SF BAY AREA DAY TRIP ADVENTURE
Destination: Mission Dolores, San Francisco
Tour Mission Dolores, explore Clarion Alley, and play at Mission Dolores Park
This is part of a series of family-oriented day trip outings around the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to enjoying with my kids once social distancing and shelter in place isn’t the norm any longer.
Today is the 114th anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake, so I picked Mission Dolores today to reflect upon it.
San Francisco holds an annual memorial to the earthquake on April 18th at 5:12 AM at Lotta’s Fountain (canceled this year). It’s hard to wake up early enough to attend, I went once years ago when there were still a few survivors in attendance. They made speeches until 5:12 AM when we would have a moment of silence, broken by sirens a minute later. Some volunteers went over to paint the Golden Hydrant, and local restaurants would offer breakfast specials.
Many people flocked here after the earthquake to watch the city burn in the resulting fire. The Golden Fire Hydrant is located here at 20th & Church street, at the southwestern corner of the park. It was the only working fire hydrant and reportedly saved the Mission District from burning down. Each year as part of the memorial…
