Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Or bow to the altar of intellectual stimulation: Once a month, you can attend a
fascinating night during which anyone is invited to share anything they wish—
using 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. Creative types can honor San
Francisco's stature as an artsy enclave at the
Craft Gym
(p. 141), where visitors
work it out with scissors and clay instead of barbells. Even history hides in plain
sight here: As you walk the streets, that hum you'll hear beneath the road is the
looping wire to which the city's storied cable cars hook onto in order to move. At
the
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
(p. 139), you'll find out what propels the
wires through the city streets—it's a technology that your own city probably once
used, but which only San Francisco was sensible enough to preserve. By evening,
pay a visit to
Beach Blanket Babylon
(p. 133), an outrageous, rambunctious
revue, famous for its oversized bonnets, that's been a city tradition since 1974.
Outside of town, the
Jelly Belly
(p. 140) jellybean factory is a paradise for sugar
junkies, and its free tour is both informative and productive—everyone gets a free
bag of sweets at the end. And in the Wine Country, take a wine appreciation class
at
COPIA
(p. 259) the “theme park for food,” so that you'll know what you're
tasting and how it was blended when you set out to sample the vintages of the
local wineries.
