Randall Museum and Corona Heights Hill

 If you have a young child, are in San Francisco, and have not yet been to the Randall Museum, you must go now. Seriously. It is one of those places that will titillate your child to no end—live animals from crows to quail, bunnies to hamsters, tortoises to snakes, a venerable 27-year-old red-tailed hawk, a beehive full of busy worker bees, and more, plus two playrooms full of toys and stuffed animals, a kid-sized caboose to cavort in, life-size cutouts of local animals (raccoon, opossum, coyote) that make peculiar noises, and gardens full of savvy finches who know school children drop their lunches. There are classes too, not just for kids, a woodshop, evening lectures on naturalia and astronomy, and a model train display. And most wondrous considering today’s capitalist society, the Randall Museum is free. Thank goodness for San Francisco’s Parks and Rec Department!

Lumbering behind and above the Randall Museum is Corona Heights, a craggy hill of folded chert of an orangish-reddish hue, laced with trails and staircases, and covered in a pelt of grass. From its apex you can see the clear blue triangle of Mount Diablo in the east, the Marin Headlands in the north, San Bruno Mountain to the south, and more hills of San Francisco to the west. Don’t skip the hike up the hill when you come to the Randall Museum. There is a half mile or so loop (and if you want to walk further, consider Buena Vista Park that you see to the west). If my one-and-a-half year old baby can climb the long and arduous staircase to the boulders on the top of Corona Heights, so could anyone else. There is nothing quite like the expansive feeling you get at the crest of a great hill, with the City and the bay spread out around you.

Randall Museum

Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Located at 199 Museum Way, San Francisco CA 94114. See website for more details.

  

Last Note

Please read this poem by Hallie Sinore about hiking Corona Heights hill with babies. Click here.

Hike up Corona Heights in San Francisco

Picnic

by Hallie Sinore  

Step into sky

Sift concrete away

Step into sky

Sift high noon higher

Upward, bouncing

Sun-heated breath

Step into sky

Feel green velvet grass 

Milk, orange, gravel

Swallow and share

Cling, downward dog

Babes we care

Mud puddle meets

Brave little lass

Who step after step

Bounces with pep

 Be there and go there

This peak and that one

Mud puddle was

High noon was high

All steppin'  descend

To do it again

Potrero Hill’s two playgrounds on Arkansas Street

 I grew up on Potrero Hill, so I’m somewhat partial to this sunny, banana-belt of a neighborhood on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Peninsula. There are two playgrounds on Arkansas Street, and the walk between them takes you from the flatlands to the top of the hill, and back again.

THE HIKE & PLAYGROUNDS

The first playground, a big one with all sorts of cool equipment, is on Arkansas and 17^th Streets, adjoining a green baseball field. You’ll be just down the road from the Anchor Steam Brewery, which you might locate just on its earthy aroma of hops and malt (and has free tastings and tours of the plant, even their distillery—but call first because there aren’t any drop-in tours).

The second playground is at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center, on Arkansas and 23^rd/22^nd Streets. It’s more my childhood stomping grounds, near the top of the hill, just a couple of blocks from where I grew up. The bare-bones, old school play structures are behind the indoor basketball court (which is a very cool old wooden structure; if neighborhood kids are shooting hoops, you can see the old gallery of team photos from the 1970s and 80s). There’s also a baseball field, a hillside of eucalyptus and wild plants adjoining some housing projects, built in the 40s for Navy workers, so I’ve heard, and a lovely community garden in the northern border, near Connecticut and 22^nd Streets. 

The hike (maybe a mile) between the two Arkansas Street playgrounds is uphill, but a great walk.

I recommend starting on Arkansas and 17^th, where it’s flat, and then hiking up to the Pot Hill Rec Center on Arkansas and 22^nd/23^rd.  Walking uphill in San Francisco is truly gratifying when you reach the peak of a hill, hang out for a while, have a picnic, marvel at the view. Then go downhill, going past the community garden, maybe stopping at a café or a grocery store or the library along the way back down to the flatlands.   

THE BABY FRIENDLY BITS

There are public restrooms, water, and a fantastic wall of windows in the children’s section of the Potrero Hill Library, which is at the halfway point of the walk. Go east on 20^th Street a block or two. Also on 20^th Street is the Thinkers Café, several grocery stores (one being Good Life Grocery, where I worked when I was 15 and 16), and a pricey but good sandwich shop.

The playgrounds have rustic bathrooms and drinking water too.

RELATED HIKES and DEVIATIONS

The 22^nd Street Staircase—For a longer walk, do up the long staircase basically going west from the community garden, up what would be 22^nd Street, all the way to the blue water tower on Wisconsin. There’s a cool old firehouse up here and great views of San Francisco.

The Pink Palace—One of my favorite mystery houses is a salmon-colored, turn-of-the-century mansion, on Wisconsin and 20^th Street. The sidewalk is overtaken by its tropical garden. 

MAP AND DIRECTIONS

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Fort Mason Park: a magical tree and blooming flowers

Just south and east of Fort Mason is a park with a magical tree in its center—the tree’s wood is gnarled and pitted, the branches blown into arcs that touch their leaves to the grass. There’s something about this tree capable of drawing children into its branches where they discover something that looks like a bed, or a table, or a bench, all the while getting a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. See for yourself.

Although this park is mostly rolling, grassy fields, wildflowers bloom this time of year. The grass is studded with galaxies of bright yellow oxalis (sour grass) and white daisies. The southwestern-most edge of the park has huge, blooming bushes of blue-colored ceanothus flowers and lavender-colored butterfly sage, fragrant and buzzing with pollinating bees. Ceanothus, by the way, is a California native that the Miwok people drank as a tea during childbirth (more details here).


Baby and Kid Notes

This is the kind of park that’s perfect for sunning babies’ bottoms on a warm day. An enormous statue of a woman and her child seems to watch over the whole park and lend a particularly child-friendly atmosphere. There’s a public restroom, next to a cordoned off area where native plants are blooming. The three-year-old who accompanied me on the discovery of this park ruefully noted there were no playgrounds here (although she happily clambered all over the “magic” tree).

Other Details



A long staircase in the northwest corner of the park leads to Fort Mason, where there’re often festivities during the weekend (like the Young Performer’s Theater doing a version of Willy Wonka through March 28), as well as weekly classes for kids and adult (i.e. art, music, tai chi, theater). See Fort Mason’s website for all the details.

From the northeast section of the park, it’s a short walk to Aquatic Park where there’s a stretch of sand to play in, visit Ghirardelli Square for free chocolate samples, or go the mile to lollygag at Fisherman’s Wharf.

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Potrero Hill: From Water Tower to Library

My mom called this morning and mentioned Potrero Hill Library was having its grand reopening. “There’ll be a lion dance,” she said, “but I just want to get some books.” She’s had to use other libraries for years, it seems, while the Pot Hill Library underwent major renovations. I said I’d come over to her house, and walk to the library where I hoped to catch the Chinese lion dance, curious about my baby’s reaction to the leaping lion costume and the pounding drums.

It’s been a while since I’ve walked across the top of Potrero Hill from my mom’s house to the library. Today I rediscovered one of my favorite routes.  

The big blue water tower on 22nd Street, between Carolina and Wisconsin, is my first reference point. A good decade and a half ago, there was a crappy fence around the water tower and my teenaged self clambered up it like a monkey and I trespassed the grounds around the tower, climbed the trees, and never encountered anyone else. Now the fence is new, tiny chain link, and the tower is off-limits. Ah well, my interests have changed.

At Wisconsin and 22nd Street a long staircase cuts through the block in an easterly direction, leading to Arkansas Street and a park. I’ve always loved San Franciscan staircases that work like “secret” shortcuts between blocks. This one was a favorite since childhood, back when I regularly walked across Potrero Hill to get movies from Dr. Video, or ice cream from the Daily Scoop. I love the wide steps of the staircase, framed with sour grass and funky houses, the tall, dark trees, and the view of the San Francisco bay and Oakland hills.

At the bottom is Arkansas Street, and across the street is the park, simply named the Potrero Hill Recreation Area. There’s a trail there, running east-west. I could still see a glimpse of the bay. Uphill were tennis courts. Further east were the Potrero Hill Projects. I left the trail at Connecticut Street to get to the library, passing a community garden where people were hard at work, preparing their beds for spring planting.

So when I got to the library, I missed the lion dance, but ran into some very good friends, munched on free veggie sandwiches and a slice of cheese pizza (courtesy of Goat Hill Pizza and Klein’s Deli), listened to a funky folk band, and watched a group of kids from my high school alma mater, International Studies Academy, give their first choir performance, a hand-clapping, foot-stomping show where they even sang a Coup song.

The Potrero Hill Library used to be a bleak sort of building, single-story, post WWII construction. The bathroom was up a creepy, long, dark staircase. Now it’s two-stories, clean, well stocked with books, and full of light from floor-to-ceiling windows. And it was packed with people, a good reception. I meandered about with my baby in her sling, checking out the art hanging from the ceiling, peering out windows, inspecting the family bathroom (which I am bummed to report has NO baby-changing table, just a lipless countertop next to the sink, already sloppy and wet). One of the best physical aspects of the new library is its view of downtown from the Children’s Area where benches face the windows. I overheard a girl remark to her mom, “This is the perfect place to sit and read a book!”

Three hours later, I trekked back to my mom’s house the way I came. If I had taken regular streets, the climb would’ve been pretty intense, especially with a seventeen-pound baby in a sling and a diaper bag. The trail and staircase made the walk easy, and the baby, kicking her legs and drooling, was thoroughly entertained.  

Potrero Hill Library

1616 20th Street (near Connecticut)

415. 355.2822

www.sfpl.org

Family Storytime

For infants to 5 years old, with parents.

Thursdays at 10:30 a.m.

March 11, 18, and 25

Fratello Marionettes: “Carnival of the Animals”

Saturday, March 27

3 p.m.

All ages