My spark of an idea
Every morning, I walk in San Francisco. Up its hills, through its parks, along streets and hidden stairways, most people only pass by car. It started as an exercise. It became something more the moment friends and colleagues began joining me. Somewhere between a steep climb and a story about the building or place we’d just passed, the same thing kept happening: “You should be a guide.”
Eventually, I listened. Because underneath that suggestion was something I already believed that we need more time outdoors, more fresh air, more walking side by side with another person, trading stories, and seeing a place through someone else’s eyes. That’s not something you get from a bus tour or a map app. It’s something you get from moving through a city with someone who actually knows it.
I’ve called San Francisco home for over 25 years. I’ve spent more than a decade as a San Francisco Park Alliance Trustee, advocating for the city’s green spaces and walking its 220+ parks and open spaces as they’ve evolved block by block. My background in business, urban planning, and narrative medicine- the study of how storytelling helps people process and heal— shapes the way I see a city: the history layered under a stairway, the psychology behind a neighborhood’s shape, the quiet detail everyone else walks past.
If you’re visiting San Francisco and want more than the postcard version, or if you’re the kind of traveler who’d rather earn a hidden viewpoint on foot than photograph it from a tour bus window, this is for you. And if you’re here because a friend told you to book this, you already know what to expect: an hour that feels less like a tour and more like being shown around by someone who actually lives here. Fresh air, real movement, and a San Francisco you won’t find anywhere else.