Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things you should see/do in San Francisco

1. Everybody goes to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but drive UNDER the bridge to Fort Point and climb to the top floor of the old fort and see the underside of the bridge.
2. The view from Twin Peaks
3. Drive through the Haight-Ashbury District
4. Wander around the Palace of Fine Arts and maybe go to the Exploratorium
5. The Lombard Street hill (and if you REALLY want to feel "In" see its counterpart on Vermont St.)
6. Drive down Filbert Street from Hyde to Leavenworth--it's the steepest street in the city
7. Drive through Sea Cliff and see if you can spot Robin Williams' house
8. Have lunch at the Seal Rock Inn...some of the best omelets ever and if you crane your neck, you can even see the ocean and the much more expensive Cliff House.
9. If you go into St. Mary's Cathedral (the one that looks like a washing machine agitator), realize that when I grew up there, the whole area was a slum and where the cathedral stands was the site of my old high school.
10. Go to Golden Gate Park and visit the Conservatory, the DeYoung Museum, the Japanese Tea Garden, and the new Science Building (but not all in one day)
11. Watch them hang glide at Fort Funston
12. Take your picture on the steps of St. Peter & Paul church in North Beach, the place where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their wedding picture taken so that Joe's Mama would think they had been married in a church.
13. See the "Portals of the Past" in Golden Gate Park, which people don't realize is all that was left of a big mansion that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake