While your day will end in the Mission, it will begin on the Bay. Enjoy your breakfast – perhaps some baked goods from one of the many Marina or Fisherman’s Wharf cafes? – as the water laps on Fort Mason’s shore. Your first stop will be at the Mexican Museum. Take your time to explore the more than 12,000 objects which extend thousands of years of Mexican history and culture, including pre-conquest, colonial, popular, modern and contemporary Mexican, Latino and Chicano art.

Morning at the museum – along with our interactive Mission tour with Roberto Hernandez – will be an excellent primer for the day before you. Take a cab, or the 49 bus down Van Ness, and exit at 24th Street, in what locals call the heart of the Mission. You will be among a lively mixture of restaurants, Mexican bakeries and produce markets.

Since the 1960s, the Mission has been home to the City’s Latino population and has been an important political and cultural center, nurturing such key organizations as the Farmworkers Movement. It is also home to the politically active artistic community. Nowhere is that more apparent than along 24th and its side streets murals, the most famous being Balmy Alley, the three building tribute to Carlos Santana and at the face of St. Peter’s Church. The best way to see the murals is with Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitor Center, at 24th and Harrison. The community group offers a six-block tour covering over 75 murals, offering historical perspective as you wander past the life-size works of art.

Whether you discover the artwork on your own or with a Precita tour guide, one thing is certain: while you’ve been walking, you’ve worked up quite an appetite passing tasty taco joints and Mexican bakeries. Now it is time to pull up a chair at one of those taquerias and sample the goods. But don’t stop there. The pandarias have sweet baked treats waiting for dessert.

Now that you’ve had your fill, time to head back on the art trail. On 24th between Bryant and Florida, is Galeria de la Raza, founded by members of the highly political artistic community. In the gallery and connected studio, you’ll find local Chicano and Latino artists on exhibition and arts, crafts and jewelry for sale. Also in the area is the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. This community center is highly active, offering programs for locals and visitors. Check out the exhibitions and artwork on display near the 24th Street BART station.

As you walk over toward Mission Dolores, the path will take you through another part of the Mission, up and over Valencia you’ll go and with it, the changes of the Mission you will witness. With the dot com boom came the gentrification of the area which altered the landscape here – you’ll see less panchos and piñatas and more coffee shops and clothing stores the closer you get to Delores and 16th, where you’ll find the Mission. Spend the afternoon surrounded in serenity. Founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serrra, the adobe chapel is the oldest standing building in the city. The mission's cemetery, flourishing with bougainvillea, was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

Once you are ready for dinner, your only problem will be choosing a place to eat. Everything from the finest dining in the City to the most laid back eateries are all for the picking in the Mission, with every sort of Latino cooking you could imagine – and some reinvented – at your command.