Places to Go

Great article in this morning's Chronicle about the last remaining local Adventure Playground, located in Berkeley at the Berkeley Marina. Oddly enough, I've never heard of such a thing before, and had no clue that there was one in Berkeley, which is not altogether that surprising given that my Cal years were spent doing things other than hanging out at a kids' playground, which would have been kind of strange and creepy. Anyhow, despite my apparent ignorance at its existence, the Adventure Playground concept sounds pretty cool. Essentially, it's a 1-acre lot full of junk like old boats, telephone poles, tires, and pianos, as well as structures such as forts, slides, and rope swings. Kids can run wild and play, build, paint, and get filthy. How cool!

For my first-ever inaugural Marin Daddy blog post, I though I'd write about subject that's near and dear to the hearts of most dads—beer, and of course, spending quality time with the wee ones. At a recent after-work function I was with some colleagues at the Park Chalet in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The Park Chalet is the slightly less touristy, downstairs sibling to the popular Beach Chalet brewery and restaurant in the historic building of the same name, located on the Great Highway at John F. Kennedy Drive, across from Ocean Beach.
So I'm here on a Monday afternoon, and I couldn't help but notice a steady stream of parents with small children entering the place. Most of them were headed toward the expansive lawn area in back, where they lounged in adirondack chairs, ate appetizers, drank beer, and watched their kids go nuts running around on the lawn. Did I also mention that it was $1 draft night? The Park/Beach Chalet makes a variety of tasty brews, all named after San Francisco landmarks past and present, such as Presidio IPA, Playland Pale Ale, and Fleischhacker Stout, all (or at least what I've sampled) quite tasty. They even make their own root beer, since you're bringing your kids and all. And they have food, too, including your standard pub-grub like sandwiches, burgers, pizza, etc.
Does life get any better than $1 beer and a place where you don't have to worry about the kids tearing around like crazy? Not if you're just one of those idle people who can go hang out at a brewpub on Monday afternoons and evenings, or if you can swing a Monday off, ("Hello, boss? Yeah, I'm feeling pretty awful today, I don't think I'm gonna make it in...").