Friday, August 31, 2007

Julius Kahn Playground



Occasionally the sheer natural beauty of coastal California jumps up and figuratively smacks me upside the head.



It happened again on a hot Wednesday morning in the decommissioned Presidio army base...



...near the fancy neighborhood known as Presidio Heights.



The Julius Kahn playground there is a hidden jewel that is host to a small softball field that's more often used as a children's soccer pitch or as a place to play under sprinklers with the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.



The playground also has a small community center, a children's playground, a basketball court, and four tennis courts for public recreation.



On certain weekday mornings, I join a group of mostly Asian seniors who play doubles tennis with their own idiosyncratic rules. Each set consists of four games, switch sides after two, with all disagreements quickly over because no set lasts very long. It can be a slice of heaven.

7 comments:

Adam said...

If you go deeper there is also a full-size baseball diamond in this park! I agree it is a beautiful place; the thing I don't like is how difficult it is to reach using MUNI. Seems like every other playground has a bus that goes right by it...

Nancy Ewart said...

I love your posts about SF; I'm doing something similar on my blog with a particular focus on art. What kind of camera do you use? I'm new to digital camera; I got one for my 60th birthday (a few years ago, ahem) and I'm just now learning how to use it.

Civic Center said...

Dear Nancy: For some reason, the link from your name doesn't go to your blog so you might just want to put the address in a separate post. As for cameras, I've got an old Sony, nothing fancy but it's very forgiving of shaky hands and has wonderful color values. Cropping and minor color correction in Photoshop also helps a lot too. You might have somebody teach you the basics because the program isn't really all that intuitive.

And Adam, didn't you realize that the Presidio is for non-Muni people? It's pretty shameful, to tell you the truth.

Nancy Ewart said...

Ah - dumb me! Here's the blog link:

http://cheznamastenancy.blogspot.com/

I have only been blogging for a few weeks now so probably haven't gotten the hang of links, etc. I was afraid that you would say the dread work "Photoshop." I wants it, indeed I do but it's mucho expensive. I keep looking for a second hand, older version on Craig's list because I don't need all the whistles and bows. I'm currently using a Canon A40 and it still excites me that I can point! press button! make photo! and then, upload. It took me ages to figure out why it didn't work at first; I had to go to the store to have some clerk tell me that I had to press the "on" button first. DUH!

Nancy Ewart said...

http://cheznamastenancy.blogspot.com

Second try at putting up a "real" link.

girrr...

Civic Center said...

Dear Nancy: It didn't work this time either. Send me an email from the link on this blog and I can probably give you directions on how to change your preferences in Blogger.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Loved this post with all the breathing space and natural beauty. Thanks!