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Golden Gate Park – Conversation Lesson

I’m going back tomorrow to volunteer at the Botanical Gardens.

Oh, cool. I know you really enjoyed that. What time are you going?

I have to be there at 10:00, 10:00 to 1:00. Yeah, who would have thought that I would enjoy weeding?

Well, I think you told me in the past you always disliked it, but that was more when you were a child, right? Did you ever do it as an adult or was it only when you were younger?

No, I never did it as an adult, but as I was telling you last week after my first time, this is the perfect weather to be out gardening because it’s cool weather here in San Francisco. Like last week it was foggy so there wasn’t sun beating down on me. And there was plenty, even if the sun had come out, there was plenty of tree coverage. Y’know, when I was out there before I went into the Botanical Gardens, I was actually looking at the sign for Golden Gate Park. I didn’t even realize some of the stuff that’s in the park. Like did you realize that there’s 10 different lakes?

I know about Stow Lake where you can take out those little boats, but I don’t know if I knew about the other lakes.

Yeah, so Stow Lake is one of the major ones. There’s, there’s basically two major ones. I can’t remember the name of the other one, but, yeah, so at Stow Lake you can rent those little paddle boats.

There’s another lake where you can actually rent, I guess you can rent them, they’re little sailboats, you can take them out. That’s pretty cool.

Is there enough wind?

I don’t know. I think I saw, read, that they’re motorized so maybe you wouldn’t need the wind.

Hm.

But that park is amazing. They’ve got the Academy of Sciences. They’ve got De Young.

Yeah, the De Young Museum.

Yeah. De Young Museum, Japanese Tea Garden where we took our parents that time.

Yeah, it was great when our parents came, each set of our parents. I remember when they each visited we took them to the park and they really enjoyed it because there was a lot of fun things to do, y’know, outside of the museums. Like you said, there’s a Japanese Tea Garden and we also took my parents to the Conservatory of Flowers, I think.

Right, yes, and that was my first time going there. Yeah, that was really cool because they’ve got the butterfly section and the other part, it’s small, but they had.it was very tropical. I remember they had the Venus flytrap flowers.

Yeah, I remember that, yeah. Remember when Rosemary was here with my cousin Grace, and we went to the Academy of Sciences and it was like right after they had reopened it. Remember, they closed it for like two years and they did all these renovations and really brought it up to a more modern natural science museum.

Yeah, I don’t even know if I ever actually went in the old museum.

Oh, I know I did. Y’know, when I first moved to San Francisco, I didn’t work for about six months.

And that was on purpose because I wanted to get to know the city. And one of the things that I did every month was go to museums because they have one day each month that you can go to the museum for free.

Yeah.

And it’s usually the first Tuesday or the first Wednesday of the month, so that’s what I did like every first week of the month for those first six months, I went to a different museum and it was great, y’know?

Yeah, that’s really cool that they do that. You have to be a resident though or it’s for anybody?

It’s for anybody.

Well, you know at the Botanical Gardens, if you’re a San Francisco resident you can get in for free anytime.

Oh, y’know, I know that it’s like, what is it, like once a month they have a day for each neighborhood for the Academy of Sciences that you can get in free. I don’t know.

Oh yeah, I think they do. Yeah.

But obviously for that you need to be a resident because you show your ID and then they know what, y’know, if you can get in for free that day.

Right. Well, I don’t know what the Academy of Sciences used to be like because like I said, I don’t think I’d ever gone into the old one, but it’s amazing now how they have the aquarium.

Oh, man.

and a planetarium and a butterfly garden as well as exhibits that they would have in a natural history museum like dinosaur bones. And they even, I love their living roof.

The garden.

The garden, yeah.

Yeah.

The living roof, I think they call it or living roof garden.

Yeah, yeah, that’s really cool. Remember we went through the rainforest they had inside there and it was like really humid and as you got higher and in different parts, the weather changed? I mean it was all something that they made, y’know, it wasn’t real.

Yeah, that was where the butterflies were, I thought.

Yes, yeah, there were some butterflies there.

Yeah.

Flying around.

Yeah.

And you always had to make sure the doors were closed, y’know, because the butterflies could fly out then.

Right.

If not, y’know.

Yeah.

There’s just so much in that park. First off, it’s so large.

Yeah, it’s like three miles long and then half a mile wide.

Wow.

So three miles long, that’s pretty, pretty big.

Yeah, and I think it’s on Sundays maybe, and maybe it’s only during summers, I don’t know. They close off roads to traffic so then people can be running. They can be roller skating. They can go for walks, y’know.

Bicycling, you can ride.

Cycling, exactly.

I think you can rent bikes in the park.

Yeah, it’s great. And, y’know, my first exposure to the park was, y’know, for museums, as I told you, but also for concerts because there’s always like some concerts that are going on there.

Yeah.

I mean now two of the really big ones are the free bluegrass festival which is, god, it’s so big now.

Yeah, Hardly Strictly.

Yeah, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. And then they have the Outdoor Lands.

Outside Lands.

Oh, Outside Lands, yeah, Outside Lands.

Yeah, that’s right. That’s free, too.

Yeah. And we went to the first one but we haven’t been to one since.

Oh, wait, no, I don’t think it is.

Oh no, that’s not free, now, what am I talking about.

No, no, you have to pay for that.

Yeah, that one, that one’s not free. The bluegrass.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

festival is free and they have some endowment that’s funded for years to come so it will remain free for the, y’know, for the foreseeable future, which is great.

Oh, that’s. yeah, that’s great. Yeah, I’ve been to several concerts there, too. There’s even, there’s like an archery field which I’ve never seen. And I didn’t even know this. I’ve never seen these.

There’s apparently tennis courts. Not just one court but there’s several.

What about the bison?

Yeah, I know. When I first moved to San Francisco, we were driving through the park and I couldn’t believe when I looked out and saw this open field and I just saw buffalo. It was the craziest thing.

Crazy. Like, to have these buffalo in a city, I mean granted, when you’re at Golden Gate Park you don’t feel like you’re in the city, but still, y’know, it’s crazy.

Yeah, I don’t. I don’t know why they have that, Bison Paddock they call it. I’m not sure why they have that there.

I’ve also been to the park a number of times to play frisbee golf with AJ.

Yeah, I went one time, too.

Yeah, we always have a lot of fun doing that although we haven’t done it for years but that’s always a lot of fun because, y’know, it’s something active that you’re doing and you’re walking around because they’re pretty far apart, the targets, y’know?

Right, right.

But I’ve also gone to the park a lot for just like picnics and fun outings for work, y’know, where we’d just have a barbecue and beer and stuff, y’know, just to get everyone in the company together.

Yeah.

I’ve done that in the past at places I’ve worked. And I remember one year Jason Grody had a big party there also and that was a lot of fun, y’know?

Yeah, I bet.

It’s just a great place and when you’re there, it’s like you’re not in the city because it’s just beautiful.

There’s so much natural diversity there and it seems so far away from any tall buildings or anything.

Yep.