From the Wharf to the Castro

The second full day of my vacation to San Francisco was the first full day actually in San Francisco. When we'd made it to our hotel the night before, we wandered out to find dinner close by, but held on to any real exploration until the morning.

That morning began with Fisherman's Wharf. We walked down to Ghirardelli Square, then out to the bay and back along the water. Chocolate I could get at home held only brief appeal for me, I must say, but the walk from there was pretty cool. The view from Fisherman's Wharf is fantastic, from one iconic bridge to the other, with Alcatraz and other neat sights in between.

A number of old ships are anchored in a sort of museum along the pier, and that is officially part of the Golden Gate National Park system. So once again, it being Veterans' Day weekend, we got to enjoy the attraction for free. We went aboard one of the ships and had a look around:


The San Francisco skyline is just really different to look at. It's not quite like any other city I can think of. Parts of it look almost Asian to my eye, though the whole is too sparsely packed (and too peppered with other influences) to come off like an Asian city. Really neat.

We took a few minutes to enjoy the sea lions that have been sunning for two decades near Pier 39, and then took a train to what turned out to perhaps the one disappointment of the trip, the Castro District.

The Castro is the largest "gay neighborhood" in America. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see there, but I figured there would be things to see there. I did grab this amusing picture...


...but basically, I found the Castro to be surprisingly unextreme. I think if you were to take an average person to both the Castro and to a Star Trek convention, that person would definitely find the Star Trek convention to be the stranger experience. I mean, I don't really know what I was looking for, but my experience in San Francisco's Chinatown (which I'll get to) was much more the "trip to another world" I thought I'd be seeing here.

Maybe you have to be there late at night. Or maybe -- and I think I'll choose to go with this -- gay is gradually becoming mainstream enough that the neighborhood doesn't offer the same culture shock it did in the 1970s.

In any case, that was enough time walking around that we decided to head back to the hotel for a break in the late afternoon. But, oh! One side detail probably worth mentioning: the trip down to the Castro took us by the place where the Occupy Wall Street protesters in San Francisco have set up camp. Literally. That was an interesting thing so see -- a park filled corner to corner with tents, with all manner of protest signs in evidence. Pay toilets rolled up everywhere like an outdoor rock concert was going on. A very laid back vibe for a protest that some news outlets would have you believe is a threat to our very society. Too laid back to bring about any actual change? Food for thought.

I've still got the evening to cover, but I think I've rambled enough for one blog post. So, look for my continuing adventures in San Francisco soon.