Where to drink craft beer in San Francisco

Looking for a great place to drink craft beer in San Francisco?  You are in luck!  San Francisco and its neighbors, Berkley and Oakland, offer  some of the best bars for craft beers in the nation.

Hopwater Distribution
850 Bush St, San Francisco

Hopwater’s 31 beer taps feature all California craft beers in a frequent and heavy rotation. “,We strive to include an option for every taste, pales, porters, pilsners & more. Sure, we are likely to include a few tried & true standbys from time to time, but given the nature of the craft brew industry, limited runs & allocation, expect to visit a venue where you’re more apt to find & try something out of the ordinary.” To go along with its wide selection of California craft beer and exceptional burgers, Hopwater offers some delicious bar bites including Dungeness Crab tater tots, beer breaded & fried seasonal pickled vegetables, Deviled Eggs with duck, bacon or crab and more.

California Academy of Science – Living Roof

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oE3c3KujWM&w=560]

Atop the California Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate Park is the literal capstone of Prizkter Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano’s design – the Living Roof. His masterstroke lies in making the park’s environment such a visible part of the building itself. The rooftop’s seven undulating green hillocks pay homage to the iconic topography of San Francisco and blurs the boundary between building and parkland.

Assembling a 197,000-square-foot rooftop to accommodate a living tapestry of native plant species is challenging enough. Add to that the technical problems posed by the roof’s extreme dips and slopes. How to keep the plants and soil from sliding off? Rana Creek, who worked with Piano to design the roof, developed and patented a solution called the BioTray®. They used 50,000 porous, biodegradable trays made from tree sap and coconut husks as containers for the vegetation. These trays line the rooftop like tile, yet enable the roots to grow and interlock, binding the trays together like patchwork.

The Plants

The Living Roof´s 1.7 million native plants were specially chosen to flourish in Golden Gate Park´s climate.
After experimenting with thirty native species, the finalists were all able to self-propagate. These nine species, located inside and outside of the special exhibit, will thrive with little water, resist the salt spray from ocean air, and tolerate wind.

There are four perennial plants: Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis), Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Sea Pink (Armeria maritima ssp. californica) and Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium). The other five species are annual wildflowers: Tidy Tips (Layia platyglossa), Goldfield (Lasthenia californica), Miniature Lupine (Lupinus nanus), California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and California Plantain (Plantago erecta).

The Living Roof is accessible from the third floor of the Academy. There’s also an elevator for those in need.

California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr.
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco CA
94118
415.379.8000

REGULAR HOURS:
Daily
9:30 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday
11:00 am – 5:00 pm

MEMBERS’ HOURS:
Tuesday
8:30 – 9:30 am
Sunday
10:00 – 11:00 am

Alcatraz Island

Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco. Often referred to as “The Rock”, the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison (1868), and a federal prison from 1933 until 1963. In 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area and received designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Alcatraz Island is home to the abandoned prison, the site of the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly Western Gulls, cormorants, and egrets). Landmarks on the island include the Main Cellhouse, Dining Hall, Library, Lighthouse, the ruins of the Warden’s House and Officers Club, Parade Grounds, Building 64, Water Tower, New Industries Building, Model Industries Building, and the Recreation Yard.

According to a 1971 documentary on the History of Alcatraz, the island measures 1,675 feet (511 m) by 590 feet (180 m) and is 135 feet (41 m) at highest point during mean tide. The total area of the island is reported to be 22 acres (8.9 ha).

Visiting Alcatraz

Today, the island’s facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. Hornblower Cruises and Events, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island. Hornblower launched the nation’s first hybrid propulsion ferry in 2008, the Hornblower Hybrid, which now serves the island, docking at the Alcatraz Wharf.

Chinatown Gate

The Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Avenue at Bush Street in Chinatown, the only authentic Chinatown Gate in North America. Unlike similar structures which usually stand on wooden pillars, this iconic symbol conforms to Chinese gateway standards using stone from base to top and green-tiled roofs in addition to wood as basic building materials. The Gateway Arch was designed by Clayton Lee, Melvin H. Lee and Joe Yee in 1970.

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most recognized symbols of San Francisco. It spans the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean, linking San Francisco on the south to Marin County on the north. Until 1964, it had the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,280 m).

Visiting the bridge

The bridge is popular with pedestrians and bicyclists, and was built with walkways on either side of the six vehicle traffic lanes. Initially, the walkways were separated from the traffic lanes by only a metal curb, but railings between the walkways and the traffic lanes were added in 2003.

San Francisco, CA Hotels from $39!The main walkway is on the eastern side, and is open for use by both pedestrians and bicycles in the morning to mid-afternoon during weekdays (5 am to 3:30 pm), and to pedestrians only for the remaining daylight hours (until 6 pm, or 9 pm during DST). The eastern walkway is reserved for pedestrians on weekends (5 am to 6 pm, or 9 pm during DST), and is open exclusively to bicyclists in the evening and overnight, when it is closed to pedestrians. The western walkway is only open, and exclusively for bicyclists, during the hours when they are not allowed on the eastern walkway.

Bus service across the bridge is provided by two public transportation agencies: San Francisco Muni and Golden Gate Transit. Muni offers Sunday service on the 76 Marin Headlands bus line, and Golden Gate Transit runs numerous bus lines throughout the week. The southern end of the bridge, near the toll plaza and parking lot, is also accessible daily from 5:30 a.m. to midnight by Muni line 28.

Things to do in San Francisco

San Francisco, CA Hotels from $39!

While you are in San Francisco why not take in the sights and sounds of this vibrant city by going on a tour? Here is what you can expect –

The Alcatraz and San Francisco City Tour – this tour includes a tour of San Francisco by tour bus then a ferry ticket across to Alcatraz Island. Whilst on Alcatraz you can enjoy an audio tour of this world famous prison and experience what it might have been like to be an inmate if you dare be locked in cell!

A Muir Woods tour is ideal if you want to get back to nature and wonder at the huge redwood trees in this idyllic woodland. This is a side of San Francisco that you may not have expected to see. Just remember to pack your camera for those important photos.

If local cuisine and fine wines are more your thing then the Napa Valley tour is for you. Enjoy a day tasting wines and local produce then head for the Sonoma Restaurant for lunch. To round the day off you will then go to Domaine Chandon to find out how champagne is made and get to sample some yourself.

No trip to San Francisco is complete without a tour of the world famous Yosemite National Park. Included in the price is a guided tour of the breathtaking natural sights of the park with free time for you to do some exploring of your own.

Perhaps you love adventure – if this sounds like you then take a San Francisco helicopter tour. This tour will take you above the city to get a bird’s eye view of the sights. Seeing the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge from the clouds is one experience you will never forget! San Francisco really is packed with things to do.