Candy Land sugarcoats Lombard Street for 60th San Francisco

The team representing UCSF Children's Hospital was the first to cross the finish line during the Candy Land game in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Lombard Street between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets was turned into a Candy Land board game to celebrate it's 60th birthday. less The team representing UCSF Children's Hospital was the first to cross the finish line during the Candy Land game in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Lombard Street between Leavenworth and ... more Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Candy Land sugarcoats Lombard Street for 60th 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

With its winding brick road and manicured gardens, the famous curvy stretch of Lombard Street looks like something ripped from the pages of a storybook. On Wednesday, it received a makeover that transformed it into the world's largest version of the Candy Land board game.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the game, pixies with fairy dust, and event planners with big trucks and burly workers, converted the block between Hyde and Leavenworth streets into a larger-than-life game board.

Crews covered the bricks with thousands of interlocking rubber mats in shades of blue, yellow, orange, red, green and purple. Costumed adults dressed as the game's characters - Princess Lolly, Princess Frostine and King Kandy. Kids from UCSF Children's Hospital and other local groups served as the game pieces.

And a lively game it was. Four teams of six children each ascended the Lombard stairs to the starting line at Hyde. Following simplified rules, they advanced to the appropriate color as a designated card drawer chose cards bearing colored squares.

When it was their team's turn to move, the kids ran, tumbled, somersaulted and slid on their bellies to the next color.

"I tried to handstand all the way down," said Tien Leou-On, 10, of Berkeley, a member of the UCSF Children's Hospital team. "But it didn't work."

Hundreds watched from the stepped sidewalks. Tommye Finan, 9, of San Francisco, brought along the bottom of the game box from her 1999 edition, which contains drawings of the characters and the story "The Legend of the Lost Candy Castle," to use like a scorecard. But the appearances of the characters had changed in the past decade.

"I like seeing the characters dressed up," she said, "but they don't look exactly like the ones on the board."

For the record, the yellow team - young patients with chronic illnesses from the children's hospital - won the game. But everybody got to celebrate with a piece of Candy Castle cake.