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San Francisco - Day 4

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

Today started with a leisurely morning at ‘Cup a Joe’s’ cafe, a couple of blocks from the hotel. After updating our blogs, we took the F-line tram to Castro, San Francisco’s (in)famous gay neighbourhood. It’s difficult to describe Castro - it’s not like London’s Soho or Manchester’s Canal Street. It’s more a mini gay town - gay bars, gay restaurants, gay cinemas (even of the non-porn variety), gay charity shops and even gay dry cleaners! At its centre is a giant rainbow flag, in tribue to Harvey Milk, one of America’s first openly-gay officials, who was assassinated by a homophobic former colleague. Anyone interested in the history of the gay rights movement really should visit Castro, if only for a moment’s reflection underneath the flag. On a more light-hearted note, Castro also has the advantage of being filled with lots of beautiful gay men, of all shapes and sizes ..!

After lunch (another burger!), we jumped back on the F-line to the Aquarium of the Bay, which was pretty much just that. Nothing to write home about, so I won’t. Thankfully, our entry was ‘free’ using our travel pass - otherwise, I would have been very disappointed. However, being on Pier 39 gave us another opportunity to see the sealions, who for whatever reason were much livelier than before. We spent quite some time here taking even more photos, and then …

DISASTER! I some how formatted the memory card in my camera. All 350 or so photos lost in two seconds! I can’t remember the ‘five stages of grief’, but I’m sure I experienced them all - except, perhaps, acceptance. (I’m still cursing a week later). Unfortunately (and without justification) this led to me starting a huge argument with Graeme - shouting, door slamming, the full works! (For the record, Graeme, I am really sorry).

We finished the night at the restaurant next to the hotel. Nothing swanky, but the food was good - except for the squid eyes looking up from my plate! Your food really shouldn’t look back at you …

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