San Francisco, here I come!
I have a request for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, or those of you familiar with San Francisco: what do I need to do, where do I need to go while I'm there?
I lived in the Bay Area for over 12 years, and yet managed to avoid visiting most of the interesting places in the City. I'd like to check out two or three truly nifty places or things while I'm there this weekend -- the plan right now is to drive up Thursday and drive back Tuesday.
Some of my potential destinations (a few of which I've been to before) include Top of the Mark -- an excuse to SUIT UP!, Barney-style, while paying ten bucks for crazy martini concoctions and overlooking a panoramic view of the city (probably for Saturday night); the Tonga Room at the Fairmont, a cheesy tiki bar with an indoor lagoon complete with rainstorms; the Speakeasy Brewery (probably for happy hour Friday, sometime between 4-8 PM); the Hemlock dive bar; Amoeba Records; the Isotope Lounge and Comix Experience, for comic book geekery, and to meet a few of the people behind the blogs; and, hopefully, some kind of a show/concert, currently being looked into by my friend Matt (on whose couch I will be crashing). Also, I'd like to fit in a trip to the Parkway Speakeasy Theater in Oakland, a second-run movie house that serves beer and pizza -- an establishment which many of my midwestern visitors would know as a "brew 'n view," which are abundant in, say, Chicago or Austin, but are sadly almost non-existent in California.
Any other points of interest for me to visit? Keep in mind, I did most of the real touristy stuff while I was there (Coit Tower, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, the Stinking Rose, Fisherman's Wharf, etc.), and am looking for some of the more obscure, but still generally entertaining, points of interest. Availability of alcohol is a plus. Please speak up now -- I leave Thursday morning!