Note: The program is rated as Moderately Challenging and will include a lot of walking each day -- 4-5 miles typically. But most of the walks are relatively level, on paved paths or park trails. There are several places where we will be climbing or descending either stairs or inclined paths of 200-300 ft of elevation gain or loss.

Afternoon: HOTEL CHECK-IN: Check into Queen Anne Hotel after 4:00PM.

PROGRAM REGISTRATION: After you have your room assignment, come over to the Road Scholar table to register with the program staff and pick up your arrival packet which we'll review during our orientation session.

Dinner: Dinner at hotel

Menus are contracted for the program and are designed to offer balanced, healthy meals for the participants. In addition to the regular Road Scholar meal plan, this program offers a vegetarian meal option. Unfortunately, there are no other special meal options. Participants with special dietary needs should be prepared to avoid certain foods or supplement the regular meal plan as needed.

Evening: ORIENTATION: We'll have an overview of the program ahead and review the up-to-date schedule, responsibilities, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, any other administrative issues, and answer your questions. Please be aware that local circumstances may require adjusting program elements. In the event of changes, we will notify you as quickly as possible. We appreciate your understanding.

CROSSING POINTS: Participants introduce themselves to the rest of the group.

Enjoy the remainder of the evening getting to know your fellow participants and discovering what you share beyond a love of lifelong learning.

Lodging: Queen Anne Hotel

Meals Included: Dinner

Note: Expect to walk at least 3 miles during the day. On climb to the top of Telegraph Hill to visit Coit Tower, there is a gain of about 300 feet, some steps and some inclined paved walkway.

Breakfast: Continental breakfast at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Take public transportation to Union Square. Learn the history of Union Square on a guided walk of a mile and a half through the Square and then through Chinatown to Portsmouth Square, the birthplace of San Francisco. Sample a variety of different teas at one of the many tea shops of Chinatown.

Lunch: Dim Sum lunch at the Oriental Pearl

Afternoon: LECTURE: Explore local alleys and walk among temples, Chinese herbal medicine shops, and unusual food markets during a guided walk through the oldest and largest Chinatown in the United States. Learn about the history and personal stories that have made this amazing place what it is today.

Continue on foot from Chinatown through North Beach, home to early Italian fishermen as well as the so-called Beatniks of the 1950s. Learn how the neighborhood has evolved over the last century as you scope out a great restaurant for dinner tonight in this mecca of fine Italian cuisine. Then take a quick run up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower from Washington Square to enjoy the approaching sunset before making your final selection of a restaurant for dinner. You will have earned your dinner after the three miles or so you will have covered this afternoon.

Dinner: Dinner on your own in one of the many Italian restaurants in North Beach

Evening: A free evening to enjoy the city

Lodging: Queen Anne Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: Expect to walk up to 4 miles during the day. There will be several hills at the Presidio Park -- most of these will be forested trails, mostly going downhill. There are a couple of stairways as well. Ride on the Hyde Street cable car.

Breakfast: Continental breakfast at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP AND LECTURE: Take public transportation to the Mission District, the high energy home of many recent immigrants to San Francisco. Enjoy a docent-led tour of the famous murals of the Mission and learn about their connection to social justice and political activism in San Francisco. Select from among a number of the hottest and most popular eating establishments in the city for the place to have your lunch today -- Mexican, Peruvian, Salvadoran, or ? -- you make the choice!

Lunch: Lunch on your own in the Mission District

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: After lunch, we take public transportation back across town through several different neighborhoods to the Presidio, one of the oldest sections of San Francisco. For many years this wonderful urban park area was the center of military activity in the city. This afternoon we'll be walking through the Presidio to see some of the amazing views and the historic main post area before we head to Fisherman's Wharf for a brief walking tour and dinner. We'll be walking about 4 miles today.

Dinner: We'll have dinner together at Fisherman's Wharf at a family-owned restaurant a little off the tourist track where the locals eat. Afterwards, it's back to the hotel via the famous Hyde Street cable car.

Lodging: Queen Anne Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Note: Expect to walk up to 5 miles during the day and several hundred feet change in elevation.

Breakfast: Continental breakfast at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Take a walking tour of the Haight Ashbury neighborhood and get acquainted with the history of this colorful area. Explore streets, sidewalks, parks, and vistas that tell the story of a Victorian era resort site subsequently developed by comfortable merchants, whose gingerbread homes still grace its streets. If there's any area of San Francisco that evokes images of the long-gone '60s hippie culture, the Haight is it. Fragments of that flower-power, incense-burning, acid-dropping, tie-dye-wearing, peace-and-love-vibing era remain but, save for a few hippie relics, the Haight today is a whole new scene. Exclusive boutiques, high-end vintage-clothing shops, second-hand stores and hip restaurants have all settled in, making the Haight one of San Francisco's commercial centers.

Continue to Golden Gate Park. Larger than New York's Central Park, it once consisted of sand dunes, but is now covered with more than 75,000 trees and home to a small bison herd (in an enclosed field) since 1891. This ultimate haven away from urban chaos was deeded to the people in 1870 out of the prescient notion that San Franciscans would one day feel overcrowded.

LECTURE: As we stroll through the five acre Japanese Tea Garden, learn about the icons of the Garden and the family that lived there.

Lunch: Lunch at the California Academy of Sciences

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: After lunch, enjoy a self guided visit to the California Academy of Sciences - the only place on the planet with an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum, and a 4-story rainforest all under one roof.

Free afternoon to spend at the CAS, visit the deYoung Museum, check out the Conservatory of Flowers or Arboretum nearby, or just return to the hotel early. In total, you could be walking 4-5 miles today, including several hundred feet of elevation gain.

Dinner: This evening provides you with the chance to have dinner on your own and enjoy more of the city's great dining options. In the area of Golden Gate Park, try one of the excellent restaurants in the Inner Sunset neighborhood -- Japanese/sushi, Cuban, Thai, Mexican, seafood, vegetarian, and even American!

Evening: Enjoy a free evening. Possible adventures might include the San Francisco Symphony, the Orpheum Theater, or Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in the U.S.

Lodging: Queen Anne Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Final walk takes us across one of the world's most famous bridges-the Golden Gate, farewell lunch and program wrap-up

Note: Expect to walk up to 4 miles on level terrain

Depart From: Program ends after lunch at hotel. Check out by 1:00PM.

Breakfast: Continental breakfast at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: For our final walk we make the quintessential San Franciscan pilgrimage -- a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and back!

Lunch: We return to the hotel for our final meal together and a wrap-up program before departing. (See the Notes section of this packet for advice about planning your departure time.)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch