Company "Team Building" Picnic at Golden Gate Park

A view of the grassy site that was reserved. The two grills and picnic tables are behind us!
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Every year, the department at work (in the SF Bay Area) holds a "team building" outing for our team of approximately 20. Generally, it revovles around a food and some simple activities on a workday. This year, it was decided that we'd go the the de Young Museum in San Francisco Golden Gate Park, and then have a BBQ in the park.

de Young Museum

The de Young Museum is everything you would expect of a typical museum. Paintings and sculptures from various cultures around the world scattered with some modern art. The de Young was no different. With our group discount, we got access to the main exhibits, but not the special exhibit. Upon arriving, I was surprised at how many guests given it was a random weekday. With a couple of coworkers, we spent about 2 hours looking through the collection, honestly a bit bored. The most modern bit I saw was the glass art by Chihuly (something I had previously seen in a Seattle Museum). My favorite part of the museum was the free (no fee at all) access to the observatory (9th floor) which had amazing panoramic views of the San Francisco. It was a perfect view of another museum, the California Academy of Science. Also viewable was the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The BBQ

Next was the BBQ (which we simply catered). We reserved one of the nearby BBQ sites named the Pioneer Log Cabin Picnic Area. It was a quick ten minute walk from the de Young Museum. It was a large grassy field with two BBQ grills and four benches. The site was honestly too big for a 20 person group, but we utilized the field to kick around a soccer ball, play flag football, play a bit of outdoor badminton, throw a frisbee, and throw a football. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and on a weekday, there was plenty of parking on Stow Lake Drive. There was always enough space for people to chat while eating. Beer and wine were allowed at the park, which was a plus and a must for our outing. The major odd aspect was even though there was a picnic site, there wasn't a single garbage can in sight. So we hauled out our trash.

Overview and Conclusion

Overall, it was a great outing. One of the first those who wanted to could get a bit of exercise, while those who didn't could mingle around the food and picnic tables. Beer and wine was allowed, so that was a plus. Compared to previous years of Cooking Classes, Baseball games, and museum+restaurant, this was a good change of pace.

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