California Academy of Sciences
Originally clustered around the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park (in multiple buildings) and intending to return there around 2008 after a complete rebuild, this grouping of outstanding museums is now across from Moscone West, near the Yerba Buena Gardens and Center for the Arts. In its new location the Steinhart Aquarium houses some 5,400 animals, including seahorses, turtles, snakes, and poison dart frogs as well as a two-story 20,000-gallon living coral reef featuring Harlequin Tush fish, Yellow Tangs, sea stars, and a giant clam. Kids love the "touch tide pool" where they can get their mitts on live sea life.An edited version of the Natural History Museum has also been transplanted and hosts changing exhibits such as "Ants: Hidden Worlds Revealed," which shows the insects in action within six different live ant colonies. Some of the museum's permanent displays have moved, too, including Snake Alley, where terrestrial snakes reside; Astrobiology, an exhibit exploring life in extreme environments; and ScienceNOW, which presents a frequently changing display of Academy research, breaking science news, and expeditions around the globe. Toddlers will love the Nature Nest, an education center with hands-on learning activities.Families should look into the Academy's calendar of events, which includes fun kid-friendly festivities such as face-painting, storytelling, animal origami, and exhibit-related stories and demonstrations.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts/Yerba Buena Gardens
The Yerba Buena Center, which opened in 1993, is the city's cultural facility, similar to New York's Lincoln Center but far more fun on the outside. It stands on top of the northern extension of the underground Moscone Convention Center. The center's two buildings present music, theater, dance, and visual arts. James Stewart Polshek designed the 755-seat theater, and Fumihiko Maki designed the Galleries and Arts Forum, which features three galleries and a space designed especially for dance. Cutting-edge computer art, multimedia shows, traditional exhibitions, and performances occupy the center's high-tech galleries.More commonly explored is the 5-acre Yerba Buena Gardens, a great place to relax in the grass on a sunny day and check out several artworks. The most dramatic outdoor piece is an emotional mixed-media memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. Created by sculptor Houston Conwill, poet Estella Majozo, and architect Joseph de Pace, it features 12 panels, each inscribed with quotations from King, sheltered behind a 50-foot-high waterfall. For most, this pastoral patch is a brief stopover to the surrounding attractions. New to the gardens in 2004 are seasonal free outdoor festivals held on varied dates from May through October. It's definitely worth discovering whether you can catch one of these, as performances include dance, music, poetry, and more by the San Francisco Ballet, Opera, and Symphony and others; see www.ybgf.org for details.On the periphery of Yerba Buena Gardens are a number of worthy individually operated excursions. In the Children's Center, Zeum (tel. 415/777-2800) includes a cafe, interactive cultural center, bowling lanes, ice-skating rink, fabulous 1906 carousel, and interactive play and learning garden. Sony's Metreon Entertainment Center (tel. 415/369-6000; www.metreon.com) is a 350,000-square-foot complex housing great movie theaters, an IMAX theater, a bountiful gourmet food court, interactive attractions (including one that features Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and surprisingly exciting virtual bowling), and shops. As part of the plan to develop this area as the city's cultural hub, the California Historical Society opened at 678 Mission St. in 1995 and is home to a research library and a publicly accessible California photography and fine arts collection.

Wells Fargo History Museum
Wells Fargo, one of California's largest banks, got its start in the Wild West. Its history museum, at the bank's head office, houses hundreds of genuine relics from the company's whip-and-six-shooter days, including pistols, photographs, early banking articles, posters, a stagecoach, and mining equipment.

Hotel Monaco San Francisco - a Kimpton Hotel
Hotel Monaco is located at 501 Geary Street at Taylor Street. Just one block away from nearby theatres/American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) and the Curran Theatre. Two blocks west from Union Square the center for the city's finest retail shopping, dining, and entertainment. Close to a variety of area attractions, two blocks from the Powell Street Cable Car Line which travels to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, and Ghirardelli Square. Walking distance to Chinatown, Mascone Convention Center, art ...

Marriott San Francisco
The spectacular San Francisco Marriott is located in downtown San Francisco adjacent to the Moscone Convention Center. Situated on Fourth Street between Market and Mission, the hotel is just minutes away from Chinatown, the Powell Street cable cars and Union Square shopping. The San Francisco Marriott features deluxe accommodations and superior facilities with one hundred thousand square feet of banquet, convention and meeting space including twenty-three conference suites, the forty thousand ...

Serrano Hotel - a Kimpton Hotel
Serrano Hotel is located at 405 Taylor Street at O'Farrell Street, within 2 blocks of the theater district close to American Conservatory Theater (ACT) and the Curran Theater. Three blocks west from Union Square, the center of the city's finest retail shopping/ dining and entertainment. Close to a variety of area attractions- 2 blocks from the Powell Street cable car line which travels to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, and Ghirardelli Square. A short walk or cab ride to Chinatown, Moscone ...