Ride a cable car. Visit Alcatraz. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Get hitched?

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize same-sex weddings, but California is the first to allow nonresidents to marry - and 87 same-sex couples from other states and countries have already filed marriage licenses during their trips to San Francisco.

The number of non-Californians getting married in the city is expected to spike today as tourists arrive in advance of this weekend's gay pride events. As of Thursday afternoon, 206 same-sex couples had appointments to get marriage licenses at City Hall today, making it the busiest day so far.

Already, the same-sex pairs have come from all corners of the United States, including liberal places like Seattle and New York City and conservative bastions such as South Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas.

They've come from other countries, too: England, France, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. And instead of running off to Vegas to tie the knot, one couple from there came to San Francisco to do just that.

On Monday, wedding operations at City Hall will return to normal, rather than filling the North Light Court as they do now. The city will stop taking evening appointments and will go back to marrying couples only during business hours.

Jo Wilson, 70, and Carol Bennett, 57, were watching TV in their home in Austin, Texas, when they heard the California Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage.

"I said, 'Whoa, they did it! They did it! They really did it!' " Wilson said. "Everything's been going against us for so long."

The women, who have been together for 31 years, married on June 18 in front of the City Hall bust of slain Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the country's first openly gay politicians. Each woman wore a crown of purple and white orchids.

"It's San Francisco," Bennett said. "You have to wear flowers in your hair." A closer look at licenses

The Chronicle analyzed information from all public marriage licenses filed with the Assessor-Recorder's Office in San Francisco between June 17 and 25.

Now that licenses have no gender designation, it can be difficult to determine whether couples are heterosexual or homosexual. But looking at their names, The Chronicle estimated that 751 of the 1,004 licenses filed during that period were by same-sex couples and that 87 of those live outside California.

In addition, 80 couples have filed confidential licenses, meaning they are not public records. Nine of those were from outside the state, though the clerk's office didn't say how many of the couples were gay or lesbian.

It's up to individual states to determine whether they will recognize the California marriage licenses. New York Gov. David Paterson recently directed all state agencies to recognize same-sex weddings performed elsewhere, but the California licenses will mean nothing in the vast majority of states. Groups discourage lawsuits

Gay rights advocates are discouraging non-Californians from returning to their home states with marriage licenses and filing lawsuits demanding their marriages be recognized. It could slow and confuse the overall fight for national same-sex marriage rights, they say.

David Whatley, 31, and Michael Potts, 34, live in Atlanta and know Georgia won't recognize their marriage anytime soon. But when they saw the California weddings on the news June 17, they bought their plane tickets immediately. They purchased wedding rings two days later, arrived at SFO last Friday morning and were married within hours - with a stranger serving as their witness.

"We figured we couldn't wait for Georgia to get onboard. We had to come across the country to do it instead," Whatley said. "We're tired of intolerance. San Francisco's a very forward-looking city, and we're glad to be a part of it."

Ricci Treffer, 39, and Michelle Wharton, 36, who live on Maui, hope the Hawaiian-themed wedding they had in Golden Gate Park on Saturday makes it a little easier for Wharton to adopt the baby Treffer is expecting this fall.

"We just feel that every building block that shows our true intention will hopefully help with that process," Treffer said, adding there's an emotional benefit, too. "Everybody who is married knows it's different to say 'We're married' than 'We're partners.' It's not the same." Benefit to state's economy

California is expected to get a big benefit, too, from all the money spent by couples getting married. The San Francisco controller's office estimated this week the weddings will add $19.8 million to the city economy by the end of July 2010.

Brad Sears and M.V. Lee Badgett, researchers at UCLA's Williams Institute, reported that residents, non-California couples and their wedding guests could spend a combined $684 million in the state over the next three years.

Richard Gordon and 20 friends certainly dropped plenty of money in San Francisco last weekend. The group met in Dallas 15 years ago and now live all over the country and Canada. They planned months ago to meet in San Francisco for Gordon's 40th birthday to barhop in the Castro, have dinner at Mecca and take a sunset cruise on the bay.

But June 20 will forever be remembered by the group for the back-to-back-to-back weddings of three of the couples - from Illinois, Florida and Texas - on the mayor's balcony at City Hall. Musicians played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" below, their friends looked on, and a mother of one of the grooms listened in on a cell phone from her home in Knoxville, Tenn.

"We wanted to honor the state that would honor us," said Dave Norfleet-Vilaro, 40, who married Eduardo Norfleet-Vilaro, 42. The Chicago couple have a baby, Max, whom Eduardo cradled as they said their vows.

"To get married with your child in your arms, I guess that's an old family tradition," Dave said with a laugh.