A Nondescript Trip to Pier 39

I've been meaning to get to San Francisco and hit some of the touristy stuff since I moved here. I've seen some during my business trips up here, but hadn't been to Pier 39 or Fisherman's Wharf since high school (actually not even sure if I went then). I know it is supposed to be a tourist trap, but felt like if I live here I should see it. Anyway, on Sunday I decided it was time to go. Found an address online, put it in the GPS and headed up. Didn't take long to get close, but once I got on the Embarcadero (road next to the bay) it was like I hit a parking lot. I started paying attention to the radio - the announcers were talking about how bad an idea it would be to drive downtown, especially on the Embarcadero that day. Eventually they get to the reason, which I think they expected the listeners to already know - it was the day of THE PRIDE PARADE!

Well if traffic was going to be that bad I figured I should get off the Embarcadero. On the way to finding parking I saw a naked guy (well he was wearing shoes and a studded belt) riding a bike so I figured I must be close to the parade. I asked the parking attendant about it and he said it was a block away. So I figured I had to see this.

Well I sorta expected guys wearing speedos dancing:


And crazy clothes:


And people of questionable gender:

And references to same-sex marriage (the train car was labeled the love train):

And information about AIDS and meth, actually kind of funny/sad that some schools won't give out condoms, but if you just stand next to the street at the right time in San Francisco someone will hand you a bag of them:

And some other random stuff:




I would not have expected it, but not surprising that there were two Rocky Horror Show floats:


I didn't get a picture, but there was also a float with a working mechanical bull.

Also not a shock that it was not only guys who were wearing minimal clothing (actually I took one picture which I realized later when I saw it full size on the computer which would require a "Are you over 18 button" - in retrospect, it explains why a whole group of photographers were swarming toward that float):


Didn't get a picture, but there was a similar float, but with an important difference, it took me quite a while to realize why the women on that one just didn't seem attractive...

So now for the stuff I really didn't expect. Some were ones that may have out liberaled me, such as anti-mutilation, at first I thought it was female mutilation which I totally understood protesting, but the signs (and costumes) revealed it was male circumcision they were protesting (I don't know what the colorfully dressed girls in front were all about):


And the sex workers float had me totally confused, until someone handed me a flier explaining they wanted to reduce violence towards sex workers:



Before we get to the part that truly messed with my mind I should mention that there were some much more subdued parts of the parade. Such as a marching band and some community groups and even some Israel pride marchers.

The part I'm still amazed by is the companies with floats. Ok so some gym with a big float and blasting the song, we've got big balls as they carried exercise balls wasn't too surprising, although somewhat funny:

But I'm impressed that Levis, Best Buy and Geek Squad all took part in the parade. I would have thought they'd be horrified that the pictures would make their way to less tolerant areas (how do you feel about your pants being pro gay rights?):




And I just think it is awesome to see a science/engineering company that clearly has a fun side:


Yes, the back of that lab coat has a rainbow and the word door with an arrow pointed down.

But the two floats that I found most shocking were the Firemen and Bank of America. The firemen were out in full uniforms and at first I thought they were just taking part like they would in a 4th of July parade, but then I noticed the beads and other signs that they were really taking part in the event. And I don't know much about Bank of America, but my impression was it sold itself as a heartland/southern company so I was very impressed to see:



At first I felt a bit weird taking pictures of the people in the parade, but they were taking part in a parade, and there were a lot of people there taking pictures so I figured it was accepted. I also wasn't sure about posting them, but figure it took place on a major city street so ought to be good enough for the series of pipes and tubes. However, I didn't feel ok with taking pictures of particular crowd members, even though others were, so this part will be less visual. The majority of the crowd was not dressed up. But there was a significant portion in various crazy clothes. I did not see any protesters - seems like it would have been a bad idea considering the size of the crowd. There were some people carrying around signs indicating that had been recently married. There were people walking down the street smoking joints (whole street had a mild pot smell), even though there were cops on every corner. There were people there of all ages - everything from parents with small kids to people in their 60s to 70s. While a lot of the crazy clothing got some attention there was one guy who clearly won the attention competition. All he did was wear a boring pair of shoes and a boring hat. The key being wearing JUST boring shoes and a hat. When I saw him he was walking past three cops. The three cops looked at him and then looked at each other - looked like they were trying decide if they should do something and then all three just shrugged it off and went back to looking elsewhere. And there was the girl (fairly certain real girl) wearing a piece of paper tied around her neck as a shirt - the wind was causing her some trouble...

Going back to the comment about families. I am jealous of those kids. No, not because they get to look at scantily clad people. But, how much easier must it be to be tolerant of others when you grow up seeing people cheering for transvestites and dancing gay guys? Plus this was way more entertaining than my idea of a typical parade - kids riding bikes stuffed with as many American flags as possible.

For all of the pride parade photos go here (most are included in the post, but the key details are more visible with the larger images).

Oh, and after all that I did get to Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf and China Town. All of which would deserve a post, but seems to pale in comparison. I do have a few pictures of the bay here. Unfortunately all my pictures of the golden gate bridge came out unusably fuzzy. Pier 39 may just be a giant collection of shops, but it does have a cool view with the Golden Gate Bridge on the left, Alcatraz in the middle, and the Bay Bridge on the right.