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Things to Do in San Francisco on a Rainy Day

Updated: Nov 01, 2021 12:41
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THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY EMPEROR NORTON’S BOOZELAND ONE OF THE BEST DIVES TO BE AT ON A RAINY DAY.


 

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This wonderful image is from CosmicSmudge

If the weather people are right, we are gonna have ton of rain this year. This is obviously much needed because of that whole terrifying drought thing that could possibly destroy California forever. It’s like our Rain Porn article might actually come to fruition (if not, well at least we have some good tips on surviving the drought). If it rains as much as we hope it’s gonna, there’s only so much smoking weed, chilling, and Netflixing you’ll be able to do before going stir crazy. So here’s a list of rad things you can do in San Francisco when it’s raining.

Museums

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Not a rainy day. Photo of the De Young from HuffPo

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to go to a museum by myself with some headphones and spend a few hours just digging the art while listening to dope music. But I’ve never done the solo museum thing here in my own town. This rainy winter is the perfect time to do it! We have so many wonderful museums to choose from. Just a few off the top of head: The Museum of Modern Art, The De Young Museum, Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Museum of the African Diaspora, Legion of Honor…the list goes on. In fact you can see the whole list right here.

The Exploratorium

Museum floor in 2006

Magical play land of the old Exploratorium! photo from wikipedia

Oh my god! The Exploratorium is so cool! I mean, who doesn’t like a science museum full rad hands-on exhibits? And you know what makes the Exploratorium even better? Weed! Smoke a bowl then go in and trip out on the weird way that sand moves around when wind blows it.

Conservatory of Flowers

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photo from Marin Mommies. Yes, that’s the real name of the site.

In like 2006 or 2007 it rained for like 30 days straight and all I wanted was to be in a nice warm place. Even though we can’t all afford to hop on a place to somewhere tropical, we can afford to visit the Conservatory of Flowers and pretend we are some place in the Caribbean. Hell, just bring a beach chair and a book and hang out for the day.

House of Air

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Are you fucking kidding me? Hell yeah! photo from rockinjump

This is a great city for being outdoors. From running to walking to biking, we live in the streets in San Francisco.  That shit sucks when its raining though. House of Air is awesome because its a huge warehouse of trampolines and you can even play trampoline dodgeball! I will warn you this though, after you go you will be sore in places you didn’t even know existed.

Day Drink at a Dive Bar

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photo of Boozeland by Juan V on yelp

This can be so much fun! You’ll meet weird old timers with crazy stories and you’ll probably end up creating some tales of your own. San Francisco has so many wonderful dive bars to choose from including Emperor Norton’s Boozeland of course.

Have a Naked Dance Party in the Rain

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I originally had an actual photo of someone dancing naked in the rain in SF but google ads got all puritanical and they made me take it down…ugh…

Some San Franciscans may hate nudity in public, but fuck it, I know you wanna shake that cute little tushy of yours.

Read a Book in a Cafe

When was the last time you went to a cafe and didn’t just hang out working on your computer? Fuck, I mean I’m doing that right now. I should totally be sitting in at the window, reading Cool Grey City of Love, and occasionally looking at cars and people going by. What other rainy day suggestions do you have? Leave them in the comments!

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.