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Golden Gate Park – Commentary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin. Welcome back to the commentary for Golden Gate Park. So I thought I would talk about other things in the park that weren’t mentioned in the conversation. Like, for example, the park has two soccer fields. Now I think most people know what soccer is. That’s a pretty international sport. So they have two soccer fields. There is also an art studio.

There are two baseball fields. Baseball is a game or a sport. It’s from here, the United States, so it’s played outdoors and there’s two of those, two of those fields. There is also a basketball court. I’m not sure if that’s…it’s probably outside actually. So it’s played on a hard surface.

And there’s a 9-hole golf course, so that’s separate from the disc golf or frisbee golf course that was talked about in the conversation. Golf is another sport where you’ve got a ball and you have a club in your hand, something in your hand that you swing to hit the ball up ahead of you at a target. There’s playgrounds for children, y’know, structures that have been created for children to play on.

There’s an area to throw horseshoes. So horseshoes is a game where you actually have a metal shoe, we call it a shoe. It’s what goes on the bottom of a horse’s foot or his hoof. It’s shaped like a U, the letter U. And you hold it at the bottom of the U and then you throw it at a stake that’s in front of you. I can’t remember how far away. But there’s two stakes in the ground. So, and two people are playing or two teams so it could be four people playing against each other. And you throw the horseshoe, you want to get it around the stake and then you walk down to that stake and you throw at the opposite stake, stake being a metal post in the ground. So there’s an area to play that. I know a lot about that game because my dad liked playing it when I was growing up.

There’s an area in the park for dogs to be able to run off leash. They don’t have to be tied up, they can just run free. And there’s a polo field. I don’t know a lot about polo. I was reading about it. It’s a little bit like field hockey and it’s played, you ride horses, I believe. And you’re trying to hit, from the horses, trying to hit a ball. I think it’s two teams playing against each other. So there’s a polo field.

There’s two inside, or indoor, as well as two outdoor, our outside, handball courts. I didn’t know what handball was, I had no idea what handball was. I had to look it up on the internet. It’s…you just have a little rubber ball that you hit with your hand. Pretty simple.

And there’s something called, I can’t remember, I think it’s pronounced petanque court. It’s spelled petanque, it’s actually a French sport or game. I had to look this up. I had never heard of this. And this is where you have an area, it looked like from the picture on the internet, it’s like a hard dirt area where you’re hitting a metal ball. But it’s a hollow ball. There’s nothing in the middle of the ball, there’s nothing on the inside, which makes it lighter. So you’re hitting a metal ball, petanque. So there’s one of those courts.

And then there’s a lawn bowling area. So lawn bowling is done on really short, shortly cut grass. Where you’re hitting or throwing a wooden ball. So those are all things I’m not really familiar with, the handball, the polo, the petanque, and the lawn bowling. But there’s areas for all of those activities.There’s horse stables. A stable is where a horse is housed. So they have horses there in the park. In fact, it was a few weeks ago, really early in the morning that all the horses got loose somehow from the area where they are contained or where they’re kept. And they were running around the park. People had to come like the police and try and get them back into their contained area, their fenced-in area.

There’s also a plant nursery, so an area, an indoor building where plants are kept inside, kind of like at the Conservatory of Flowers. The plants are kept inside because it’s better for them to grow. But the Conservatory of Flowers is a building made with these plants so that people can visit and see the plants.

A nursery is more just, not so much for people to come in, in fact, I don’t think it’s open to the public. I don’t think anyone can just go into this plant nursery. These plants are grown there inside for various reasons. I think maybe to be planted or put in the ground at different places around Golden Gate Park and maybe even other parks in San Francisco. So they have a plant nursery.

They have a restaurant, so the park, like I said, it’s, what did I say, it’s about 7 miles, I think, is that what I had said? Well, anyway, it’s a really big park, right? And it goes all the way out to the beach, the ocean.

So out at the end of the park that’s near the ocean, there are, there’s a restaurant called the Beach Chalet Restaurant and they actually brew or make their own beer there and they serve food as well. And then on either side of the restaurant, there are…there’s a windmill. So there’s two windmills in the park.

Now the history, the story with the windmills is back in the late 1800s when the park was first built, it was built on sand. So to bring in all these plants to grow and to have grass growing, they needed water. They needed water for these plants and for the grass. So they built…these two windmills were built shortly after the park was built, was made, on the sand. The windmills, the purpose was to get water from under the ground to irrigate or to water the plants in the park. Eventually, the electric pumps started being used instead of the windmills. But then, so then the windmills weren’t being used and they started to fall apart.

But then people came in and actually restored or built them back up to where they would last because they’re…they’re kind of a tourist attraction, I think.

And that leads me to say, also, that there are so many tourists that visit this park. I think Golden Gate Park is one of the main tourist sites to go to when visiting San Francisco. Like I mentioned, I think in the conversation, it’s over 1,000 acres and it’s 20% larger than Central Park. So Central Park is in New York City and it’s a large park as well but Golden Gate Park is actually bigger, which I didn’t realize.

So, okay, that’s enough about the park. The park has a lot of fun things to do. If you’re ever in San Francisco, I highly recommend going there. And I’m wondering if, or what parks you have. If you live in a city, what parks you have available to you in the city. And what’s in your parks? Y’know, I just described, Joe and I both in the conversation as well as me just now in this commentary, we talked about so many things in this huge park.

But we also have small parks which just maybe have a little bit of trees and some plants and that’s all.

And people still go there. They like to enjoy just walking there, walking with their dogs or walking by themselves or walking with friends. So what, what kinds of parks…if you live in a city, what parks do you have and what’s in them? We’d love to hear from you on the social site.

Alright, take care, enjoy the rest of your month and I’ll see you next time.