Pull out a map of San Francisco. I can wait. 3^rd Street is one of the longest single streets in the city, and you probably didn’t know it. (I didn’t.) It’s easy to overlook, due to its occasional ungainliness and the multiple personalities along its expanse, but this is a pretty good sampler pack of San Francisco. (I walked from Financial SOMA to South Beach through various basins to Dog Patch and some yet-unnamed enclaves till I hit Caesar Chavez.) Skip the T MUNI and run/walk/bike, detouring along the waterfront for the “beautiful” view of Oakland…as it goes. Crane. Crane. Crane. Be warned though: Most bikers surf the sidewalk—carry a spoke stick for the aggressive ones. For better or for worse, 3^rd Street is practically a new architecture tour of San Francisco (UCSF Mission Bay, especially) until you hit Dog Patch, where The New Spot, clearly carved from an old spot, serves up a super-mean Super Taco.

--Andy Ritchie