This is a copy of what I've written in the past:

Marin Headlands:
Our favorite place to explore in the entire bay area is the Marin Headlands. It's the peninsula and hills just north of the Golden Gate. The best views of the Golden Gate are up there, it seems like you're hanging over the bridge. There's a fun beach called Rodeo Beach. Also a lighthouse called Point Bonita lighthouse. The lighthouse itself is pretty weak as far as lighthouses go, but the short walk is open from noon-3 on weekends, putting you out on a jagged peninsula way out in front of the Golden Gate, a small swinging suspension bridge about 150 feet over the waves, seals swimming around, deer walking around, a couple of natural arches into the ocean, and waves crashing against the jagged rocks. It's a pretty dramatic scene. There's also a bunch of old WWII bunkers which the kids love to explore. Muir Woods, a redwood forest with paved walking 'trails' is pretty close. Sausalito is a cute tourist town where we love to grab a bite to eat.

Highway 1:
Another scenic drive is south on Highway 1. Start at Pacifica and head down past Half Moon Bay, to Santa Cruz, and if you have time, to Monterey (I could write another lengthy post about Monterey). There are dozens of beautiful spots to explore. Of particular interest are: "Moss Beach" where you can find abundant sea life in massive tide pools, Half Moon Bay Golf Links (Ritz Carlton and corresponding beach), and the dramatic Pigeon Point lighthouse.

In the city:
*We hate China-town. It's dirty, there's not much to do, and we've found better tasting Chinese restaurants in more easily accessible places. I'm not sure what people like about China-town. We'll never go there again.

*There's lots of Broadways, at three main theaters. We used to go frequently before the kids came... and I'm not up to date on what exactly is going on at all three. If you want to go to a show, look into stand-by tickets. They release them about 2 hours before a show and they usually run for about $20.

*We enjoy eating bread-bowl clam-chowder, walking through the boat museums (you can tour a submarine, a clipper, an old ferry boat, etc), awesome street entertainers, eating free Ghirardeli chocolate, and watching the sea lions all at Fishermen's Wharf. The cable cars run between Fisherman's Wharf and Powell Street (Union Square). There's a half-decent aquarium at Fisherman's wharf (Monterey's aquarium makes SF's look like child's play).

*Your wife would probably love to spend time shopping at Union Square, home to the best shopping on the west coast. If you are at Union Square, the St. Francis Hotel has a high-speed elevator, with a glass exterior. It's a rush to go on and provides beautiful views of the city. That's where I take my son while the girls drool over H&M. If it's warm (haha), there's a Cheesecake Factory on the roof of Macy's that is an awesome setting (great view) for a meal. This sounds goofy, since SF is a foody's paradise, but there's not a lot of decent restaurants right in the downtown business district. Most of the really good food (and there is a lot of it) is in a bit of the grittier parts of downtown.

* If you need your sports kick you can take Caltrain down to San Jose and watch the Sharks. The Sharks are VERY popular, every game this season is sold out, but there's always scalpers and craigslist. I grew up in Detroit, love the Wings... the atmosphere at a Sharks game rivals a Wings game. Even if you don't like watching hockey on TV, hockey in-person is pretty awesome (playoff tickets are VERY expensive). Of course, the Giants ballpark is amazing. Their tickets are based on dynamic pricing, so some games you can get tickets for $5, others cost a bundle. The real bargain is in Oakland; take BART directly to the Coliseum. We routinely scalped A's tickets for $2 each, although, they're much improved lately so both prices are up and availability is down... I was able to get decent tickets last week for $10, but I felt lucky.

*If you're more into the arts, the Palace of the Legion of Honor has some of the classics, and it's in a beautiful setting: a golf course up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, just south of the Golden Gate. More modern art is shown at the De Young Art Meseum in Golden Gate Park.

*Alcatraz - I never thought I'd enjoy a tour of a prison, but the boat ride over is fun, the views from the island are spectacular, and the audio tour is fascinating and well worth the time and money ($26 each). It takes 3-4 hours.

*Golden Gate Park - It's huge, but contains numerous museums and gardens. The best (and most expensive museum) is the Academy of Science. It has one of the best tropical aquariums I've ever seen, a very good planetarium, and a neat Rain Forest bio-sphere.

*The staples of SF: The Palace of Fine Arts, Lombard Street (the crooked street), and Coit Tower. In that order. You can drive strait on Lombard Street from the Palace to Coit Tower and go down the crooked block on the way. Terrific drive, fun buildings. For the crooked section, turn south (right) on Van Ness, then take your first left. You'll head up the hill. Then take a left on Hyde, the crest of the hill. When you get back to Lombard you can turn right, directly into the crooked section. This route bypasses a long queue to go down the section and eliminates worrying about you or someone else sliding backwards into a wreck while waiting (or you can do the Lombard Street thing first thing in the morning when there's no wait).

*Golden Gate Bridge: Of course, the favorites are the two lookouts on either end of the bridge. What many overlook (or don't know) is the Civil War Era fort (Fort Point) underneath the Southern-most span of the bridge. It's a neat building and the pictures you can take of the bridge are spectacular. Also, to the south-west of the bridge is a beach called Baker Beach. It's a nice beach that offers breathtaking views of the bridge.

*Our latest kick is to park somewhere around Crissy field and bike over the Golden Gate bridge, down to Sausalito where we eat lunch and Ice Cream, take the ferry back to the city, and bike back to Crissy Field. There are numerous fun stops along the way (all the city tourist traps, Fort Point, a couple of WWII fort/bunkers on the northeast side of the bridge, a great kid's discovery museum on the north side, etc.). We've done this several times in the past year, my family loves it. There are two or three different companies that rent bikes to tourists specifically to do this route.