyptian mummies. Diverse, indeed.

Sutro Baths

Located just below the Cliff House, on the beach in a small cove, the Sutro Bath struggled financially after Adolph Sutro’s death, and in 1966 the baths closed permanently. Shortly thereafter, the outer building burned to the ground and all that remains today are low cement walls as a reminder of the long-ago grandeur. For more information about the history of Sutro Baths, I recommend a visit to the Sutro Bath information page on outdoor.org.

Plan your visit:

Sutro Baths are part of the Golden Gate National Park system, and are accessible via trailhead from the parking lot off the Great Highway, just north of the Cliff House. A short walk down the path brings you to the baths; heed the warnings on the signs cautioning visitors to stay away from the edges.

Take SF Muni – both the #38 Geary and #18 46^th Avenue lines stop by the Baths.

by Gudrun Enger, of Kitchen Gadget Girl

The forecast for the rest of the week is rain, rain, rain! And, when I find myself at home with the kids on a rainy day, I itch to get out and explore. Here are my top 5 recommendations for (indoor) family activities in San Francisco Bay Area on a rainy day:

Zeum, Yerba Buena Park

Zeum

Located in the middle of Yerba Buena Park, in the South of Market area of San Francisco, Zeum focuses the experience on technology and hands-on time with Animation, Video Production, Sound Production, Performance, and Visual Arts. Follow Zeum on Twitter to keep up with the latest news.

Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

This local attraction, which has served Palo Alto for 70 years, is definitely a fun place to go on a rainy day – out back, there is a small zoo with bugs, bats, geese, turtles, ferrets, hedgehogs and bobcats. Inside, loads of hands-on science activities keep kids busy and out of your hair.

Bay Area Discovery Museum

This hands-on children’s museum at Fort Baker in Sausilito has tons of fun things to explore on a rainy day. And they have a blog! Check out the Bay Area Discovery Museum Blog for up-to-date and insider information on their programs and projects.

California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences

I profiled this San Francisco attraction back in November – still a great place to take kids on a rainy day. If you really want to maximize your experience, get there early, pick up your Planetarium tickets right after you arrive, and hit the Rainforest before the crowds descend.

Children’s Discovery Museum

San Jose has its own children’s museum, a wonderful attraction for a rainy day. The “main street” of the museum teaches kids about traffic lights and stop signs, while exhibits through out the 3 floors introduce concepts about light, air and shape. Definitely worth a visit to the Children’s Discovery Museum!