California's famous Golden Gate, marking the entrance to one of the world's largest natural harbors, is but one of many attractions for attendees of APsaA's 100th Annual Meeting in San Francisco in June. The 1.7-mile Golden Gate Bridge is best appreciated by walking or cycling the length of it, or even sailing under it on a harbor cruise. If you drive over it, be sure to have your camera ready for vertical shots of the awe-inspiring towers, not to mention spectacular views of the bay. From whichever vantage point you choose to observe it, San Francisco Bay is a highlight for most of the city's 15 million annual visitors.
Which of San Francisco's well-known attractions will you visit in June? If you choose to start out on foot from your conference hotel, the Palace at Market and New Montgomery Streets, an easy stroll of less than five minutes will take you to the Ferry Building, replete with gourmet food boutiques and eateries. On Saturdays, one whole side of the building is given over to local vendors for a colorful farmers' market.
From the Ferry Building, consider taking a walk along the waterfront thoroughfare, the Embarcadero, or hop onto one of the city's restored antique streetcars that traverse the “F” line. Aboard one of these trams, you may just find yourself reading a “No Smoking” notice in Italian since some of the heritage streetcars come from Milan, while others originally rattled over the tracks in Manchester, England.
However you get there, you'll find a lot to see at Pier 39, located at the junction of Embarcadero and Grant Avenue. It's a shoppers' mecca that boasts an aquarium, a carousel depicting San Francisco landmarks, a sports and game arcade, specialty shops, and restaurants of all kinds, offering everything from gourmet seafood to takeaway clam chowder, hot dogs, and ice cream. Don't be surprised if you find yourself amid an audience watching one of the many street performers who frequent the area, including musicians, jugglers, comedians, and mimes. And don't miss my favorite area of Pier 39: the pylons that serve as a gathering place for the bay's sea lion colony. You'll often see dozens of the sleek pinnipeds here, snoozing in the sun or sliding into the water. If you don't immediately find them, just follow the sound of their deep, hoarse bark.
Near Pier 39, you can catch a ferryboat to Alcatraz Island, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where you can soak up the history of one of the world's most infamous prisons—including tales of famous escape attempts—via a self-guided or ranger-led tour. Stop at the Cell-house Museum Store to browse the books and historic exhibits, and you might be lucky enough, as I was on my last visit, to chat with one of the former inmates who visit occasionally, now as free citizens willing to share their stories and answer questions about life on “The Rock.” Alcatraz tours usually sell out in advance, so book early at www.alcatraztickets.com.
Continue along the Embarcadero and you'll come to world-famous Fisherman's Wharf, home of San Francisco's ubiquitous sourdough bread and takeaway Dungeness crab cocktails. A stroll along the waterfront where many local fishing boats are moored will bring you to the red brick Cannery and on to Hyde Street Pier, a maritime park and home of the Balclutha, an 1886 square-rigged sailing ship that's now a floating museum.
Look across the green to your left for a great view of the multilevel Ghirardelli Square, once a chocolate and pasta factory. Here you can indulge in one of many decadent ice cream sundae concoctions with whimsical names like “The Rock” and “The Emperor Norton.” (The latter is named for a San Francisco citizen and self-proclaimed royal who in 1859 declared himself “Emperor of These United States.” According to Wikipedia, “Though Emperor Norton was considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations”—evidence of the city's long history of social tolerance and enthusiasm for the avant-garde.)
Besides the waterfront, San Francisco has many other fascinating neighborhoods and attractions that are easily accessible from the Palace Hotel. A five- to ten-minute walk will take you to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (six blocks from the hotel), popular for the striking design of its architecture as well as its impressive, 26,000-piece permanent collection. Those attending Steven Goldberg's Friday symposium, “The Steins Collect,” will especially want to take the private guided tour of the exhibit on Saturday morning, led by museum curator Janet Bishop. If you can't make the tour, you can still enjoy the exhibit during the museum's regular hours, and keep in mind that it's open until 8:45 p.m. on Thursdays.
And while you're in the mood for art, take a Market Street tram to the extensive Asian Art Museum, or a little longer bus or cab ride to the DeYoung Museum of Fine Arts. San Franciscans are justifiably proud of the DeYoung, for which a new building and tower opened in 2005. Located in Golden Gate Park, the museum will feature “Balenciaga and Spain,” a special exhibit exploring Spanish culture, history, and traditions (including art, regional dress, the bullfight, and dance) through the work of haute couture master Cristóbal Balenciaga.
A visit to the DeYoung Museum can be an occasion to explore Golden Gate Park, where the museum is located. Right next to the museum is the refurbished Japanese Tea Garden, so beautifully and authentically designed and maintained that it served as a scene in Japan in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha.
Directly across from the DeYoung Museum is the California Academy of Sciences, completely redone for its grand reopening in 2009. Those who remember the old Academy will find many of their favorites in new surroundings, such as the excellent aquarium, the planetarium, and comprehensive Native American and natural history exhibits, as well as some brand-new attractions—among them a four-story indoor rainforest adventure.
These are only three of Golden Gate Park's landmarks; the 1,017-acre park (bigger than New York's Central Park) holds many delights and is well worth as much time as the visitor can spare. The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park will host a summer exhibit, “Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues and Assassins,” in which visitors can meet living examples of dozens of infamous plants that have left their mark on history and claimed many an unfortunate victim. This exhibit will show that paralysis, strangulation, and derangement are just a few of the misdeeds of the plant kingdom—who knew?
San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum, within walking distance of the conference hotel, will feature a new media installation this summer entitled “Are We There Yet? 5000 Years of Answering Questions with Questions.” Sure to be fascinating, it poses questions from the Torah, pop culture, and the public.
Don't forget the stately Palace of the Legion of Honor in the western part of the city, where you'll no longer find the portrait of Carlotta Valdez that hung there in 1958 for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, but you will see a number of other masterpieces. In addition to its permanent collection, this museum will host two special exhibits in June: first, a large Roman mosaic unearthed in 1996 along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway in Lod (ancient Lydda), Israel; the Legion of Honor is one of only four museums to display this treasure before it is returned to the archaeological center in Lod. Second, an exhibit entitled “Reading the Floating World: Japanese Ukiyoe Books from the Collection of Arthur Tress,” will portray the flowering of popular culture during Japan's Edo period (1600-1868) and will include books with woodcut illustrations of samurai warriors, courtesans, supernatural beings, and natural wonders.
Consider visiting A T & T Baseball Park, home of the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants, located a short taxi ride (or approximately a 30-minute walk) from the conference hotel. A 90-minute tour of the park includes visits to the press box, batting cage, and dugouts, plus a chance to step out onto the field. The Giants will be playing the Cincinnati Reds at AT&T Park on Thursday and Friday evenings during the meeting, and again on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; for tickets and park tours, visit .
Numerous other fascinating places await you in San Francisco: Union Square and the downtown shopping district, also an easy—and level!—walk from the Palace Hotel; Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill; North Beach (the Italian quarter); the Exploratorium, a first-class science and technology museum, where you should visit the Tactile Dome; Lombard Street, known as the crookedest street in the world; the Palace of Fine Arts, built for the 1915 World's Fair and Pan-Pacific Exposition; Japantown; Twin Peaks; Fort Point; and Mission Dolores. For more info, see the following Web site: . And for evening entertainment ideas see:
And, naturally, you can't leave San Francisco without riding a cable car, which you can board near the Palace Hotel at the foot of California Street, or at Powell and Market Streets or Ghirardelli Square. As you trundle along at 9.5 miles per hour, ask your conductor if the car you're on stops at the Cable Car Barn, a lesser-known museum where you can see the giant underground cables that actually move the cars.
Foodies will find plenty of choices to tempt their palates. A small, unofficial poll of randomly selected members of San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (n = 10) yielded the following top two San Francisco restaurants: (1) Slanted Door, serving award-winning Vietnamese food on the waterfront, a short cab ride or about 20 minutes' walk from the conference hotel (though it may be hard to get reservations there, cautions local analyst Mary Margaret McClure); and (2) Delfina, featuring authentic Italian specialties in the Mission district. Delfina also operates an excellent pizzeria in Pacific Heights; both are a cab ride away.
Other favorites that emerged in the poll: (3) Boulevard, on the Embarcadero, also a short cab ride from the conference hotel; (4) Heirloom, in the outer Mission district (“small, not expensive, excellent bistro-type food,” says local analyst Alan Skolnikoff); (5) Zuni Café, in the Civic Center area, characterized by local analyst Sam Gerson as “a kind of cross between a bistro and hip American”); and (6) John's Grill, downtown, which Jeff Miller, CEO at San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, says is great for “a taste of old San Francisco—the Maltese Falcon and all that.”
And let's not forget the Garden Court at the conference hotel, where I'm told the crab salad is excellent—and where Green Goddess salad dressing originated in 1923 (invented by chef Philip Roemer to honor an actor in William Archer's play, The Green Goddess).
From a National Meeting that promises a range of intellectually stimulating presentations and discussions, to painting, baseball, and goddesses, San Francisco has a lot to offer the visiting psychoanalyst. June is a popular tourist month, so you may want to plan some of your activities, including restaurant meals, in advance. A comprehensive Restaurant and Visitor's Guide will be available on the APsaA Web site in the spring.
Former Mayor Gavin Newsom has described San Francisco as “47 square miles surrounded by reality.” If you're already familiar with the city, you'll appreciate that this description captures something of its magical essence and land-of-enchantment quality, not to mention its unique worldview. If you're gearing up for your first visit, I'm confident that when you arrive, you'll understand why San Francisco is known as “Everybody's Favorite City.”
Venture out from the Palace Hotel to visit lots of exciting attractions in San Francisco. You can tour on foot, by antique tram, and ferry boat to discover, or rediscover, the sites and charms of the City by the Bay.