I am coming to San Francisco for a vacation. I wil be staying downtown. How long will it take me to drive from San Francisco to Petaluma, and will it be easy for me to find. I was thinking about renting a car for the day to go to the outlet. Is it worth it?
Hmmm...probably about an hour. It is very easy to find, right off Hwy 101, and I think you will enjoy the drive, very pretty. You may be shocked how close to SF there is farmland, which Petaluma has. And coming back into SF over the Golden Gate bridge - well it's from that area that all those pictures are taken that people love - it's beautiful.
Oh, and make sure you get down to the wharf at least one day. I also like Ghiradelli square. I love all the shopping in and around Union Square. If you are a museum/art gallery person - they have phenomenal ones.
I don't especially like SF for a big city, but there are some neat things to do and see. If it's not normal for you to see homeless people on a regular basis, please remember that the groups that help them always recommend to give food or drink, but not cash. 2 blocks from Union Square (the super $$ shopping area) starts the Tenderloin, one of the poorest area's in the city (very ironic). Glide Memorial Church is at the beginning of the Tenderloin and it was the church Will Smith's character stays at in "The Pursuit of Happyness". The homeless, drug addicted, and prostitution, including teen runaways
, percentage in that area is way above average. When I go there, we always take a detour to the Tenderloin to give some food or drink (when cold we do hot chocolate) to people.