Top 5 Unique Tours in San Francisco

San Francisco is a beautiful city with so much to do! We love to spend our time exploring SF in ways we haven’t thought of before! ABCey has compiled some of our favorite unique and local tours, perfect for a girls night or date night. We hope someone wants to take us out on the Seaplane tour soon!

1. Night Segway Tour

Explore some of the most famous neighborhoods and sights in San Francisco while riding a Segway! This tour will take you through Chinatown, Northbeach and the Waterfront while enjoying the moonlit views. Purchase tickets here.

2. Island Wine Getaway

Enjoy sips of vino while you sail over to Treasure Island. Once there, you can visit three wineries on a self guided tour. Enjoy as little or as much time as you like at each venue and then get back on the boat for the trip back to mainland. Purchase tickets here.

3. Urban Hiker Tour

If you love being outdoors, hiking, and learning all about San Francisco’s rich history, this tour is for you. You can expect a five mile tour while exploring some hidden treasures and seeing some of the well know sights of SF. Dogs allowed! Purchase tickets here.

4. GoCar Tours

As their slogan states, this is “the cure for the common tour”. This car is equipped with a computer that talks to you. You can park and explore anywhere you’d like, and the tour continues when you continue to drive. Purchase tickets here.

5. Seaplane Tours

See San Francisco like you never have before. Take off from the bay and fly around the famous attractions of The City. This flight is normally around 30 minutes and takes you by The Golden Gate Bridge, AT&T Park, Alcatraz and more! Purchase tickets here.

Which tour is on your to-do list?! Let us know in the comments below or Facebook and Twitter!

Your Ultimate Guide to SF Pride!

As LGBT Pride month comes to a close, the 43rd Annual San Francisco Pride Celebration is just beginning! ABCey put together the ultimate guide to help you make the most out of one of our city’s biggest events of the year.

1. Download | The San Francisco Pride 2013 App is available for download on most smartphones. Put Pride in your pocket with schedules, event information, maps, and even where to find bathrooms throughout the weekend!

2. Ride | The easiest way to get to Pride is to take BART to Civic Center Plaza. However, BART workers are deciding whether or not to go on strike this weekend, which would severely impact transit all across the bay. Visit BART’s website or download the Embark iBart app for train schedules.

3. Tweet | For any and all Pride updates in real-time, make sure to follow SFPride and SFPrideLive! SFPride is the official account for the Pride Parade and Celebration, while SFPrideLive handles the festivities’ televised and online broadcasts. Either way, your Twitter feed won’t miss a beat!

4. Party | The best thing about Pride is the celebrating! There will be so many fun LGBT events this weekend, so keep track of them with Wsup Now. This app isn’t only a calendar: it shows you what events are near you, shows you how to get to them, and lets you post pictures if you’re there! The official Pride calendar can be found on SF Pride’s Official Website.

5. Know | This year, the LGBT community faces many high-profile issues locally and globally. Stay educated by keeping up with the controversy surrounding Bradley Manning and the Prop 8 and DOMA Supreme Court decisions.

The Pride Celebration runs from 12:00 p.m.- 6p.m. on Saturday, June 29th and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 30th. Sunday’s parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. from Beale Street along Market and ends at Market and 8th St. in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Will you be participating in any San Francisco Pride celebrations? Tell us about it and let us know if our tips helped you! Shoot us a comment or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

The Tech Behind the Bay Lights

The art installation by Leo Villareal on the Bay Bridge is absolutely stunning. The thousands of shimmering lights decorating the bridge elevate the Golden Gate’s awkward cousin to the big leagues while adding to the already picturesque skyline across San Francisco Bay. ABCey explores the innovative technology behind Villareal’s masterpiece.

The backstory: Villareal is an accomplished artist whose work spans across America, including the Burningman camp Disorient. Ben Davis, founder of World Pictures Ideas, discovered Villareal’s work at the 2010 Zero1 Biennial in Silicon Valley. As chairman of Illuminate the Arts, Davis recruited the artist to begin the enormous project to adorn the Bay Bridge in light in honor of its 75th birthday.

Villareal used around 25,000 individuall programmed white LED lights to complete his project. Philips Color Kinetics custom made the lights and a complex algorithm to create an ever-changing pattern across the western side of the bridge. The lights are mounted in single strands along the bridge’s cables and use around 150 kilowatt hours during its nightly 7-hour shift. The displays costs around $11,000 per year, or about $4.25 per hour!

The bridge is now not only a bridge, but a contemporary work of art deemed the largest LED sculpture in the world. 50 million people are expected to see the bridge during the art work’s two year lifespan. The Bay Lights are a symbol of the bay area’s world-renoun leadership in the arts, transportation and progress, and, of course, technology.

Have you seen the Bay Lights? What do you think of this project? Let us know with a comment, tweet, or Facebook post!