As someone that has lived in both San Jose and San Francisco, SJ will never be more than glorified urban sprawl, while SF will always be a real "city".
Sorry to all current SV residents, but SJ, and all of Silicon Valley, was basically just beautiful farmland until it got paved over in the name of progress. It's pretty much a cement wasteland now, but what are you going to do The old days are gone.
Yes, it was called "the city" as far back as I can remember, which goes back to 1950 anyway... I agree that a nature area (like Muir Woods) would be far more enjoyable. (I'd say more like a minute for the Exploratorium.)
I've photographed there a bunch of times and it is an interesting place with an interesting history...
... but it is also the most crowded redwood grove in the area. If you want to see something a bit closer to what a redwood grove might actually be it could be worth a trip to one of the area's state parks such as Big Basin, etc.
The coastline between San Francisco and Santa Cruz (and even better if you have the time, south of Monterey) is not to be missed.
TeamSK jay wrote:
Well I live in Sunnyvale so no worries. But of course if it weren't for all that cement we wouldn't be having this nice chat on Fred's forum.
Well, I'd never go that far, but I'm all for driving down rt 9 (saratoga-sunnyvale) and plowing apple computer back into dirt so it can be the mustard field I used to love.
danmitchell wrote:
And you call it "Frisco?" You know that no one in San Francisco calls it that, right? "The City" maybe, or even "San Fran," but not Frisco. :-)
I am still not sure exactly what segment of the population is against using the term but I know a bunch of classic SF & Bay Area hip hop artists say Frisco all the time in their songs...
Looks like you got some great suggestions from everybody. Would just like to add that if you go to the Legion of Honor (they have a great collection of Rodins), that $11 ticket will also get you into the new and wildly designed DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park. Even if you don't go in, the building is a photographer's dream.
I'd stay away from Pier39, and all the "locals" hate Fisherman's Wharf -- but it's a great place to explore a WW2 Liberty Ship, the Jeremiah O'Brien, and an equally fascinating WW2 submarine, the Panpanito.
If you have time, get over to the Marin Headlands -- Fort Cronkhite and the Point Bonita area (as someone mentioned). Mount Tamalpais is great, and of course Point Reyes is quite a bit further north, but also enjoyable. Next time anyone is in Point Reyes Station be sure to stop by Marty Knapp's little gallery -- he does really great black and whites of the area.
I probably shouldn't be plugging my website here, but I live in the area so if you have time stop by http://www.photoarrow.com for more ideas.
Alcatraz can be a bit busy at times, but if you're patient you can get some really good shots around the island. I tend to try to keep people or other distractions out of the images I take as much as I can, and if you're patient you can have a few windows of opportunity to get the shots you want. You have chances at some very excellent panoramics of the skyline and the bidges. It is also WELL worth the money for the ride to the island. (On average $40/person.) If you have a night available they do do night tours of the island as well...and usually the ferry company will follow it up with a night tour of the bay. A word of wisdom for Alcatraz though, it is a national park, and since it doesn't have a "gate" if you will, what you're paying for is only the boat ride. All those boat companies have bought permits to go to and from the island. So all you're paying for is a boat ride. The tours aren't timed, they are self guided (very good audio tour), and you can take as much time and see and do as much as you wanted while on the island.
Best suggestion would be to do what we did when we were there the beginning of the year last year, we got up in the morning and got one of the first or second boat rides over of the day, less people, and it gets it out of the way early in the day, spend a few hours there, then get back to the mainland and have lunch...works out perfect, or at least it did for us.
Muir Woods is well worth the drive. But I would call the ranger station there or check on line to see what trails are open and what trails are closed if you planned on doing any hiking in the park.
All of the other places and spots people mentioned above are great. The hardest part for you is going to be fitting it all in while you're only there for 2 days.
We were able to do quite a lot in a single night and one full day! We did most of the "touristy" stuff such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Fields, Palace of Fine Arts, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, etc., but also got a chance to visit the Legion of Honor (a first for me) which was a very cool experience.
There's just way too much to do in a single trip, so I can imagine myself making the drive up again some time soon.
BTW, it was my first time taking the 101 back down to Los Angeles and I believe we took the 46 highway to cut through Salinas and back to the 5. Man, the 101 is much more scenic then the 5 freeway and there were many shooting possibilities during the drive alone.
The old days are gone. 