By Laure Latham
Set between two iconic San Francisco destinations – Fisherman’s Wharf and Crissy Field – Fort Mason is a world of its own. A pre-Civil War coastal fortification, Fort Mason once featured an underground tunnel connecting three Navy piers to the Embarcadero’s railroad 
system. You can still find the rail tracks in the parking lot and the tunnel might be resurrected as part of the extension of the F tram line. However, today’s Fort Mason, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), is better known for its cultural non-profits and gourmet vegetarian restaurant, Greens. Don’t let the army-warehouse look fool you – come out and rediscover a San Francisco gem.
Enter Fort Mason at Marina Blvd and Laguna Street.
Art Studios
Children from ages 2 through 10 can explore a wide range of arts media at the San Francisco Children’s Art Center.
Chinese Heritage
Celebrating San Francisco’s Chinese heritage, the Jing Mo Athletic Association teaches lion dancing, Chinese martial arts and drumming to children as young as 7, while the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Academy offers traditional Chinese dance in after-school programs to students in K-12 schools in San Francisco. The Academy also holds regular performances.
Music & Theatre
At Blue Bear School of Music or Golden Gate Music Together, infants from 4 months old can learn how to tap to lively rhythms and sing songs on an eclectic mix of folk, traditional or world music, with the help of storytelling and games. Blue Bear School of Music also operates a performance hall that holds rehearsals, class performances and some independent stage productions.
Older children (age 3 and up) get a kick out of learning to the strings of creative theater or musical theater at the Young Performers Theatre, and can even be part of fully-staged classics such as Madeline and the Gypsies. If they prefer to be in the audience, start with the Young Performers Theatre, but check out the programs of the Cowell Theater, where lots of San Francisco arts and dance schools hold their shows. Quality theater and film festivals are also held here.
Outdoor Exploratorium
Science for the masses in an open-air setting! The Outdoor Exploratorium is in fact a series of free scientific experiments peppered throughout Fort Mason, from the parking lot to Aquatic Park. Each individual experiment relates to the particular physics or geography of the place and demonstrates how easily science can leave the classroom. Take the Bridge Thermometer up on the bluff in front of the Golden Gate. Not only is the view gorgeous (snap a photo), but looking at the thermometer you get the temperature of the bridge and see how it impacts 
the length and width of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge (With the temperature, it goes 15 feet up or down and 3 feet longer or shorter, in case you were wondering). When I toured the experiment, it had just opened and I was amazed by how engaged the fifth-graders were. Science is all around you – literally - and for once, you will actually understand how it works. Surprise your children by bringing them here to taste the tides. Success guaranteed.
Other Museums
Fort Mason is also home to other museums including the Mexican Museum, Museo ItaloAmericano.
Seasonal Events
The warehouse buildings at Fort Mason are so big that they lend themselves perfectly to a different array of events from the Chocolate Salon, to the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library annual book sale, to Slow Food Nation or the Guardsmen Tree Lot.
Fort Mason Community Garden
Fort Mason does not stop at the parking lot, and if you climb the 80-or-so steps, you access upper Fort Mason, the vibrant heart of the fort when it was still an Army operation. There, rows of residences shoulder the youth hostel with the best view in San Francisco – the Fisherman’s Wharf Youth Hostel – and a beautiful community garden. Fort Mason Community Garden is an oasis of tranquility and manicured planter boxes with the season’s crop in full growth. Take a moment, stroll through the alleys, show the produce to your budding gardeners, and please, don’t pick anything!
Food
There is only one food spot at Fort Mason and it happens to be an exceptional experience. Greens Restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant that gets its organic produce from Green Gulch Farm, a location of the Zen Center set on Marin’s coast. Entering via a loading dock at Greens, you can either dine on reclaimed wood dining tables with a view on the harbor’s sailboats, or stop at the entrance’s Greens To Go, a counter where you can stock up on delicious morning pastries, midday sandwiches, salads and soups, and drinks. The latter is popular with mothers and babies.
A hidden gem
Now next time you happen to be around the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf, go to Fort Mason and enjoy a day at this surprisingly overlooked spot. SFkids.org also has other organizations listed which are located at Fort Mason, so check the database for more resources. Scenic hills, Navy piers, a lush garden, green lawns, arts and performances, a good restaurant: few San Francisco neighborhoods pack that much in such a small area.
Freelance writer Laure Latham is the editor in chief of the Golden Gate Mother’s Group’s newsletter. On an on-going basis, Ms. Guyot also writes for Sfkids.org in San Francisco, GreenMoms.com, and BAMBI magazine in Bangkok, Thailand. She has written on historical architecture for Heritage News, a publication of San Francisco Architectural Heritage. For more on Ms. Latham, visit her blog at
www.frog-mom.com
. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and their two daughters.