Orlando, Thursday, 15.Sep.2005.
It's just another sunny Thursday and I'm whiling away the hours at school.
On one break between classes, Steven tells me that he finagled his schedule around so that he would get assigned on a three day trip with a 24-hour layover in San Jose, California.
On my next break between classes, he tells me that he actually got the trip and I should go with him, so we could make a run up to San Francisco.
Okay!
So, I left in the middle of class, ran home, packed my bag, grabbed Steven, went back to school, took my test, and ran off to the airport.
That's how we do it.
Nothing like planning a trip at, literally, the very last second.
One of Steven's friends said once, "You guys are the richest poor people I know!"
That's hilariously funny, and absolutely true!
We travel all over the place because it's free.
Our trip cost less than $50. Total.
So anyway, we flew up to New York amidst a multitude of delays, but luckily Steven made it in time to work his flight.
We flew out to San Jose, went to the hotel, and went to sleep.
Friday, the fun begins.
We got up at 0600 hrs and had our free breakfast on the concierge level on the top floor of the hotel.
Good food, beautiful view of the mountains.
Then we hopped on the train up to San Francisco.
It was an hour-long ride on a neat double-decker train.
Neither of us had been on a double-decker train before, so of course we both had to be on top!
We made it into the city at about quarter to 9, and thus began our marathon of walking.
If only all the fun things to do in the city were on The Embarcadero, because The Embarcadero is literally the only flat street in the entire city.
In keeping with the frugal theme, we walked most of the city.
Bad idea.
Here's our first sight:
Look! It's a cable car!Rice-a-roni,
The San Francisco treat!
*ding, ding*
San Francisco is home to the world's only cable car system -- the first built, the last to survive.
We didn't ride, though, because the lines were too long and the subway (called BART, short for Bay Area Rapid Transit) is faster and cheaper.
So then we hopped on BART and rode him hard and fast into the Castro District, aka Gaytown, USA.Here is the world famous Castro Theatre.
Like any good gay theatre, they were running a Bette vs. Joan movie marathon featuring "Johnny Guitar," "In This Our Life," and of course, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
There wasn't much else going on in the Castro at 0930 in the morning.
It's really just a bunch of bars, shops, diners, and restaurants, with rainbow flags on every street corner and on every streetlamp.
I guess the homos were still in bed sleeping off their hangovers from the night before.
There were a few brave souls up and about, and we did stop in a couple of the shops and bookstores to see what gay wares and gay merchandise San Francisco had to offer.
We tried to get a good look at Twin Peaks (of television fame, and the two tallest of the 40 hills comprising the city of San Francisco), which is adjacent to the Castro, but alas the fog had not yet burned off at this time of morning, so the view was not to be had.
From here we took advantage of that dirty whore BART for one more quickie, and by the time we were done riding him, we found ourselves back downtown.
That's it for tonight, dear children, but stay tuned for tomorrow's episode:
Commence Vertical Walking
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