I would love to publish other people's writing on Hill Babies! The only guideline is that the article be about hiking with children in the Bay Area. If you're interested, please contact me. And if you know a writerly hiking type of parent or caregiver, please tell them about Hill Babies.
Thanks,
Jessica
jericahahn@hotmail.com
Monday, June 28, 2010
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 17th 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 23rd/22nd 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 22nd Streets. 
The hike (maybe a mile) between the two Arkansas Street playgrounds is uphill, but a great walk.
I recommend starting on Arkansas and 17th, where it’s flat, and then hiking up to the Pot Hill Rec Center on Arkansas and 22nd/23rd. 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 20th Street a block or two. Also on 20th 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 22nd Street Staircase—For a longer walk, do up the long staircase basically going west from the community garden, up what would be 22nd 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 20th Street. The sidewalk is overtaken by its tropical garden. MAP AND DIRECTIONS
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Sunday, May 2, 2010
Union Square and Hallidie Plaza
When I started my Hill Babies blog and then a column on Examiner.com about walking in The City with children, another mother wrote to tell me about some baby-friendly resources in the vicinity. I’ve discovered Union Square is a still point in the middle of downtown. That and the gold rush era history, plus an invitation to have a drink with a former colleague, drew me back to Union Square. I was pleasantly surprised.
THE BABY FRIENDLY LOO
First things first. Right by the Powell Street BART station are several sumptuous bathrooms for kids and babies in the children’s sections of certain department stores.
Bloomingdale’s has a semi-private play area just outside the bathroom. Cushioned benches for nursing, a video game for little kids, a ridiculously huge television, and a wall of toys and fun house style mirrors. The baby-changing table is plush. Nordstrom’s has changing tables and a lounge for nursing. San Francisco Center (near the food court / Bristol Farm) has a family restroom with a kid-sized toilet.
HALLIDIE PLAZA
Hallidie Plaza is the triangular-shaped plaza just outside and upstairs from the Powell Street BART and MUNI station, where the cable cars (http://www.sfcablecar.com/) turnaround. This is the most popular place to catch a cable car. Of course buskers are present en masse; on this most recent visit, I appreciated the music of an acoustic guitarist and two skilled tap dancers. Hallidie Plaza is a great place to people-watch. It’s a convergence of tourists and locals, performers, sidewalk vendors, and street preachers holding big signs.
The history is interesting. The plaza is named for Andrew Smith Hallidie, inventor of the cable car. Check out the ornate streetlight from 1917 with three torches on the top. It is one of many going up Market Street.
Just past the Gap is the entrance to the Flood Building, on 870 Market Street. It is a cool, flat-iron building (with a snubby triangular edge, like an iron), built in 1904 by the son of one of San Francisco’s “Bonanza Kings” (who made his wealth from silver mining in the late 1800s). The foyer is architecturally beautiful in Renaissance Baroque style, and there’s a mini museum of the building’s history.
Plazas are great places, period. Kids were running around, people were having drinks, and an Eighties cover band was whooping it up on the center stage. I could sit there a while, rest the feet, listen to tunes, and bask in the sun. There are several places to get coffee drinks and snacks. In the winter there’s an ice skating rink, and in warmer months there’s live music.
THE WESTIN ST. FRANCIS HOTEL
My friend and I went in here to see a famous clock, and discovered some other interesting things.
We discovered four things about the hotel. The elevators are fast and have a glass wall with a tremendous view of downtown San Francisco. The Italian Ballroom—sort of hard to find—has a beautiful embossed metal ceiling of Art Nouveau figures. Barack Obama stayed here. When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited in the early Eighties, her dinner menu included Consommé of Pheasant, Loin of Veal with Morel Mousse, Lobster Terrine with Golden Caviar and Dill Sauce, and Cheese Straws.
UNION SQUARE MAP AND DIRECTIONS
HALLIDIE PLAZA MAP AND DIRECTIONS
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SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Ø Melissa Helms. Thank you for the information on kid-friendly resources!
Ø Bacon, Daniel Bacon. Walking San Francisco on the Barbary Coast Trail. Quicksilver Press: San Francisco, 1997. This book is funny, smart, and well illustrated!
Ø Kahn, Edgar. “Andrew Smith Halliedie.” Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
Ø Various plaques inside the St. Francis Hotel and Flood Building.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Filoli
My excitement grew as my husband and I drove up a serpentine driveway flanked by ancient oaks, nearing the famed estate of Filoli. Over the years, people described its beautiful gardens and grand home, often filled with exquisite flower arrangements, but I had yet to visit. The house is an amazing 36,000 square feet, and there are sixteen acres of European-style gardens. The property, most of it left to grow as it will, is 654 acres.
It was the day before Easter and grey clouds washed over the sky, but everything was green, glistening with dew or raindrops, as we drove into a parking lot dominated by olive trees. My in-laws were there, waiting for us, eager to show us one of their favorite local places.
Filoli is only a half hour’s drive south of San Francisco, near the affluent community of Woodside. It’s right off the 280 freeway, tucked against the eastern flank of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
William Bowers Bourn II, a man made wealthy from Californian natural resources, wanted a country estate for he and his wife, Agnes. (He owned Crystal Springs Lake, Empire Mine of Grass Valley, a gold mine, and was instrumental in the creation of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Just for the record, he wasn’t loved by all—the San Francisco Chronicle labeled him “a thief and scoundrel.” Even the Filoli website describes him as “a proud man” who forbade his gardeners to see him roll along in his wheelchair after he suffered a stroke in later years.)
The Bourns wanted to move onto the peninsula after the 1906 earthquake but it took until 1917, when Filoli was ready to be moved into, for them to settle. In the interim, Bourn married off his daughter to an Irishman, buying the new couple a fabulous Irish estate as a wedding gift. Bourn wanted a similar estate in California. His first choice was to build along Crystal Springs Lake but ultimately Filoli was built just south of there.
Bourn commissioned Willis Polk, a famous architect from San Francisco, to design the home; Polk already designed homes for the Bourns in Grass Valley and San Francisco. Polk was known for his creativity and at Filoli he fused Georgian, Stuart, and Spanish architectural styles. Construction began in 1915; two years later, the Bourns moved in. According to the Filoli’s official brochure, “Filoli” is an amalgam of Bourn’s motto: Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life. It sounds like a good maxim. After reading some of the history, my husband jokingly mused, “And dig for gold.” Filolidi.
The Gardens
It was a lovely day to walk through the gardens: the inclement weather kept the hordes at bay, and the tulips looked particularly beautiful with dewdrops on their pastel petals. The surrounding land is gorgeous, quintessentially Californian with tree-covered hills and meadows. As we traipsed through gardens—Chartres, Daffodil Meadow, the Knot Garden, the Wedding Place, the Bowling Green, the Woodland—my baby leaned forward from her sling, interested in the colors and textures of flowers and leaves.
I noticed some visitors brought strollers for their children. I highly recommend leaving your stroller behind if you visit with a baby or child. The many steps and levels make maneuvering a stroller a challenge only overcome by sheer physical strength, as seen in Mom and Dad grunting and lifting their stroller to continue along certain paths.
The House
A cold wind snapped us into the warm home, where I’d never seen so many different types of marble (black Belgian, beige Tavernelle, white Carrara, red Verona, French rouge, Machiavelli). We wandered from room to room, admiring the antique furniture, Tiffany silver, oak and black walnut flooring and shelving, ornate chandeliers, and paintings. The ballroom had impressive murals of the Irish estate that Bourn bought for his daughter as her wedding present. My mother-in-law and I agreed the original green wall paint, a murky color called “watergreen,” was less appealing to the eye.
In contrast to the large and fabulous ballroom, one tiny room was filled with unique maritime odds and ends, paintings of ships, and miniature models of boats. Filoli’s second owners, the Roths, also owned the Matson Navigation Company. As an admirer of all things nautical, I appreciated the eclectic collection of maritime-themed artwork in such close proximity to something as royal as the library carpet, once laid in one of Queen Victoria’s homes.
I also appreciated that the kitchen—an ample room with a gargantuan stove—had simple adornments, the menus from the Matson’s ships. Instead of salivating over the Tiffany silver, I imagined tasting certain menu items: Roast Duckling with Apple Dressing and Orange Sauce, Assorted Garden Fresh Vegetable Platter with Fried Scallops, Waldorf Salad, or the Aiguillettes of Mahimahi. What does Consommé Gold Nugget taste like, I wondered? Or Saxon Soufflé Pudding? I’ll skip the Smoked Ox Tongue in Sauce Piquant and the Jellied Essence of Tomato, thank you very much.
By the end of the tour, my baby had fallen asleep in my arms. There was a serene expression on her face. In her head, perhaps dreams of tulips and daffodils.
Lunch in Woodside
Later we lunched on Italian entrees and freshly baked pastries at the bright Woodside Bakery and Café (3052 Woodside Road, Woodside, 94062). If you have a small child as I do, I recommend sitting at one of the wide, leather-covered booths, where the baby can lay after she’s dined on applesauce at her borrowed highchair. If you’re a rascal, like I can be, you’ll begrudge the fact that there’s no baby-changing table in the bathroom, and surreptitiously change your baby’s dirty diaper on the soft, leather seat of the booth.
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References
Filoli Center. “The Bourns Build Filoli.” http://www.filoli.org/explore-filoli/history/the-bourns-build-filoli.html 2010.
National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Filoli: Self-Guided Tours of the House and Garden” brochure, 2009.
Wikipedia contributors. “William Bowers Bourn II.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2010.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Pescadero: Butano Marsh Trail
Last Friday, my mother, my friend Jeannie, her daughter Iris, my daughter Genevieve, and I went on a day trip to the seashore and marshland at Pescadero. We drove the fifty or so miles from San Francisco, listening to old reggae and talking.
Pescadero Beach runs for a mile, and is divided by a brackish river where the Pescadero and Butano Creeks run to the sea. Its southern end has awesome tide pools.
The day was sunny but a cool wind blew off the Pacific, and we bundled ourselves in sweaters as we walked along the bluffs above Pescadero Beach. There are bluffs above the tide pools, and from their heights we watched about twenty sea lions, all fat and glossy, lumbering around and sunbathing on the rocks.
Just across the highway is the Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, at the confluence of Pescadero Creek, Butano Creek, and the Pacific Ocean. According to one source, its 640 acres make it the biggest marsh between Monterey Bay and San Francisco. There are three relatively short trails to explore: North Pond, Sequoia Audubon, and Butano Marsh.
We randomly chose Butano Marsh Trail, which starts at a small, grassy parking area just a quarter mile up Pescadero Road on the left-hand side. A small sign marks the way. The hike is only about a mile loop, and mostly flat, the highest elevation being 100 feet above sea level. Turns out, the marsh was intensely beautiful with mirror-like water, blooming flowers, and birds; plus, it was devoid of people except us.
The trail meandered downhill through bushes that grew taller as we approached the water. Birds sang in the branches—apparently there are around 250 bird species here, although we only recognized the bright blue, noisy scrub jays. (Some birds to look for include diving ducks, great blue herons, spotted sandpipers, godwits, snowy egrets, and yellow-throated warblers.)
We crossed a little bridge and went onto an old dike, continuing on the serpentine path above the water and cattails. It looked like someone had been building this dike up with driftwood and planks. Jeannie has been taking a yearlong course in permaculture and had just learned about the making of hedgerows. She pointed out the small hedgerows piled along the sides of the dike, made with wood that had washed up there. “They are created by taking all of the dead wood in the space and piling it high, in a row, and preferably on contour to the land,” she told me, and then explained that hedgerows create “animal sanctuary space by giving protection, places to perch or burrow.” The animals eat and poop in the hedgerow and, she continued, “What happens over time is the local flora is introduced, and the animal population increases, and a little land has been healed.” In the end, the topsoil is built, the hedge nourishes the crops planted along it, and less runoff enters water sources. 
This was the most magical part of the hike, as the path became crowded with bright yellow flowers blooming at chest height. It reminded me of something from the Land of Oz. We guessed the golden, four-petaled flowers were wild radish because they looked like the ones growing in the empty lots of San Francisco except for the color of the blossom, which is purple and white in our city. They grew so thick along the dike that we had to part them before walking forward. All around, birds called and swooped and glided, and yellow motes of pollen twirled in the air.
Later we went to the small town of Pescadero to get lunch. We tried to get bowls of artichoke soup at Duarte’s Tavern, a Portuguese restaurant founded in the late 1800s, but the wait was interminable. So we walked down to the Country Store where two elderly men sat in the booths, and ordered lunch: corn chowder, salad with fresh lima beans and other vegetables from a local garden, a sandwich, and scooped ice cream for dessert.
I highly recommend exploring the Butano Marsh Trail before the flowers disappear later this season. The combination of golden blossoms, still water, birds, and the proximity of the ocean make this a unique place—I’m sure it’s beautiful any time of the year, but the flowers won’t last forever.
Pescadero State Beach—current weather, more info
Pescadero Marsh—trail map
Pescadero’s Website—the happenings in town, tide charts, places to stay and eat at
Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve—printable map, more info
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Saturday, March 27, 2010
Russian Ridge: wildflowers, headwaters, and ancient oaks
Last weekend my husband, baby, and I went to Russian Ridge, noted to be one of the top five places in the Bay Area for seeing spring wildflowers. It’s a 1,978-acre park along Skyline Boulevard, or Highway 35, on that western ridge above Silicon Valley. It’s only 45 miles south of San Francisco, but neither of us had been there before.
It’s a truly beautiful preserve: sweeping, green mountain sides falling into ravines dark with trees and wet with streams; views go to the ocean without a house or road in sight once you’re on the trail.
There are around 10 miles of trails at Russian Ridge, but the loop we took was just three miles, easy enough for a baby in a sling or a small, walking kid. There are connecting trails to Skyline Boulevard that can shorten the hike to a mild one-miler if we had wanted that.
We walked a loop made up of three trails: the Ridge Trail, Hawk Trail, and the Ancient Oaks Trail, in that order.
The single-track path led onto the ridge going north, and then curved down a hillside round as a pregnant belly. There were all sorts of colorful little flowers—we wished we knew the names beyond the recognizable lupines, buttercups, and poppies, which were lovely with their bright purple, yellow, and golden-orange colors, respectively. 
Huge boulders protruded out of the hillsides. Two tall snags were riddled with holes; an acorn woodpecker with distinctive white bands on its wings flew up and knocked around on one trunk. Red-tailed hawks soared overhead. A stream burbled as we descended the ridge onto the Hawk Trail; the headwaters of the Mindego and Alpine Creeks are here. Moss-covered buckeye trees had just burst forth their leaves, shiny and new, a brilliant green. The oak trees were impressive looking, truly ancient with thick, gnarled limbs and mossy bits on their stout trunks. They seemed to embody a quiet fortitude and had an indescribable presence, something out of Tolkien’s Fangorn forest. Even the baby seemed at a loss for words. Notes:
Ø Skylonda, a mountain community, has food and water at the junction of Skyline Boulevard and La Honda Road: Alice’s Restaurant, Skywood Trading Post (a convenient store and deli), and Mountain Terrace Restaurant. Hundreds of motorcyclists congregate here on the weekends. If you’re like my husband, you’ll need to stop here, put your baby in a sling to look real tough, and go ogle the bikes, looking for Ducatis, Triumphs, Hondas, and maybe an old BSA from the ‘50s. There are also two stinky port-o-potties in the central parking lot for anyone’s use.
Ø Mountain lions have been seen on Russian Ridge. I believe they keep to themselves, but if you encounter one the general advice is to appear large, make noise, and keep eye contact. The Mountain Lion Foundation has more information.
Ø Besides a spring afternoon, other especially exquisite times to hike Russian Ridge include sunset and evening hours, and in late autumn when the hills are golden colored.
RESOURCES
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District—Russian Ridge information, guided hikes, and a printable trail map
Virtual Maps—a colorful trail map of Russian Ridge
California Wildflowers—look up flowers by their color, family name, Latin name, or common name
Bay Area Wildflowers—look up flowers, herbs, ferns, grasses, and shrubs by category and photo
Please give suggestions for hikes, anecdotes, or feedback in the “Comments” section below, or send an email to jericahahn@hotmail.com.
If you like to hike with kids or babies, consider a subscription to SF Hiking with Children at examiner.com.
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Friday, March 26, 2010
San Bruno Mountain’s Summit Loop Trail: mountain lion and wildflowers!
San Bruno Mountain is one of those places close to The City that also feels far away because it has wild animals, rare plant species, and the feeling you could almost get lost. (It’s absolute insanity that developers once considered chopping the top of the mountain off to use as landfill!) It’s a five to ten minute drive from downtown San Francisco, and walkable from Daly City, where I used to live.
We parked at the second lot, beyond the underpass, put the baby in a sling that her daddy wore, and started walking up the mountain on the Summit Loop Trail, quickly leaving behind a grove of eucalyptus trees clustered around the parking lot. It was late afternoon but still sunny.The trail switchbacked a mile to the peak, but the elevation change was gradual. A child could manage this. As this was the north side of the mountain, the plant life was dense with bushes and the wildflowers were like colored bits of confetti on either side of the trail.
Suddenly Marshall spotted a large, golden-colored cat about 150 yards away, across a ravine! I’ve never seen a mountain lion before, and if this was one, it was a juvenile male as he sauntered in the open, his long tail quivering as he sprayed some bushes. He looked about 2-3 feet long, with a tail of equal length, and appeared much like a lioness. His golden pelt contrasted with the green bushes. We watched as he walked downhill, sprayed, crouched to pounce at something in the grass, and then pad along another trail (we think it was the Dairy Ravine Trail). We talked about what to do if we saw a mountain lion right before us: make ourselves look big, slowly back away, holler and yammer. But maybe it was just a Perry the Refrigerator of a housecat. If it was a mountain lion, I feel blessed to have seen one.
Nonetheless, I later contacted San Bruno Mountain Watch, and they directed me to contact the ranger, Mr. Albert Zucker. Apparently, a mountain lion was sighted on San Bruno Mountain just a month ago. Two years ago, CBS really blew news out of proportion about a lion on the mountain, acting as if a serial killer was on the loose; a more levelheaded article from The Examiner pointed out that species might be returning, including a rare deer. We would only be so lucky to have our wild animals come back. And the wild animals, may they survive and live long lives on the mountain, considering they’re surrounded by a sea of concrete, traffic, and aggressive human beings.
We continued up Summit Loop Trail and crossed the emergency access road twice at the peak, where there are some radio towers. From then on the trail gently meandered two miles downhill, going into a ravine with a creek, April Brook, flowing through it. The flora changed depending on the exposure—we saw Indian paintbrush, ceanothus, coffee berry, and California poppies, purple irises, many different kinds of lupine, umbrellas of angelica, willow trees, and lots of poison oak, very fresh and oily. 
On our final leg, Marshall found an old, spent bullet on the trail. Idiots with guns are much scarier than any mountain lion. We returned to the parking lot an hour and a half after we’d begun. It was close to sunset and there was a marine wind beginning to blow in. The baby had been awake and happy for most of the hike, but had fallen asleep, as she’s wont to do by the end of a hike, and we felt good. In all, Summit Loop Trail was truly beautiful, isolated, and accessible. Highly recommended!
Note: There’s a $5 parking fee, or buy a yearlong San Mateo County Park Pass for $60.
RESOURCES
➢ San Mateo County—San Bruno Mountain webpage has a printable trail map, hours, info on volunteering, and all that good stuff.
➢ San Bruno Mountain Watch has an impressive amount of information about the flora and fauna, restoration, and group hikes.
➢ Mountain Lion Foundation
For succinct articles about local hikes that are good for kids, consider a free subscription to SF Hiking with Children at examiner.com.
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