Santa Cruz Gay Pride

I wanted to share with you some images from the Santa Cruz Gay Pride Parade. This is probably the tenth time I've caught it completely on accident. I'll just be making my monthly pilgrimage to Santa Cruz for some shoe shopping and ZOOM! Dykes on Bikes go roaring by:


While it's smaller than the San Francisco parade, it has a lot of heart. I always end up crying happy tears because the parade makes me think that this is how I want the world to be: Everyone is open minded, colorful and having a ton of fun.

The Derby Girls made an appearance:
Probably the best part is when the librarians do a little dance with their carts:
Even Home Depot gets in on the action:
Aaaahhh Santa Cruz!

This was an especially happy parade because, about a month prior to this, there was another parade in Santa Cruz that went very badly. A few losers dressed in black jumped into the parade and smashed some windows; hurting the local, independently-owned businesses. Everything went well during this parade though!

Wave Organ and more of San Francisco

Hello!

I know, I know... I've been remiss with posting my posts. But I have some great stuff to put up today. I hope it makes it worth the wait!

About a month ago Jeff and I went to San Francisco (shock!) to see the Wave Organ and do a bit of wandering. We had a great day and made lots of discoveries.

At the eastern edge of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area on the jetty by the boat harbor is a work of environmental art created by Peter Richards and George Gonzales in 1986. The Wave Organ is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture that has been called the world's biggest seashell. It's a pretty cool piece of art in itself:

There wasn't much motion in the ocean on the day we went so we didn't actually hear anything. But you can go here to listen: http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/plan_your_visit/wave_organ/

After the Wave Organ we walked to Fort Mason. Jeff got in a workout on the way. My He-Man!

At Fort Mason we almost ate at Greens, a very trendy vegetarian restaurant but we left after being seated at a stump and not finding much on the menu that would fill us up. Fortunately, there was a Oaxacan food vendor outside and we ate yummy tacos and tamales. Then we continued our walk. We found the butt of an old ship:

And then we made our way to Fisherman's Wharf where we went on a tour of a World War II submarine, the Pampanito:
After that, we wandered down to Ghiradelli Square (yum!), Pier 39 and ended up on Chestnut street. This is a very cool area with lots of shops and restuarants. I found another art heart:

And found some very cool places to eat:

(I love this one because my dad's name is Barney!)

And, like the rest of the city, Chestnut street is dog-friendly: