re: Where to stay and what to do in San Francisco

Because we enjoy scenery and the California coast is too nice not to spend time over there as well. She would really love Napa, but we are saving that for a longer trip. It literally is 48 hours in San Fran for her. I have to spend the rest of the week in Mountain View.

We did the same thing a couple of years ago, had a long weekend on the back end of a business trip. We did the following in a couple of days:

The highlight was no doubt Alcatraz and Muir Woods.

Before or after you catch the ferry to Alcatraz grab some clam chowder in a bread bowl at any of the places near there. At Alcatraz, the self guided tour with the headphones are worth it.

If you do Muir Woods, which I highly recommend, be sure to get there early. I'm not sure about how the crowds are now, but if you were not there by about 10am you had to park VERY far away from the entrance. Get there no later than 9am. We didn't know this going in, we just got lucky and planned to get there early anyway. We saw all of the cars along the road on the way out of the park. We had breakfast a little place in Sausalito before heading to Muir Woods.

We also rode some cable cars up to Union Square and back (standing on the side and hanging on is a must for this).

At night, going up to the Marin Headlands is a cool way to see the city at night.

Oh, and drive down Lombard Street just to say you did it. It's pretty neat.

ETA: Fisherman's Wharf is overrated IMO. Grab some clam chowder at one of the places near there, but if you only have a couple of days see above and hit the Wharf if you have extra time. Also, avoid Coit Tower at all costs, unless you enjoy 30 minutes of being crammed in a claustrophobia-inducing elevator and shoulder-to-shoulder spiral staircase with tourists.

If you go to Muir Woods, go during the week, and/or early or 2-3pm. It gets packed on weekends, where you have to park a mile or two down the road then walk to the entrance. If you do get stuck way down the road, take Ben Johnson trail over the top, then left(SE) on Dipsea Trail, then take the fire road back to Muir Woods road to be closer to your car. If you then head west you can go to the Muir Beach overlook, which is spectacular.

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Secondly, does the hotel you pick matter all that much? While nice hotels are great experiences, I wasn't planning on spending much time there.

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I don't think it matters, but depending on your comfort with being in sketchy areas of town it matters a bit. Ideally staying some place downtown close to transit will make your life easier.

The Kaiser family went to Louisiana to get cheaper labor for the ports in Oakland most of which were African American men...prior to their arrival the city was not segregated racially or economically. The arrival brought tension, crime and ultimately "racism" to the area. Look it up, I bitched about crime here and someone from work essentially told me it was the souths fault.