GOLDEN GATE PARK
It’s sunny here and temps to 68 with sun are predicted for SF and we’re off to visit the largest cultivated urban park in the US, the Golden Gate. It is 20% larger than Central Park in New York. We’ve read that it has 13 million visitors annually and is the third most visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City and Lincoln Park in Chicago. Now, I’m not sure how they count visitors to a park, especially one so frequented as this. There are no gates and no fees and many entrances in to the park.
It has 27 miles of pathways meandering alongside and between polo fields, arboretums, Japanese gardens, museums, a band shell, children’s playgrounds, tennis courts, planetariums, botanical gardens, lakes and - hippie hill. On Sunday, they close off one of the major thoroughfares through the park and it’s open for walking, skating, running, teaching your kids how to ride a bike and for just enjoying a day in the park. And, judging by the numbers we saw today, San Franciscans enjoy their park.
As one city planner said:
‘The world renown Golden Gate Park is four and one-half miles long, including the Panhandle, and one-half mile wide. Most San Franciscans think of the Park as their backyard. This makes sense in the West’s most densely populated city where yards, if they exist at all, are minimal. ‘
This park almost became a racetrack, an idea favored by the ‘Big 4’ most influential and richest people in SF. Luckily better heads prevailed and the park was built on lands not yet developed, to the west of the city on the sand dunes lining the ocean. John McLaren, a Scottish professional gardener was hired and he immediately set to work, planting hundreds of trees to stabilize the sand. In 1903 2 Dutch-style windmills were built at the extreme western end of the park to pump throughout the park. These are still there but the water comes from the municipal water works now. The park today attracts thousands of visitors daily. And, today, we plan to be 2 of them.
After breakfast, we put on our nylon hiking pants and, for once, I put on my short summer cotton socks rather than my hiking socks which I’ve worn since I’ve left Iowa. No, no, no. Not the same pair - I have changed periodically. I’m sure you see where this is all going - meterologically. As we were packing the car, we looked north and could see a wedge of fog heading straight for the park. Oh, no. Well, we thought, maybe it will ‘burn off’ in the sun’s heat.
We headed north and into the fog. I looked at our car temp gauge and it was slowly moving down from 60 to 58 to 56. Oh, oh. We found a place to park, got out and felt the chill. We were dressed for sunny mid 60’s and had windy, foggy, damp mid 50’s. Shucks. We layered up as much as we could and off we went.
CONSERVATORY OF FLOWERS
First we checked out the Victorian Conservatory of Flowers in the whitewashed glass building which is a copy of the Kew Gardens in England. It was brought to San Francisco as a kit in crates by James Lick, a San Jose real estate magnate who planned to erect it on his own estate. But he died before it could be built and in 1877, 27 SF businessmen purchased the kit and donated it to Golden Gate park where it was put together and opened in 1879.
And, hey, it’s warm in here. Beautiful flowers and plants. Here’s a 100-yr old philodendron, with leaves that can reach 8’ long. Not your average house philodendron.
We also saw some other beautiful plants and arrangements.
LINDY IN THE PARK
Next as we wandered over towards the Japanese Tea Garden, we heard some foot-tapping music and drifted towards it. Sure enough - it’s Lindy in the Park. Swing dancing going full ‘swing’ there. And, could these people ever dance. Fancy footwork, jivin’ bodies, and bobbin’ heads. It was a lot of fun to watch. Obviously these people have done this before and Lindy in the Park is quite an institution. In the second picture they are doing a special line routine and the guy with the headset is calling out the steps.
JAPANESE TEA GARDEN
Next we headed over to the Japanese Tea Garden, originally built as part of a the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. After the exposition, Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant and gardener, approached John McLaren with the idea to convert the temporary exhibit into a permanent park. It then became his baby and he personally oversaw the building of the Japanese Tea Garden and was official caretaker of the garden from 1895 to 1925. He specifically requested that one thousand flowering cherry trees be imported from Japan, as well as other native plants, birds, and goldfish. Hey, remember the Chinese fortune cookies? Yep, this is the same Hagiwara who used to give his guests small cakes with little paper fortunes inside.
This collection of dwarf trees was once the property of the Hagiwara family who cared for the garden from 1895 to 1942. They developed the techniques for training these trees into their beautiful and graceful shapes. In 1942, they were entrusted them to Samuel Newsome, a landscape architect who was working on the Garden when they were forced to relocate to other parts of the country. He later sold the collection to Dr Hugh Fraser whose wife donated them back to the Gardens when she died. He sold them? Sold them, when they were entrusted to him for safe keeping? Luckily, they finally made their way back to the Tea Garden.
Between 1895 and 1942, Hagiwara and his family resided, cared for, and furthered the development of the Japanese Tea Garden, until 1942. World War II struck and the family was forced from their home and ushered off to concentration camps with other Japanese Americans. The garden was then given the name “The Oriental Tea Garden.” During wartime, many of the beautiful arrangements were destroyed or removed, sculptures vanished, and many plants succumbed from lack of care. The Garden is beautifully maintained now but we noticed that one of the buildings has many rotted boards.
I ducked into the gift shop for a bit of warmth but the doors were open so not much was to be found.
DISCO SKATE AND THE ZOMBIES
We continued our walk through the skating park where they have music and open skating on Sundays. Quite a gathering here. This young woman was learning how to skate and must have fallen once or twice every time around the 60’ oval. But she got up and continued on each time. What a trooper.
Here’s the DJ all costumed setting his laptop to the set he wanted to play. (Hey, he has a grey moustache - imagine that.)
Mostly it’s music in the background but then he put on ‘Woo Tang’ and everyone lined up to dance to it. The main attraction was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and that really got the crowd into their zombie zen. Notice that you don’t even need skates to dance here. We were intrigued by the ‘costumes’ that some seemed to be wearing. Sure enough, they dress for this. And, even the DJ gets involved.
And, on Monday, they head off to the city for their job as bankers and lawyers. On Sunday in the park, they are whoever they want to be.
SOUSA, TOO
Next we headed over to the band shell where Sousa reigned. By this time I had put on another shirt which we had in our pack and I was getting warmer but still not comfy.
Finally we just wandered around the park watching everyone enjoy themselves. Here are some boaters on the lake. They are paddling stern first down the lake. Hmmm. Do you think the guy on the opposite bank is taking a picture of them too?
BLUES DANCING
We circled around and finally headed towards the exit but first we stopped to see a younger crowd dancing to some blues music. Smooth.
HIPPIE HILL
Our final stop was at Hippie Hill, and we heard the drums over the hill before we got there. This is where you could find thousands of ‘hippies’ during the 60’s. Must have been a sight. The drums were infectious and there was an interesting aroma wafting through the area.
This park has something for everyone. Lindy dancing, disco skating, blues dancing, boating, Sousa marches, quiet contemplative gardens, and many other activities that we didn’t have time to explore.
We left the park late and were driving home for dinner when I decided to see what was available around where we were. Voila! On Yelp I found a small market/deli that made sandwiches that were reviewed quite well. OK, it’s only 6 blocks away and we were off. We figured that as long as we were in SF, we’d live as the San Franciscans and shop at the local corner market. Corner markets, remember them? Every city had loads and they were on every corner until the large supermarkets drove them out of business. Well, here in SF, they are thriving and, again, you can find them in every neighborhood.
What you can’t find is supermarkets here in SF. Oh, well, there are 2 Safeways tucked away in the corners. Smaller than I’m used to and with no parking to speak of. No Albertsons or Krogers, two of the larger chains in the West. And it’s even tough to find some of the smaller chains. They are all leaving the city and there are two major reasons for this.
Firstly, the profit margin in groceries is terribly thin and even thinner in a large city with its high real estate taxes.
Secondly, it seems that developers are hounding the supermarkets with their large footprints to sell to build a new development. And, it’s been happening for years here.
What’s left in SF is the smaller corner markets and some specialty chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and Costco, there is one of each in SF. But these sell mostly their own name brands or, in the case of Costco, in quantities too large for many to buy. Could you buy everything you needed for a week shopping at only Trader Joe's or Whole Foods? (I’ve heard the joke that Whole Foods really means Whole Paycheck.) What if you are poor and need a tube of toothpaste, a can of dog food and a box of cereal? Sorry, no can do. Or, what if you are a 20-something with a new job and a new apartment, where are you going to buy your groceries? Great city, lots of energy, lots of youth, no groceries.
And, back to dinner. We found the market/deli, ordered our sandwich, paid and - sat in the car to eat it. It was warm and we didn’t want to drive all the way home where we would be comfy but the sandwich would be cold. Yep, life in the big city.
Home late, hop into the warm shower. Ah, warmth.
What a neat day in the park. I was cold and the day was dreary but the park had so much life. What more could we want in a day?
6.2 324’ kinda flat
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