Pride Celebration 2011
Two Saturdays ago (need to post these sooner), I went for my weekend long run in Golden Gate Park and set new personal distance record, so that felt good. After freshening up at home, I immediately headed over to Chrissy and Dave’s place to rendezvous — they, Dave’s friend Jacqueline, and I headed up to Civic Center for the 2011 Pride Celebration. This weekend was SF Pride, arguably the signature event for the gay community in San Francisco. The timing was rather apt too — just the day before the New York state senate passed a bill that would make New York the largest state to allow gay marriage. We spotted several “I Love NY” signs in the crowd — it was just bittersweet that California wasn’t already on the list.
There were stages setup around Civic Center with live music and dancing, food stalls, information booths, and a general party atmosphere. The following day would be the big Pride Parade. After kicking it around Civic Center, we decided to head down to Dolores Park where a march and bike parade was going to happen. I realized that we were going to pass near the famous Ike’s Place sandwich shop. I had barely eaten anything since my long run earlier that morning, so Chrissy and I made a detour for Ike’s, then found a spot in the park to eat. JLo (Jon) happened to be in the City that day for the launch of a friend’s new suit apparel company, so he dropped by looking all snazzy.
We took in the crowds at Dolores Park until the motorcycle march took place, then Chrissy and I ended up headed back home; we lost Dave and Jacqueline somewhere along the way. The bus lines were a huge mess, so we ended up walking all the back to Noe. There was a epic block party unfolding in the Castro district…obviously.
