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Tags: Beer Travel / Drinking Travel / Beer Festivals / San Francisco Travel / Festival Travel / Events / → All Tags

Raise A Glass To San Francisco Beer Week

San Francisco is known for their food scene, but with San Francisco Beer Week 2010 they’re throwing their hats in the ring for contention as a serious beer town as well.

Events kick off on February 5 and run through February 14—yes, it’s a little more than a week. The San Francisco Brewers Guild starts things off right with their Opening Gala. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be filled with enthusiastic beer fans as they sample over 30 craft brews and barrel-aged beverages. Tickets for the opening night start at just $45, but jump up to $55 if you order them after January 31.

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SFO Has the Best Layover Activity Ever: Playing Free Pinball!

Please allow us to begin this lovely Friday by getting the music from The Who's Tommy stuck in your head: "He ain't got no distractions / Can't hear those buzzers and bells / Don't see lights a flashin' / Plays by sense of smell / Always gets a replay / Never tilts at all / That deaf, dumb and blind kid / Sure plays a mean pinball."

Now translate this to apply to your layover at San Francisco International Airport (except the deaf, dumb and blind part), and we've got a winner! You see, SFO has installed some 36 pinball machines in the International Terminal as part of an exhibition on the history of the game. Machines range from the 1870s to the 1990s, and you'll even get to play on them! FOR FREE!

Today in the Sky fills us in on this awesome layover activity:

In conjunction with the exhibition, during the first two weeks of January, the San Francisco Airport Museums and Pacific Pinball Machine will present free-play pinball, where members of the public will be able to test their skills on classic pinball machines. Machines will be located in the International Terminal from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m

Egh...okay so the first two week os January are up, but maybe they haven't flipped the switch yet to ask you for money. Check it out and let us know! We desperately want to become the airport pinball wizard.

Related Stories:
· San Francisco Fliers Can Test Pinball Skills [Today in the Sky]
· Airport News [Jaunted]

[Photo: Carly & Art]

Tags: New Routes / Jetblue / SFO / San Francisco Travel / Airline News / → All Tags

Jetblue Enjoys Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

After a 2009 full of focusing on the east coast (Boston, what what!), Jetblue is getting back in the west coast game by turning up the heat at SFO-San Francisco International Airport. This week, they've bulked up on existing routes from SFO, perhaps as a raised eyebrow threat to competitor Virgin America, who look to make SFO their own cozy little home with the renovated Terminal 2 later this year.

Anyways, Jetblue is renewing their love for the Golden Gate with one more daily flight each to Boston and New York, and two more daily flights down to Long Beach. That's four new flights out of SFO, bringing the total number of daily Jetblue SFO flights up to 11, since you'll catch them also flying SFO to Austin and Fort Lauderdale. And here it feels like just yesterday that Jetblue was adding flights out of Chicago...oh how time flies when you're having fun!

Related Stories:
· Jetblue Expands In San Francisco Today [Jetblue]
· Jetblue expands in San Francisco [Today in the Sky]
· Jetblue coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jetblue Route Map]

Tags: Movie Travel / San Francisco Travel / Walt Disney / Holiday Travel / Christmas Travel / → All Tags

Have A Hitchcock Holiday At A San Francisco Theater

It's 36-hours before Christmas, and we're readying ourselves for a full day of A Christmas Story airings, with a little Love Actually and It's a Wonderful Life sprinkled in-between. 'Tis the season for themed-movies—heck, even Die Hard is getting a lot of airtime—and as much as burrowing underneath a Snuggie with TiVo-ed shows sounds enticing, we'd much rather get out to avoid cabin fever.

San Francisco cinephiles and holiday movie lovers have plenty of reason to do so with two programs designed for those whose idea of cheer is cozying up to the big screen. The first is a very kid-friendly series titled "Christmas with Walt Disney." It runs from December 24-January 4 at The Walt Disney Museum, highlighting holiday miscellany like The Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia, Pluto's Christmas Tree, and "rarely seen home movies of Walt and his family."

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Tiger Spotting on a Recent Terminal Adventure

Last weekend, we found ourselves on an insufferable four-hour layover in the San Francisco International Airport's international terminal which is where Virgin America and JetBlue fly out of.

The problem was, we were booked on a flight out of JFK to Las Vegas except we couldn't make the morning flight and all that was left were flights that routed us through SFO. Yes, essentially we flew over Las Vegas, spent four hours at SFO and then flew back to Vegas. Don't worry, we got plenty boozed up to deal with it all.

On our terminal adventure, we decided to leave the security checkpoint and seek out the XpresSpa in Terminal 1. But after walking about a half-mile through the airport with at least another mile to go, we decided to scrap these plans and just head back to our terminal to drink. Lesson learned: Don't ever leave the terminal. Going back through security is somehow more hellacious than the initial examination.

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Blue Bottle Coffee Dazzles the Bay Area and Beyond

Call it an addiction, an obsession, or just damn good taste, but we here at Jaunted are on a perpetual search for the perfect cup of joe. Yet, a lauded Bay Area company has half-convinced us to call the search off.

San Francisco's historic Ferry Building, a favorite stop of tourists, locals, and above all, those with fine palates, is home to a Farmer's Market and many a gourmet retailer. It's where you'll find warm loaves of Acme Bread first thing in the morning, Cowgirl Creamery's rich selection of cheeses, and artisanal olive oils by McEvoy Ranch. It's also where you'll find a Blue Bottle Coffee outpost, the famed product of one of the Northern California's expert roasters.

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Tags: Travel Snapshot / San Francisco Travel / Holiday Travel / Shopping Travel / Ice Skating / San Francisco / → All Tags

San Francisco's Shopping And Ice Skating Scene Centers On Union Square

As we learned the hard way last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving earned its ominous nickname for good reason. We decided to brave the crowds in San Francisco's Union Square on the busiest shopping day of the year, only to be shoved and given the occasional dirty look by those supposedly bubbling with the spirit of the season.

The madness was due in part to some of the bargains to be had, and the tree lighting ceremony that took place that evening. News vans, families, and tourists from all over elbowed their way past each other to secure a viewing spot, but by 6:30 that night, most decent vantage points were taken and onlookers had to settle for a place on the sidewalks across the street. Standing at the intersection of Powell and Geary that night, our only thought was, "This must be what hell looks like."

Check out the pictures, after the jump!

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Michael Cera Takes His 'Youth In Revolt' Movie Away From Ann Arbor, Onto Campuses

One lucky college in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago or Philadelphia will get the chance to hang out with Micheal Cera and get a sneak peek of his new movie.

Eventful and Dimension Films are holding a competition for college students to bring Youth in Revolt to their campus. Students in these cities can demand a private screening at their school through Eventful’s Demand it! service and the college with the most "demands" wins. Based on current voting, it looks like Cera might be packing his bags for Berkeley, which is in the lead with nearly 3000 "demands". The competition ends Nov. 29.

It seems Ann Arbor, MI, the one college town that is an obvious choice for the competition, has been suspiciously left off the list. Most of the movie was filmed in and around Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, last summer. Maybe they're saving UM for the rumored Youth in Revolt Comedy Central College Tour that is supposed to begin on Dec. 1, though there has been no official schedule announced as of yet.

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Cool Tricks: Two English Dudes Row Across North Pacific (Almost) Unsupported

After 190 days and 7,000 miles of rowing a cutting-edge rowboat across the North Atlantic, two British dudes arrived in San Francisco on Friday and promptly drank a couple of beers. The Golden Gate Endeavor, as the journey was called, left Choshi, Japan near Tokyo on Friday, May 8, 2009 and passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday, November 13, 2009. The duo had hoped to be the first to row unsupported between Japan and the U.S., but they ran out of food about 100 miles from the finish and accepted an emergency helicopter drop. That doesn't make the trip any less cool in my book.

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San Francisco Gets Freaky This Weekend With Animation

A scene from Metropia, not for the kids

If you happen to be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and are looking for a last-minute culture fix, our suggestion is the Fourth Annual S.F. International Animation Festival. The festival's kick-off took place earlier this week, with an Opening Night screening of the new Wes Anderson movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

While Fox is a larger studio release, most of the festival's programming gives due time and attention to films that don't have the same hype or budget attached to them as a Pixar release—obscure international offerings, shorts, and other movies that don't usually find a place at your local cineplex. Don't get us wrong, we're still Pixar devotees, but this weekend's lineup is refreshingly challenging and less mainstream than, say, the umpeeth movie in the Shrek series.

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Laurine Wickett Of 'Top Chef' Gives Left Coast Some Market-Fresh Options

This week's cheftestant profile involves travel to you, rather than a self-initiated jaunt to a cast member's restaurant. Laurine Wickett, whose tenure on Top Chef effectively ended after what is arguably the show's most difficult challenge, "Restaurant Wars," has since returned to San Francisco where she runs Left Coast Catering.

New York born, but Northern California bred—at least in the culinary sense—Laurine incorporates the Bay Area's various cultural influences into market-fresh menus for her clients. Whether left coast parents planning a Bat Mitzvah or bride-to-be hosting a dessert reception, Laurine will provide you with options galore. We perused some of her sample menus online, which reflect a flavorful Californian approach to cooking while turning to other regions of the world for inspiration. She does everything from sushi stations to steak and french fries, on the same menu if you'd like guests to have multiple options. Her ill-fated Pork Rillette (or, as Dana Cowin punishingly put it, "cat food") made no appearance on any of the menus we saw.

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Tags: San Francisco Travel / Museum Travel / Museums / San Francisco / → All Tags

San Fran's Next Museum May Feature a Fire-Shooting Tree

Only in San Francisco would a house with a tree that shoots fire be considered a future museum site. That is, if saw player extraordinaire and former hotelier Bob Pritikin has his way. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Pritikin, who often throws lavish fundraisers at his residence—sort of an adult's fun house with kitschy memorabilia strewn throughout—is hoping to "pay the bills, make a nice contribution to the community and have some daytime visitors" by transforming his mansion into a museum. He originally suggested the less-than-humble "Only in San Francisco" name for the prospective museum site, though his hopes were dashed after learning that the city's Convention & Visitors Bureau already owns said URL.

The visiting groups would be relatively small, limited to 20 people per day, six days a week, says the Chronicle. Pritikin's idea, if realized, would place his home in the esteemed, eccentric company of one of the Bay Area's other homes-turned-tourist attractions, the Winchester Mystery House. This isn't Pritikin's first hubris-driven campaign on behalf of his home, having previously lobbied for it to have it turned into San Francisco's mayoral residence in 2004. That plan predictably never took off, and handsome politico Gavin Newsom is dwelling elsewhere these days.

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