Urban Trek USA is an excellent resource for your San Francisco visit; providing self-guided directions for visitors to explore San Francisco like a long-time resident would, plus tips on whatever would be helpful to those who are visiting San Francisco.
Golden Gate Park is a huge park with so many places with beautiful scenery and one of the best things to do in San Francisco. My next postings will be of my favorite places in Golden Gate Park.
My favorite place in the park is Stow Lake. It is a man-made lake and in the middle of the lake is Strawberry Hill. Stow Lake makes me feel relaxed whenever I visit. It's a good place for strolling or boating or hiking up Strawberry Hill.
Note: Click here for more excellent things to do in Golden Gate Park.
If you want to go boating around the Stow Lake, you can rent row boats and paddle boats at the Boathouse. You can also get drinks and snacks at the Boathouse.
In the middle of Stow Lake is Strawberry Hill. Pretty nice view at the top. There is a path and stairs to get to the top. I normally take the path up and take the stairs down because taking the path up the hill gives me a better appreciation of the scenery.
San Francisco's City Hall is a beautiful grand building and definitely worth visiting if you are in the area (e.g. Alamo Square, Hayes Valley). City Hall is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
San Francisco's City Hall has the tallest come in the United States and the fifth tallest in the world after St. Peter's (Rome), Duomo (Florence), St. Paul's (London) & Les Invalides (Paris).
The main entrance to City Hall is on Polk Street (between McAllister & Grove). However, if you have a backpack, you should enter at the lower level entrance on Grove Street (closer to Van Ness). Before you enter City Hall, stop at Civic Center Plaza and admire the architectural beauty of the building from this side. (Note: The start of the video is showing this side of the building.)
If you are entering the main entrance, you will eventually get to the main hall if you walk straight ahead. If you are entering from the Grove Street lower level entrance, you will have to go up the stairs or take the elevator one level up. (Note: Before you go up the stairs, stop by the exhibit of the Base Isolators, which were installed underneath City Hall so the building can withstand a very strong earthquake. See below.)
For a video about the renovation done to City Hall after the damage caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, click here for a link to YouTube.
Also worth checking out, if you have time, is the South Light Court where there are some exhibits.
When you are in the main hall, you will marvel at the beauty and grandeur of the palace for the people of San Francisco. Take you time admiring the architecture.
When you want to see more, I suggest taking one of the elevators to the top (4th) floor. Later you will know why I suggest going to the top and working your way down.
The 4th floor has a nice view of the main hall and the marble workmanship is superb. The workers matched one slab of marble to another so that there continuity in the design (veins in the marble). Pretty much every aspect of the design of the drinking fountains, railings for the stairs and the stairs themselves are all gorgeous.
Take the stairs down to the 3rd floor. This floor is not as beautiful as the 4th floor but still worth taking a walk around.
Take the stairs again down to the 2nd floor. This floor is where the Mayor's office is located as well as the Board of Supervisors Chamber. When people get married, the ceremony is usually by the door to the Board of Supervisors Chamber. (Note: I do not have photos/video of the Board of Supervisors Chamber since it is open only when they have meetings and I do not want to be disruptive during their meetings. It is a very beautiful chamber. The YouTube video link I provided in the last paragraph, before the How to get to City Hall section, will show you the Board of Supervisors Chamber.)
Walk down the grand stairs to get back to the main hall. You will feel like royalty or presidential when you walk down the grand stairs. This is the reason I suggested taking the elevator to the top first as it is better to get the feeling of grandeur walking down vs. walking up.
If you did not enter through the lower level at the Grove Street entrance, take the stairs at the South Light Court one level down to the exhibit of the Base Isolators.
When you get outside, walk to Van Ness and cross the street towards the Opera House and admire the view from this side if you had entered from the main entrance. (Note: If you entered from Grove Street lower level entrance, make surre to exit at the east side where Civic Center Plaza is located to admire the view of City Hall from that side and then walk to the other side on Van Ness.)
The quickest way from downtown is to take the underground Metro (any outbound Metro from Market Street) and disembark at the Van Ness station and walk about three blocks north on Van Ness. (Note: Do NOT disembark at the Civic Center station to avoid going through U.N. Plaza, which is not the best place to be when there is no Farmers Market. See the Note below.) The outbound Muni #5 and #5R buses will also take you to City Hall. Disembark at McAllister & Van Ness, which is just across the street from City Hall.
If coming from the Fisherman's Wharf area, take the outbound Muni #49 bus and disembark at Van Ness & McAllister, which is across the street from City Hall.
Note: On Wednesdays, from 7:00 am to 5:30 pm, there is an outdoors farmers market close by at U.N. Plaza. Please note that U.N. Plaza is not the best place to be when there is no farmers market. I recommend avoiding that area when there is no farmers market.
Here are more photos of City Hall (some not included in the video):
As a follow up to my previous post back in Nov. 12, 2018 (click here) on two existing holiday ice skating rinks in San Francisco for things to do in San Francisco during the holidays, a new holiday ice skating rink opened in the Civic Center (City Hall) on Nov. 30, 2018.
In my estimation, the size of this ice rink is in between the one at the Embarcadero Center and Union Square. The Embarcadero Center rink being the largest then this on at the Civic Center and the smallest one is at Union Square. What is nice about the Civic Center ice skating rink is there is a narrow section that goes thorough the Sycamore trees and makes for a romantic area to skating if you are there with someone you want to be romantic with.
Note: Friday would be a good time to go during the lunch time if you want to sample of the food truck food when Off The Grid is there from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. If the Senor Sisig truck is there, check it out!
Warning: The Civic Center are is not an ideal place to be at night so be more cautious after dark. Maybe the city will assign more policemen to patrol that area by foot during the time when the ice skating rink is open.
FYI: The tree lighting for the Christmas tree will be on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, at 5:00 - 7:00 pm. For more information about this event, click here.
The photos and videos were taken on opening day.
If you come when City Hall is open during the weekdays, go inside our City Hall. I will post more photos of our beautiful City Hall in a future post.
