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Day Four

Marina • Presidio • Western Shore

At Market and Third, take the #30 Stockton bus, which winds through the Financial District, Chinatown, North Beach and the Marina District. Get off at Chestnut and Fillmore and walk west along Chestnut, a bustling shopping area with Art Deco storefronts. At Baker Street, proceed north to Bernard Maybeck’s 1915 Palace of Fine Arts, an outdoor rotunda built for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. On Marina Blvd. is Willis Polk’s 1928 St. Francis Yacht Club, and just west of it is the beautifully restored Crissy Field shoreline. A 1.5-mile walk takes you to Fort Point, built between 1853 and 1861; at the tip is the spot where Kim Novak jumped into the Bay in the film “Vertigo.” To get to the viewing area for the Golden Gate Bridge, Joseph Strauss’ 1937 wonder, walk back halfway between Fort Point and the Warming Hut and up a flight of steps that leads to Battery East Road where the suspension span starts.

After walking the 1.7-mile bridge, return to the south end and catch the #29 bus, which goes through the Presidio, now a national park. Get off at 25th and El Camino del Mar, and stroll past the beautiful homes and gardens of Seacliff. Continue on El Camino del Mar into Lincoln Park and up to George Applegarth’s 1916 Legion of Honor on 34th Avenue, featuring 16th-18th century European paintings and sculpture, plus a renowned Rodin collection.

Take the #18 bus outside the museum to Sutro Heights Park and the Cliff House, and walk south along the beach to the restored 1921 Willis Polk-designed Beach Chalet, with WPA murals by Lucien Labaudt. Have lunch or a beer in the brewery and restaurant upstairs. Return downtown on the N Judah streetcar.

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De Young Museum

Golden Gate Park

Flanking the Music Concourse are two stunning additions to the park: the copper-clad de Young Museum by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, with its cantilevered roof and twisting 144-foot tower; and the California Academy of Sciences, a planetarium, aquarium and natural history museum beneath an undulating living roof, a state-of-the-green-art building designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Renzo Piano.

 



 

 
 
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The Diverse City Destinations project was funded by the
San Francisco Grants for the Arts/Hotel Tax program, and written
and designed by San Francisco Study Center. Copyright © 2008