Old Port Cranes in View of Dogpatch Neighborhood
Cross between the old and the new
Java Beach Cafe, SF
The Thinker--Palace of the Legion of HonorHalloween Night in the Castro District
When we were planning our trip to California and San Francisco in particular I wanted to do a number of things I had never done on my frequent business trips to SF in the 80's and 90's. Sue had been with me to SF once for a couple of pleasure days before my business portion and at the time we took a Grayline Bus Tour which went through a number of neighborhoods, but only stopped at a few designated spots. We had passed through the Castro District on that bus tour, but only got a glimpse from our bus windows.
Since the first full day of the San Francisco part of the trip was on Halloween I decided we needed to make the evening a fun one. We had thought first about taking a ghost tour, but since we already had tours set up the next day for an architectural tour and Alcatraz I thought it might be more fun to go exploring on our own. I then thought about going to the Castro District to see what type of entertainment we could find. We originally were planning on bringing our own Halloween costumes (We must have at least a dozen different costumes in our attic) but I forgot and Sue decided that was getting a little too crazy. Anyway, after having dinner just down the street in the Mission District (another area we had briefly been too on our last trip), we walked up 18th Street to see what we could find. As we got closer to the main intersection of 18th and Castro the noise just kept getting louder. For one the Giants were playing the 4th game of the World Series in Texas and were just about to win going up 3 games to 1 and for the other we started seeing more and more people in costumes. And when we finally arrived in the blocks fanning out in all directions from 18th and Castro we found ourselves in an Adult Halloween Parade.
It was really, well interesting, and that is a far milder term for what it really was. There were throngs of people in and out of costume along with a small army of local SF police officers to make sure things didn't get out of hand (apparently a couple of years ago there was some violence with some gun shots fired). Everybody in costume was literally parading up one street and down another. The more outrageous the costumes the more picture taking was going on. Everybody relished the picture taking opportunities and we joined them as you can see from the pictures posted here and in the travelogue on Halloween. I also took some video which I will have to put together in a montage to share.
All in all a very very interesting Halloween Night!!
