Day 4 - Alamo Square, Lower Haight, and Hayes Valley

We started off the day by taking the MUNI and then the bus to Green Chile Kitchen in Alamo Square for a burrito. We've heard that the burritos here in California are amazing. Our verdict about GCK: meh. The burritos we had were okay, but nothing special. We'll have to keep trying.

We went over to the park for a look at the famous Painted Ladies row of Victorian houses. (You Full House fans out there should recognize them.) They were quite picturesque and we snapped a few pictures in front of them. The actual neighborhood itself reminded us quite a bit of NoPa - it's nice in some areas, and a bit too gritty in others. Additionally, it's pretty far from the MUNI, though a couple bus routes run through it. Overall, we weren't impressed and we're going to cross that off the list.

From Alamo Square, we walked through the Lower Haight to get to Hayes Valley. Apparently the Lower Haight used to be quite sketchy but has gotten better in recent years. We felt comfortable walking through it, but it definitely was a bit rough around the edges.

Hayes Valley is another area which used to be not so nice but has been gentrified since the 1989 earthquake. The main strip down Hayes Street is very new, very posh, and very nice. It almost seemed a bit too nice for us - we don't think we'd ever shop at the high-end stores lining Hayes Street. Also, the transition from very nice to kind of questionable happens pretty abruptly.

We took a break at a coffee shop just off of Hayes Street to recharge our batteries. We then ventured back through the Lower Haight to head up to Buena Vista Park. It was quite a hike up to the top - there was a staircase up one block of Duboce Street because the incline was so steep. And of course, once we got up to the top, we finally got to experience some of San Francisco's famous fog which totally obscured the view. We did stay up there long enough for the fog to pass and for the sunshine to come back out - that was pretty neat to watch.

For dinner, we walked back to Hayes Valley to head to Double Decker. Unfortunately, we got there too late to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat wings special on Wednesday night. On the positive side, we split a grilled chicken sandwich which was pretty amazing - we'll definitely keep this place on our list.

So, after four days of exploring, here are the areas on the top of our list:

• Duboce Triangle
• Cole Valley/Ashbury Heights
• The Mission/Noe Valley

Day 4 - Almo Square, Lower Haight, Buena Vista, Hayes Valley

The fog rolling into Buena Vista Park.