San Francisco Part #2

Saturday

I woke up at about 6am (yay EST!), read for a while, and went to sleep for a few hours more. It was nice. We lounged about the hotel room until we made it out the door at about 11am. The plan for the day was: 1. walk up Powell to Fisherman's Wharf to check it out 2. walk to the Ferry Building to eat in the Japanese deli we saw 3. take the BART to the Dyke March.

We accomplished all of these things. The walk up Powell was longer than we expected, but we walked by Union Square and saw all of nice shops (I went to Lush and got shampoo... yay!!!), as well as Chinatown and the cable cars. We also walked up a number of somewhat large hills and noted that everyone was parked with their tires pointed in the appropriate direction. This was impressive to us.

Fisherman's Wharf was interesting, though we were mostly there to scope it out for our Alcatraz tour on Sunday. We got Ben & Jerry's, which was delightful, and walked the Embarcadero back to the Ferry Building. (To put this in a little perspective, we started at Pier 41, and the Ferry Building is just past Pier 1.) On the way there, Alicia dropped chocolate ice cream on her "I heart Michigan Vaginas" shirt. This seemed like fate. (Some background for you: When we were at the 89X show I somehow ended up with nacho cheese, the scary orange not-real-cheese kind, all over the front of my shirt. I think it's permanently stained now.) We're pretty sure that there is a higher power that does not believe that we should wear these beautiful shirts. That aside, we decided we needed to wash it out. The only public toilet was closed temporarily, so we snuck into a restaurant (with the help of the hostess) to wash it out. It worked pretty well. We made it to lunch and then took the street car down to the Castro. We got the kids fare on the street car even though we tried to pay the full fare. The driver told us we looked like angels, and that we only had to pay $1 for both of us (instead of $1.25 each). It was nice.

We walked from the BART station to Dolores Park, the start of the dyke march, and had a fabulous time. There were lots of performers, speakers, and, of course, dykes/lesbians/dyke-identified-bi-women/dyke-identified-trans-women/excitement. I bought a shirt and am still really excited. The theme this year was "Dykes Across Borders" which I really liked...

The most exciting part, at least for me, was the breast self-exam. Six women on the stage took off their shirts and demonstrated how to do a BSE and how to help your partner do one. It was fabulous.

Unable to participate in these things in a purely participatory fashion, I suggested that Alicia and I volunteer to decorate the truck and hold the banner. The truck decorating was moderately exciting, but holding the banner was the best.

The dykes on bikes went first, and they were so cool. Not so cool that I want a motorcycle, but cool. Then came the cable car filled with senior dykes (can I just mention that the "Old Lesbians Organizing for Change" are really cool...) and other folks who couldn't walk the parade route. After the cable car, the truck we helped decorate drove, filled with sound equipment and people dancing.

After the truck, Alicia and I, and about 6 other volunteers, carried the "San Francisco Dyke March 2005" banner. Then came thousands of women. It was fabulous. After a number of blocks (okay, most of the parade route, but not all of it) of being surrounded by a number of women marching topless, Alicia and I decided to join the crowd. I was sort of hot anyway, and it was really fun to walk around without a shirt on. Nice and cool.

The Dyke March ended in the Castro, and the truck parked to play music in the street. We dance for a little while, put our shirts back on, and went to find another bathroom. We walked around, got soft pretzles, and then walked back to the BART station. We were tired and while we made it until around 9:30pm or 10pm, we were exhausted.