Visit your local branch library

Someone has to break the stranglehold of bored schoolchildren and senior citizens on public library usage. Luckily for the continent among us, the San Francisco Public Library makes it easy, with 26 branches spread throughout the city, most with free WiFi access and many open until 9PM a few nights a week.

Library cards are free for California residents and not only allow you to check out materials in person, but also give you access to a host of online resources. You can search the catalogue; place holds on materials and request delivery to your favored branch once they become available; renew stuff you've checked out; request from a 9-million-title, intra-California lending network any book that the SFPL may not have--all from home, in bed, wearing only the boxers you've had on for the last few days.

For the especially thrifty, the SFPL offers a way to skirt both a monthly Netflix bill and the $3 charge for a movie-plus-tiresome-interaction-with-the-congenitally-unfriendly-staff at Lost Weekend Video by allowing members to request and/or check out any title in its voluminous collection. For free.

For starters, I would recommend the Mission Branch Library. The reading room's ceiling alone is worth the trip. Founded in 1888, the Mission branch is the oldest in the city. The present, post-earthquake building, which opened in 1915, was funded by a grant from Andrew Carnegie and designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, who also designed the Warfield and the Golden Gate theaters in San Francisco, as well as the Orpheum, Wiltern and El Capitan theaters in LA.


The Mission Branch Library is located on the corner of Bartlett St. and 24th. It is open 7 days a week (!). Andrew Carnegie was the self-made steel magnate whose personal philanthropy was legendary--e.g., he funded the construction of over 3,000 libraries in 47 states. He was a staunch advocate of a "confiscatory" estate tax, writing in his essay "Wealth", "By taxing estates heavily at death the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life." Interestingly, he was not known for dealing with his workers in a particularly benevolent fashion.

Abandon your old furniture outside of Danielle Steel's house

You've got to get rid of that beer-stained couch before you move out.



The bestselling romance novelist Danielle Steel lives in a 55-room Beaux Arts-style mansion on Washington, at Octavia, in Pacific Heights.



Mere coincidence? Or a cosmic sign that the meeting of your sofa and her sidewalk was written into Destiny's pages by the pen of Fate? You decide.

(If you consult Google's Street View, you'll see that Octavia, being the more minor of the two streets, is probably the better on which to dump the offensive love seat.)


The Spreckels Mansion, as Ms. Steel's residence is known, was built in 1913 by the sugar heir and racehorse owner Adolph Spreckels for his wife, Alma. If you've been to Union Square (or seen the movie The Conversation), it is likely you've seen the likeness of Alma, as she served as the model for this statue. Adolph and Alma also donated the money, and much art, to found the Legion of Honor museum in the Outer Richmond. For more information about Danielle Steel, see this article and interview. (In case you do, and then wonder where else you might have heard the name Tom Perkins, see here for an answer.) . For more information about Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, see this short biography. And for more information on the history of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, see here.

Enjoy an ice cream cone from Mitchell's

Mitchell's ice cream is the perfect antidote for a postprandial and/or post-coital sweet tooth. Visit the shop at the edge of Noe Valley/the Mission/Bernal Heights, or look for the ice cream at restaurants around town.

Mitchell's has been open, in the same location and owned by the same family, since 1953.


It now offers everything from cones and cups to cakes and pies to sundaes, milkshakes and something called halo-halo (a traditional treat from the Philippines made out of "sweet beans and mongo beans, a blend of fruit, evaporated milk, shaved ice" and a scoop of ice cream).

Check out Mitchell's website for flavors, awards and more historical information. If you decide to visit, bring a book or someone to talk to/make out with, as you may have to wait in line.


Mitchell's Ice Cream is located on San Jose Ave. (Guerrero St.) at the corner of 29th. It is open 7 days a week, from 11AM to 11PM. Interestingly, Mitchell's does not distribute its ice cream outside of the Bay Area.

Go for a bike ride through the Alexander and Russian River Valleys

Remember that $4000 Cannondale you bought when you first moved to Cow Hollow? Do you still know where it is? If so, take it to a bike shop and have them tune it up for you in time for the weekend. Ignore the snarky comments they'll (rightly) make about the pristine condition of your tires. You can tell them that you are so excited to be going on a gorgeous bike ride through the same Alexander Valley that supplies the wine to all of your "fave" restaurants in the Marina. Don't mind the blank looks on the mechanics' faces--the only kind of wine Zeitgeist serves comes in juice boxes.

Highlights of this 45-mile trip include the kind of scenery plump, prosperous people from Tennessee on flights home from San Francisco talk about having seen from the tinted windows of an air-conditioned bus while on a Napa wine tour--"we just adooore Napa"--except this isn't Napa, so there aren't a zillion cars and there's more than two routes you can take on your ride through the valley.

Stop for lunch at the Jimtown Store--"the cool place with the hot name"--for a snack and a water refill.

To add some hills to an otherwise-flat ride, when following the directions on the linked-to route slip below, turn right off Hwy 128 just before Jimtown onto the misleadingly named Pine Flat Road for a hill-assisted view of the valley. (Pine Flat dead ends 12 miles off of 128, the last two miles of which are said to compose the steepest section of road in the county.)


For a map and directions, a route slip created by the Santa Rosa Cycling Club is available here. To add about 12 miles onto the route's total, turn right and continue on Hwy 128 north after Jimtown instead of continuing straight onto Alexander Valley Rd. Take Hwy 128 all the way to Geyserville, turning right on Geyserville Ave. Follow Geyserville Ave. under the 101, where it changes to Canyon Rd. Take Canyon Rd. up the small-ish hill until it dead ends at Dry Creek Rd. Turn left onto Dry Creek Rd. and follow that until you come to downtown Healdsburg. At this point, find Mill St./Westside Rd. and resume the directions given on route slip. See here for a map of the addition.