Okay, way up top I was talking about things like Baker Beach, the Wave Organ, the Exploratorium and so on... all of which are way out west compared to the neighborhoods I've been focusing on here.

One thing I should add to the list of Things Which You Should Not Miss If You Have Time: Way out on the north-western corner of San Francisco is the Cliffhouse, which might just be a tourist strip-mall from hell, except that the views from the balconies are genuinely spectacular (and if the Camera Obscura is open, it's well worth the admission price).

If you walk off into the ruins of the old Sutro Bath (north of the Cliffhouse), you will find yourself in the setting for one of the scenes in "Harold and Maude". This is where Harold fakes his first homicide, and throws Maude down into a hole, though I have yet to figure out exactly where the hole itself was.

Here's some ways to get to all of these places by public transit:

• Exploratorium &/or Wave Organ - Montgomery BART Station. Walk down Market to 3rd Street, to get the 15 (it goes through Soma on 3rd, then crosses Market and goes up Kearney, then Columbus). Get off on Union street (where the 15 turns at Washington Square), and transfer to the 30 (which continues on Columbus for a while). Get off the 30 at Jefferson and Broderick. Walk a block west on Jefferson. The Exploratorium should be straight ahead. To get to the wave organ: make a right and walk down to the Mariana (watch it crossing Marina street) you ought to be able to see the paths that go down to the water, and then off to the right, onto the jetty that forms the Marina itself. Follow signs toward the Yacht Club and/or the Wave Organ.
• Baker Beach - This is just a good guess on my part (I always seem to go by car or bike): Start at the Embarcadero BART station. Get the 1 going north on Drumm. Ride it all the way west, to the intersection of 25th Avenue (and California). Take the 29 north on 25th Ave. And get off where Bowley Street forks off to the left of Lincoln Blvd. Follow Bowley up ahead a bit, make a left on Gibson, go west to the end of Gibson. Walk north from there. Walk north along the beach until you find the nude area.
• Cliffhouse & Sutro bath ruins - Montgomery BART Station. Get the 38 going down Market. This will turn on Geary, and take you all the way down 48th Ave. Walk down Point Lobos Ave (or transfer to the 18). The Cliffhouse isn't possible to miss. The old bathhouses were up north, right next to the Cliffhouse.
• Golden Gate Park - This is not quite so far west, and you could do worse than just follow the directions to the Upper Haight and keep going through the park at the end of Haight. Here's another way: on Market Street, anywhere north of 5th Street (e.g. the Powell Street BART), you get the 5 going south on Market, this will turn off west following McCalister and then Fulton, and Fulton is the north edge of the park. To get to the Japanese Tea Garden, for example, get off at 10th Avenue, and go south through the park.

Lee Baldwin (enigma@empire.net) suggests the "Palace of Fine Arts" at night, which is right next to the Exploratorium:

anyway, i mean the place behind the museum with the huge dome & all the columns, subtly lit at night. it's just the perfect place for a swirl of black clad goths at night. when i was there in May, there was a bat circling the inside of the dome, eating the moths attracted to the lights. it was one of my favorite places...

The Exploratorium and the Palace of Fine Arts together make a great industrial-gothic pair. So try this for an extended expedition (which would work best on a Wednesday, probably):

• Take the BART to the 16th Street stop. Walk west.
• Take your pick of the coffee/brunch opportunities on the 16th Street strip.
• Get the 22 bus going across 16th, at the corner of Guerrero.
• Take the 22 all the way to the end (Fillmore, near Marina).
• Walk north to Marina, then head west (make a LEFT turn).
  • Just as an aside, if you made a RIGHT here, you'd be heading in to Fort Mason Center, which isn't my favorite place in the world, but it ain't Fisherman's Wharf, and it does contain "Greens", a well-known (and somewhat expensive) vegetarian restaurant.
• Keep an eye out for the Marina "Safeway" (which is 24hrs). You may want to back track to this later for picnic supplies. In fact, if you can plan ahead that far, you might want to stop in here now to save some walking. This Safeway has a reputation as a pick-up place, so be sure to freshen your make-up before you go in.
• Keep going down Marina, then explore the Exploratorium. If this is Wednesday, you've got until 9:30pm, if not you only have until 6pm.
• Foodage exists inside the Exploratorium, but it's on the level of hotdogs. When it's time for dinner, in this neighborhood, you may have trouble finding anything better to do than to do the picnic thing. Luckily, great outdoor spaces are not in short supply here.
• Try and get out on the Marina jetty near the Wave Organ by around sundown. Out there you'll get a view of the Golden Gate, and from the Wave Organ itself, a view of Russian Hill across the water.
• After sundown, retreat back to the Exploratorium area, and go swirling around the Palace of Fine Arts area.
• When it's time to go, either
  • Head back to Fillmore to get the 22 (which runs all night), get off at Market and transfer to the L.
  • (After 1am only) Walk south to Lombard, get the 91 going east. (This is a *weird* bus line, an Owl that runs *only* after about 1am. Whatever you do, don't get on going the wrong way, it could take you way out of your way.)