This weekend, the Inner Sunset and Golden Gate Park will be dominated by Bay to Breakers on Sunday, so if you’re looking for a day in the park with the kids, Saturday is your best bet.
Saturday, May 16th
Saturday morning features a kid-friendly Community Crafts Day in Golden Gate Park at Mothers Meadow. The fair takes place from 10am until 3pm, and there will be crafts appropriate for adults to work on, too. It’s a free event, but donations are welcome. Mothers Meadow can be found on MLK just east of 19th Avenue.
Just around the corner at the San Francisco Botanical Garden is another event with activities geared towards children. Bean Sprouts Family Days take place on this and other Saturdays until October from noon until 3pm. Part educational and part fun, these family days offer a variety of crafts, gardening activities, outdoor games, and book readings.
Beans Sprouts Family Days are free with regular Garden admission, which is free to SF residents and for out-of-towners costs between $2-7 for individuals, or $15 for a family.
Photo: Sutro Stewards/Craig Dawson
For more grown up gardening, head up to Mount Sutro and volunteer with the Sutro Stewards as they maintain the trails in the Open Space Preserve and pull weeds and plant native plants from the nursery. Volunteers are needed at 9am to 1pm on Saturday, and pizza and refreshments will be served toward the end. RSVP ahead of time so they know to expect you.
At the de Young Museum you can find an exhibit of Janet Delaney’s photographs of San Francisco’s South of Market district as it appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. The more than 40 photographs show a vibrant neighborhood that largely was erased by development over the subsequent decades. The show runs through July 19th, and is part of regular museum admission.
On Saturday evening, you can venture westward for the premiere of a new series of hip hop shows at the Honey Hive Gallery in the Outer Sunset. “UNRAPPED” was created by Babii Cris to give local artists a chance to show off their music and art. Doors open at 6:30pm, and there will be open mic slots followed by live performances by almost a dozen artists. Tickets are $10, and this is an all-ages show. The Honey Hive Gallery is located at 4117 Judah Street near 46th Avenue.
Sunday, May 17th
The main event of this weekend is the 103rd annual Bay to Breakers, which will simultaneously turn Golden Gate Park into both a sporting event and a giant party. The serious runners will be finished well before 10am, but the partiers will linger well beyond that, both in the park and at the finish line at the Great Highway. If you come to check it out, you can expect to see some costumes, some skin, and some bacchanalian behavior. Keep an eye out for teams running in coordinated themed outfits.
As usual, public transportation will be swamped, and roads will be closed along the route, so getting almost any where in the city will be difficult. 19th Avenue will be open to get you to the northern part of the city by bus or car, but be prepared for traffic, as it is one of the only roads that will be open during the race.
At 1pm, the Golden Gate Park Band will put on one of its usual Sunday performances, though they might find themselves playing to a livelier than usual crowd. They can be found as always between the Academy of Sciences and the de Young Museum at the Spreckels Temple of Music at the Music Concourse, which is the official name of the bandshell.
The Inner Sunset Farmers’ Market will also take place as it does every Sunday from 9am-1pm in the parking lot on Irving between 8th and 9th avenues. Look out for cherries, apricots, and hints of early summer bounty. The market also happens to be looking for part-time and full-time market managers—if you're interested, grab an application on Sunday from a market manager or send an email to pcfmajobs {at} pcfma {dot} org.
Enjoy the weekend, wherever it takes you!
