Hi Robin,
I am in San Jose, where are you? My son is 4 months old.

Beth

Hi Robin,

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but you opened the floodgates when you said the magic words: Golden Gate Park. I lived right across the street from the park for many years, so it's definitely a favorite place of mine, and I have lots of suggestions for what to do there. Within the park, my two alltime favorite spots to take a baby are the Botanic Garden and Stowe Lake. In the garden, you can stroll around and point out all the beautiful flowers to your baby, and you can explore the paths (GREAT exercise and fun!) You can also feed the ducks and geese in the pond, and there are numerous grassy areas for baby to toddle around (when she gets to that point) or you can just take a blanket and lounge. We used to have picnics there quite a bit. Oh, and there are plenty of squirrels to chase too! And did I mention you'll see lots of other mommies?

I have to digress here and mention that, when we were getting ready to leave the city, I took "one last" trip to the Botanic Garden and cried! We had so many memories there! Anyway...If you head up to Stowe Lake you can also get good exercise walking around the lake on the path. You can rent paddleboats there for pretty cheap, or you can head up and to the middle (kind of above the lake...you'll know what I mean when you see it) and walk under the waterfall. Babies love this!
At the foot of western path (nearest to Park Presidio) leading up to Stowe Lake there is a great playground, which also has a large grassy area surrounding it.

One last neat thing in the park: the Conservatory of Flowers. I think babies are free, and I believe all admission is free on Mondays, but I'd double check that. Also, all the museums in the city have at least one free admission day per month, including the Academy of Sciences, which is very cool.

You can also leave the park on the Garden side and walk around the Inner Sunset. There are lots of cute shops and fairly inexpensive (and ALWAYS kid-friendly) spots to eat. Park Chow is inexpensive and has generous portions, but my faves are Pluto's, Raintree Cafe, Crepevine, and the Mediterranean place (sorry but the name escapes me) on Irving Street between 7th and 9th Aves. There's also a Jamba Juice and plenty of coffee shops in that same section...

There's a really popular kiddie park/playground in SF called Duboce Park. The best way to get there is to take the N Judah train, either from downtown or the Inner Sunset. You can't miss it; just ask the conductor.

In Berkeley, the zoo there is pretty neat. It's old so it's cool to see, and I think it's a bit more kid-friendly than the zoo in San Francisco. They have a great play area for very small kids that's all, of course, animal-themed. If you go to Berkeley a lot you might want to look into a zoo membership.

There's also a children's museum in Sausalito. http://www.baykidsmuseum.org/

Anyway, hope this is a good start. Maybe I can get some ideas from you if we head down toward Pasadena!

Patti
SAHM in SF Bay Area