Destination: Pacific Heights, San Francisco
Explore Japantown, Picnic in Lafayette Park, Tour the Haas-Lilienthal House
This is part of a series of family-oriented day trip outings around the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to enjoying with my kids once social distancing and shelter in place isn’t the norm any longer.
Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash
Social Isolation — Day 16
Not a much new to report today, especially as our politicians who have been briefing us daily make me embarrassed to be an American. One thing I will note is that South Korea had its first confirmed case on the same say we did, and they are in much better shape now, especially with the projections that are coming out.
I’ve started to think of what life looks like in a post-pandemic world. Thinking about some of the things we could have done better with as a society, and for our kids at school.
One thing that sticks out is having decent hand soap in all of our bathrooms, maybe even something that smells nice. For example, when I’m at SFO, I hate using the soap in their bathrooms. My hands smell medicinal after washing there. And this is one place where I should be washing up if I’m visiting. Quite often if I’m at a school or city facility, the soap in the bathroom is an unpleasant experience. If it’s unpleasant to use the soap in a public facility, then I’m much less likely to wash my hands properly. This can’t be such a huge investment for our fellow citizens.
I’ll have more on this later, it’s on my mind a lot recently.
For today though, I imagine a clear and sunny day in San Francisco, heading up to Pacific Heights to experience the delights of Japantown, Lafayette Park, and the Haas-Lilienthal house.
Destination: Pacific Heights, San Francisco
Explore Japantown
Picnic at Lafayette Park
Tour the Haas-Lilienthal House
These three locations don’t have a lot to do with each other, but they are in close proximity and can make for an entertaining day out.
Explore Japantown
Picking out goodies for a picnic lunch by Cody Tolmasoff
I could spend all day wandering around Japantown in San Francisco. Wandering through Daiso looking at all the curious dollar items, then over past the Peace Plaza looking in at all the great little shops along the way till we get to Kinokuniya bookstore for more curiosities.
Once we finish looking around, we might stop for lunch. Better yet, we will head down to Nijiya Market on the corner of Post & Webster streets and pick up some goodies for a picnic lunch at our next stop.
Picnic at Lafayette Park
Picnic at Lafayette Park by Cody Tolmasoff
Lafayette Park is a beautiful spot for a picnic and offers a great playground for the kids. I would recommend reading the Hoodline article (link above) for more background on this park, but basically, when the park was originally allocated back in 1864 by the US Government, a former city attorney for SF claimed ownership over half the land and build a mansion at the very top of the park.
The dispute between Samuel Holladay and the city went on for 7–0 years resulting in a park with two distinct styles once the city started building the park in the early 1800s. The western half has a more formal 19th-century style, while the eastern half is more densely vegetated and has improvements made by the WPA in the 1930s.
Throw down a blanket and have some lunch. Let the kids play for a bit, then have a wander around before heading to our final location.
Tour the Haas-Lilienthal House
Haas-Lilienthal House by Cody Tolmasoff
I love taking a tour of this beautiful Queen Anne style house. Find the entrance through the delivery alleyway and into the party-room basement.
First, an entire basement room dedicated to entertaining, how cool is that? Such a great space too. You can pay for a tour here, and each tour is unique. The guides each have their own take on history relevant to the house. The house was built in 1886 for William and Bertha Haas. William was a San Francisco businessman. Lucky for us, the house survived the 1906 earthquake and fire (with the fire contained a couple of blocks away at Van Ness).
The house was lived in by several generations of the Haas family. Alice Haas-Lilienthal passed away in 1972 after living there nearly her entire life. The house was donated to what would become the SF Herritage non-profit organization and designated a landmark in 1975.
Touring the house, you get to experience many of the different rooms and their purposes, learning what it was like to live in a classic house like this.
Cody Tolmasoff is an author and publisher for Adventuring.in. He is a recovering programmer and a San Francisco native, raising two daughters, and regularly finding new adventures around the SF Bay Area. This article is an excerpt from an upcoming book, 52 San Francisco Bay Area Weekend Adventures, Day Trips With Your Kids!
Find him on Twitter @codyo, and read his most recent title Adventures in Getting Out on Amazon, filled with advice on successfully getting your family out for day trip adventures.
Originally published on Medium on 29 March 2020