The Decompression Blog

Back from my all too brief trip to San Francisco. It was nice to get away and spend time with C&C. I was their first "real" visitor to their new place out there. Their roommate was back in St. Louis for the weekend so I even had a bed to sleep in.

Castro
Saturday we hung out in the Castro. My sis works at a laundry mat/coffee shop called Sit n' Spin which has free wi-fi so it's actually a fun place to hang-out while waiting for the spin cycle to finish. Of course you could just as easily cross the street to any one of the local bars but... Unfortunately there was a glitch on the camera I was using and all of my photos from that day in the Castro are gone. So be it

Saturday night we went bar hopping starting in North Beach (Little Italy) and working our way back to the Castro. Some of the places the girls had not yet been to, others where their favorites.

"The Bar" was a pretty cool place, we got there perhaps a bit early as the there were few boys there and the ones that were well... let's just say I was more interested in the interior decorating.


"Moby Dick" is a small little place that really would have fit in almost anywhere, with a good mix of men and women but again there wasn't much to really go crazy over, there were some handsome older guys there all the same though it was like an everyday bar. To tell the truth I was enjoying my time with the girls so it wasn't too much of a disappointment at all that the distractions were few and far between.

We took the 33, or was it the 37 back to Haight-Asbury past Twin Peaks - "My dog barks some" - and ended the evening at Traxx. Traxx is their local gay watering hole just a couple of blocks from their place. Like many of the other bars in the area it was small, but not overly crowded. I am guessing that since it was more of a bar than a club explains the majority of why there wasn't a larger gay boi contingent.

Shopping Downtown
Since A* had given me a BR Friends & Family discount card we decided to hit the store downtown. Somerset has NOTHING on this place. It was overwhelming, and I am fairly certain there wasn't one piece of the collection that wasn't somewhere in the store. Unfortunately the discount couldn't be used with my gift certificate so I didn't get the deal I was hoping for and am wishing I hadn't bought the outfit I did now. Ah well now I have a nice winter getup. My sis had to work that day so her fiancee and I wandered around town and saw the sights. As neither of us knew the MUNI system well enough to get around we hiked it for the afternoon. I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of the city and just get to hang out one-on-one with her so this worked out well. We made it to Lombard street the three blocks from Columbus alone wiped us out for the rest of the day. Eventually we figured out the right bus line to take to get back downtown and headed home. I wasn't feeling completely up to getting crazy that evening and was glad to just hang out at one of the many local eateries that night. Where I even got to watch a belly dancer. I just didn't know there were actually suppossed to have bellies.

Japanese Tea Garden
One of the places I wanted to see was the Tea Garden. The garden itself is over one hundred years old so I could never begin to hope to have such a manicured tranquil spot. I got some definite ideas for things that I might do differently or add to my patio/backyard to give it more of that sense of peace. As with every other sight in town the place was just short of mobbed and between that and my obsession with taking photos I doubt I enjoyed it nearly as well as I may, nevertheless it was a beautiful little retreat. There is something about the inner beauty and spirituality of a garden like this that calms me like most nothing else can. I truly wish I could feel as comfortable pretty much every day like I did when I was there.

In sum
All in all I had a great trip. It was completely spur of the moment and with a $200 airfare I couldn't pass it up. I was glad to spend time with my sister and her girlfriend. I know they are both a bit homesick and will not be making it back for the holidays so it was a special bonus that I did not start my new job this week. Overall my impression of San Francisco is less the gay Meccah it is made out to be and more of a progressively alternative metropolis with it's enclave of gays as any large city might have. I didn't realy go for the men which is perhaps a good thing as most seemed to be older and old school(think of some of the past stereotypes.) I saw many of the things that I set out to, it would have only been better if I had been able to bring someone with me. Maybe someday...