My parents and I made a trip to San Francisco to visit my sister. This was my first time back to San Fran since I was five. It is unfortunate that I was born there and barely remember anything about the area, so this trip was really a first time experience for me. The first few days I was dragged around by my parents (I didn't really realize at first that I could go out and explore the city on my own). We went to my parents' old neighborhood, the Haight-Ashbury. I was born a block away on Page street. The only real disappointing thing about the intersection of Haight and Ashbury is the Gap that is on the corner. If you know the history of these two crossing streets, you'll understand how that is a bit... contradictory. During this time my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and I went to the New Ganges, a very good vegetarian Indian restaurant.

      After a few days I decided to stop following my parents around and go out on my own. Steffan (my sister's husband) and I went to the Palace of Fine Arts, only to find no "Fine Art" and we realized that Steffan had directed us to the wrong place. This "palace of fine arts" really only consists of the Exploratorium, a collection of various scientific facts and tricks. To recover from our mistake we, also with my sister, went to the Legion of Honor, which was having an Art Deco exhibit at the time. My sister knew the way there and it only took one bus ride to get to our destination.

      I went to Chinatown with my sister, her husband, and my mother. It was quite...hectic. Live fish and Chinese people screaming out deals at the markets. Well...the fish weren't screaming out loud. Go into one shop to find amazing cheap plates, bowls, etc. that you would by for about five times as much for anywhere else. Then go next door to the Jade Jewelry store to see gold and jade necklaces for over $600.

      On Sunday morning I went to the pride parade on Market Street, I tried to tape as much as I could with my camera...but stopped after about two hours of holding my camera over my head to get a good shot. Dykes on Bikes opened up the parade with their very loud motorcycles Saw mayor of San Francisco in the parade, along with Graham Norton and Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and "I'm invincible" in James Bond: Goldeneye). This year's pride parade was a very special one. With the mayor allowing gay marriage in San Francisco, hundreds of couples were the in parade holding signs that said things like "Together for 28 years, finally married." They were all so happy. Of course there were the odd parts of the parade as well. Leather clad gay men licking asses, women with clothes hangers on their nipples, Tinky Winky on a bicycle, and of course the occasional nudity. After leaving the parade I went to the Asian Art Museum which had some amazing Chinese paintings and Japanese samurai gear.

      In our last days there, I went to Japantown on my own. Very different from Chinatown...it's more like a mall. We also went to Fahrenheit 9/11 the last night we were in San Fran, we had to because there is no possible way we would have seen it in Moab, or that I could see it in Goldsboro, NC when I'm there.

      We stayed overnight at the Sterling Hotel in Sacramento to catch our train and saw Control Room while we were there. In the morning we got on the train and sat for 24 hours to get to Moab...those are the highlights of my trip. I have pictures on the other pages from the pride parade and a few museums...hope you enjoy. The only things I regret about my trip is not going to the beach or to the Golden Gate Bridge, however it's not that big of a deal to me, especially since I am going to be two hours away from the east coast very shortly.