Earth Day in San Francisco

Monday, April 22, is Earth Day.  On Saturday, April 20, many Earth Day celebrations took place through out the Bay Area.  I took BART to Civic Center to enjoy a day of Earth Day festivities.  Many  green merchants of the Bay Area had booths at the festival promoting their products and services. Rainbow Grocery had fresh bananas for everyone.  I ate 3 bananas yesterday while having a great time soaking up the sun and participated in some group art projects.

Holistic Hooping provided many colorful hoops of various sizes for anyone who wanted some twirling exercise. I was never good at hula hooping so I just watched others laughing and giggling with hoops around them. Chinook Books were being given away for free, which usually costs $20 each. It's a book of sustainable local coupons. I flipped through the book and immediately found a free pet wash coupon which normally costs $12.

In addition to free bananas, I also enjoyed many samples of Naked Juice and Odwalla while checking out some organic clothing merchants.

My friend who loves to dance ended up dancing on the grassy area with others wearing solar powered wireless headphones. I, on the other hand, sat on the grass carefully read through the entire Chinook Book and bookmarked all the useful coupons in the area.

As the festival ended at 6 p.m., we headed to the food court at Westfield San Francisco Centre for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to find Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine in the food court and were able to use one of the coupons from Chinook Book. Neither of us are vegetarians, but we can't deny how delicious Loving Hut's dishes are.

Earth Day festivities were filled with live music, free food samples, money saving coupons to take home, and feeling of peace. It's one of the many free local festivals I highly recommend.

San Francisco Green Festival 2012

It has been more than 10 years since I attended last Green Festival. I wasn't planning on going when I saw the admission being more than $10. A few days ago, I got an email from Goldstar offering free admission to Green Festival. It was just my luck that I checked my email the minute I received the free offer, so I grabbed a weekend pass for $4.75 of "service charge." I have been a member of Goldstar for many years, and I receive discount and free offers around the Bay Area on a weekly basis. For free offers, they are limited quantities and Goldstar charges a "service fee." That was why I had to pay $4.75 for my free pass.

I was amazed at the huge turnout of participants. I don't remember this being such a huge event last time I attended it. People lined up outside all the way around the corner before 11 a.m.  Once inside, there were countless food samplings and product samples free for the taking. I got many dog food and treat samples including 4 packs of different dog food varieties from Spring Naturals.  I also got a pack of vegetarian dog food. I am curious to find out whether Kelsey will like that.

At 4 p.m., I sat down in front of Main Stage to listen to California's non-GMO leaders talking about "Beyond Proposition 37: What's Next for GMO Labeling."  Last Tuesday was election day, and to my surprise, proposition 37 didn't pass. I couldn't fathom how it didn't pass. Today I found out that heavy advertising campaign opposing 37 was on TV and radio just a couple weeks before the election day. Apparently, every commercial break during World Series was "No on Prop 37." I would have never known since I don't watch TV nor listen to the radio. It's just shocking to me that majority of Americans would rather not know what they are eating. On second thought, there are still plenty of people eating McDonald's hamburgers everyday, so I guess majority of Americans just want cheap food. 

Ford was one of the event sponsors, and many of their electric and hybrid cars were on site for test drive.  They were even giving away SustainU (100% recycled apparel made in the USA) T-shirts just for test driving the cars. I rode in Ford's 100% electric car and was quite impressed. I wonder whether electric pickup trucks will become available soon.

Around 5 p.m. I headed home with bags of samples. Perhaps next year I'll sign up as a volunteer for Green Festival.

Sunday in Golden Gate Park

Gold Gate Park Map

This morning I woke right before 8 am. I got up, packed up, and headed over to Golden Gate Park with Kelsey in the back seat. Do you know there is free parking in Golden Gate Park? It's limited to 4 hours during Monday through Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, it is unlimited, but you must get there early. I got to the park at 9 am, and there was plenty of parking. As I was parking, I could see one car after another pulling up and parked behind me. I was pretty sure by 9:30 it would be hard to find parking.

Banjo Stage of Bluegrass (photo taken 2011)

I can see why people love the city. Every weekend and every day there is so much going on. One can never and should never be bored in this area. Many of the weekend activities are free, and if you don't mind taking a little time to plan and pack your own food and drink, you don't need to spend any money at these events. This weekend was the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. It always runs for 3 days starting from Friday to Sunday. People come from all over the Bay Area to enjoy this free music festival.  It is also SF Fleet Week. I am not sure whether that's free, but I am sure if you know where to go, you can see the air show for free by looking up the sky.

The Golden Gate Park Band

Today there were 6 stages on one side of the park for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. On the other side, just across from De Young Museum, The Golden Gate Park Band was having their last free performance of the season. After I checked out several stages of Bluegrass Festival, I sat on one of the green benches in the shade to enjoy a different kind of music. Kelsey seemed to be pooped after hours of walking, loud music, and being surrounded by people.  She just laid down to take a nap.