A few weeks ago we were visiting Dave, Tracey, and Lucian in the city. We were going for lunch, but Holly was a little antsy, so Tracey suggested going to the park first.
She had heard of a little park in Golden Gate that they had just finished refurbishing, and thought it might be fun, so she plugged it into our GPS and we headed over to the "Koret Children's Quarter"
OMG it is the most amazing park we have ever been to. There was a tiny tot play structure, several large structures connected by bridges and walkways, a spider web's climbing structure, swings, and a concrete slide.
There were cool new styles of climbing ladder's made of ropes and bars that of course Holly is still too young to climb up, but had fun hanging onto and checking out.
There was a colorful wall in the tiny tot structure and two slides that she could totally do all by herself, which were a lot of fun.
This is the mouth of the tube slide, and it was shallow enough that she could go down it without any help. The base was shallow and close to the sand floor, so even if she was going fast, she would land safely on the ground without much of a bump.
It was even set up in such a way that she could climb back up the slide if she wanted, and there were little foot holds to help you out.
Our little pumpkin had fun walking around on the bouncy turf, and didn't stay in any one place for too long, there was so much to explore and see.
If she could climb up this structure she would, in fact she tried. She is a dare devil and takes every opportunity to climb that she can. But she had mom and dad to help her out and give her a lift or redirect so she could explore the upper section of the play structure.
It was pretty secure and well guarded with different kinds of fences and bars on the various sides of the different platforms. Even so, we were sure to stay a few steps behind her as she explored and walked around.
It is so neat have the various climbing structures, Holly was hanging off of them and trying to pull herself up. Since we were in San Francisco it was pretty chilly, so we had her in socks and a sweater.
These were three cool little toad stools that the bigger kids used to climb on, and Holly thought made a cool "bambam" table, she likes to pat and bang every surface she can.
And then she is off. She really liked walking around. The playground was huge, and besides the sandy area underneath the play structure, there was bouncy turn all over that she could toddle on.
She took a moment to look for Lucian who was having a snack in his stroller just along the playground, but she is easily distracted and went off to the next thing.
These were cool spinning "flower bud" chairs, I am not sure how much she liked the spinning, once she found herself inside the chair, but Daddy moved slow, and she wasn't too dizzy one she jumped out.
Of course it wouldn't be a day at the park with Holly if she wasn't making friends everywhere she turned. This was a cool double slide, and this little girl refused to go down until Holly was ready to slide with her.
There is no "Escape" for the little munchkin. This was another cavern for her to climb in. A tube to enter, and grates on either side.
It was cool to have so many different compartments to climb in, it was like her own secret club house.
This was a cool bridge for the kids to walk or crawl across in the middle of the platform. It was really cool, because Holly could crawl across it, even if her arms or feet might slip through the wholes, she wasn't going to be able to fall.
That walkway connected to the hills behind the park which lead to a pathway above to the top of the slide, which you will see in a moment.
We took a break to head to the swings, as that was something Lucian was able to do. They were set on the opposite side of the park, in between were some cool wave shaped climbing structures.
There were only a few baby swings, so Holly and Lucian swung a few times together back to back, which was a blast. Lucian had so much fun, Tracey said it was the highest he had swung ever.
After our bottle break we headed back over to the concrete slide, it was so much fun, Holly went down in Joel's lap, but amazingly there were little kids only 2-3 years old flying down all on there own.
Basically you just sit on a big piece of card board and then slide down, but in both Joel and David's case they lost there card board half way down... I tried to tell them to use a bigger piece.. But men never listen.
The slide was fast if you wanted it to be, but with a slump in the middle it was pretty easy to manage your speed, and both dads played it safe with the little ones.
On our way out of the park we stopped at the carousel. Holly had fun at first, she liked the animals and thought they were a lot of fun to sit on, but then once it started to go around and Mommy was gone, she wasn't too happy.
Lucian is such a big boy, I wish I had more pictures of him, but he wasn't feeling well because he just started day care so Tracey kept him pretty bundled and secluded.
Around and round they went, Holly was on the Big Rooster, daddy picked it out, because he though granny might really get a kick out of it.
Here we are deciding where to go for lunch, one good picture of Lucian, he is in a cute knitted sweater, and he has had his first haircut, so many of his highlights are gone.
Now donning her shoes Holly trots back towards to car on our way to lunch. She loves to walk, so we let her when we have the chance, it's safe, and we aren't in a rush.
Next to the park is a huge meadow, there were picnics, Frisbee, drumming, and guitar, juggling, and a lot of hanging out on blankets and reading, it looked like a wonderful place to spend the afternoon. There was also a visitor's center that had art classes, even ceramics, which was very cool.
Slides - 1 - There were so many slides, but on the tiny tot structure there were two she could do with no help.
Swings - 1 - yes, baby swing and big kid ones, even one with a cool "seat"
Surface - 1 - Both bouncy turf, sand, grass int he meadow. It was great.
Shade - 1 - There were trees, but not really a need for shade because it was in the city, so pretty cool and often foggy or overcast.
Climbing - 1 - So much fun stuff to climb on for Holly's size, but as she gets older, the stuff she will be able to get into is amazing!
Parking - 1 - Just around the corner from the park, there is a lot. It might be kinda busy, as it is Golden Gate Park, but we were able to find something close.
Bathrooms - 1/2 - There are bathrooms, but they are a pretty far walk away from the playground, on the other side of the park off near the meadow, so if one were "Potty training" it wouldn't be a quick run.
Distance - 1/2 - It is only about 10 miles away, so it is possible to get there in 20 minutes, but on a bad traffic day it could be longer. the upside, with friends in the city, we would often have an excuse to be there anyways.
Friends - 1 - So many kids, tons to play with of all ages, and it was a windy day. We met a little of little ones, that we could have chatted with, were we spending more time on the playground.
Fun - 1- So much fun! We didn't even really have a chance to explore everything, Holly had a blast, and there is a lot to do.
http://www.sfgov.org/site/recpark_page.asp?id=26880
It had been forever since we had a play date with Lucian, but he came by a few weeks ago to visit us. I was so excited to have him over.
Him and his Mommy recently went to Vancouver to visit all of his great Aunties. prior to there trip, Tracey was returning a new Infant seat to Babies-R-Us because she previously brought his old car seat with her to Vancouver and decided to instead by him a new Convertible "Big Boy" seat which had not arrived yet.
So we lent them our infant seat to take to the Airport. Tracey brought Lucian up to play with us while she uninstalled his car seat, packed it back into its box, and installed our car seat. 
Lucian did really good playing with Holly and being very entertained by the various toys that were new for him. He was so sweet, and though it took him a few minutes to get used to the new environment, he soon found a tasty toy to chew on.
We played with the blocks, and with the shakers. Holly was so hospitable and waited patiently for Lucian to knock them down, she was very intrigued with his restraint.
Eventually though, she couldn't control herself and had to show him how it was done. I think he just liked having them stacked up around him, and they were good to chew on.
Eventually though he took a turn and he knocked down a tower of his own, just to show Holly that he too could do it, if he wanted to.
Finally they all got knocked down and Holly put them away. I think Lucian really liked the clean up song. He sort of started to bop his head a little when I sang it.
I think Holly almost didn't know how to react to Lucian, he is so cute and cuddly. He is also very calm and laid back, and she isn't used to that calmness.
At first i think she almost thought he was like a doll, she would get up close and look into his eyes and smile, and be very curious.
Then suddenly he reached up and tried to touch her face. Well she knew right away that he was another baby and backed right up and gave him some space.
After she cleaned up all the blocks, he wanted to play with them some more, she she took one out and gave it to him. it was the sweetest thing ever, and about the longest I have seen her sit still and play.
It didn't last for long though, soon she was crawling around and trying to get Lucian to follow her. He is quite the crawler and can get himself from one place to another.
Since Lucian didn't run after her, Holly decided to bring him toys, and I guess she thought that perhaps he would like to play with a ball. He really liked the big blue one.
It was about this time though that he started to notice mommy had been gone for a long time and wondered where she was. he got a little fussy, but he was easily distracted and enjoyed playing too.
But it didn't take long for Tracey to finish, and she came up and joined us. She was exhausted, she had been running around all day doing errands and getting ready for her trip which was the next day.
I convinced her to take a break and catch her breath, gave her some soda and a little snack and she sat with Lucian and Holly as they played.
Lucian became much more adventurous once his mommy was there. He climbed up on the house and crawled right through the door and off into the next room.
It was really late in the afternoon when they arrived maybe 3:00 and Holly had been refusing her nap all day, I think her semi-tiredness had a lot to do with her calm when playing with Lucian.
Exploring Holly's room Lucian found this fuzzy "Ewok" teddy Bear of Holly's made from Alpaca Fur, if I recall right, Joel brought it back for me from Ecuador, but if I recall wrong he can comment and remind me where it is from. Lucian loved it, and gave it a hug hug and cuddled right up with it.
Isn't he such a sweetie! On a previous trip to Vancouver Lucian's Granny gave him a haircut. I think it makes him look much more grown up, but he doesn't have as many highlights or curls now as he used to.
He was having so much fun with Holly and I think Tracey was enjoying her break, that while she kept saying they should leave, they would stay a little bit longer. We loved the company.
We took advantage of the time to read books and play games, and catch up, as Tracey and I hadn't really had a chance to talk much in the previous several weeks.
Lucian was very interested int he Stuffed Animals, and he really liked the puppets, this is a little fish one. He is also really on the verge of walking, he was cruising and pulling himself up and walking around with mommy holding his hands. Last time I saw him (except for the kite festival a few days earlier) he hadn't even crawled yet.
So it was amazing for me to see him so grown up. They ended up staying until almost 6:00, which I think in the end was good, as it allowed her to avoid bridge traffic back into the city, and miss Holly was exhausted and finally went to sleep after being up 9 hours. 
I thought she was out for the night, but she got up at 10:00. I worried when this happened,but then by 11:30 she was ready to sleep for the night, so it wasn't too bad, and definitely worth a skipped nap to play with Lucian.
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