Friday and Saturday - Pacific Heights and the Castro

Hi all, it's Saturday night in San Francisco (Sunday afternoon in Aus) and Jonathan and I have spent a couple of days catching up with each other and also with a family friend who I last saw in 1978. On Friday night we had dinner with Harry, Sherry, Shanna & Kyle at Left Bank, one of a chain of French brasseries in the East Bay. Think intimate Parisian bistro magnified many times: white-tiled walls, lots of large French advertising posters, wood panelling and wrought iron seating 100+. The food was quite authentic and I chose Lentil de Puys from the current regional menu which focuses on Lyon. Friday was also a long hike for me through Pacific Heights - possibly the most expensive area in San Francisco. The only people you see on the streets of stunning multi multi million dollar homes are construction workers, gardeners and nannies. After yesterday another reminder of the disparities evident in the city.

Today, Saturday, Jonathan and I went down to the Ferry Terminal Farmers Market again so that Jon could take some good photos of the produce - look for some prints on the shop walls when I come back. Here is a sample:

After the farmers market we decided to take the F Train to the Castro district - best known as the gay centre of San Francisco. Our train stopped about 2kms early because today also happened to be a day of protest and action against the controversial passing of Proposition 8 in California - a ban on gay marriages which had recently been approved by the Constituional Court. We hopped off the train and walked the rest of the way, encountering lots of groups along the way. It's a very emotional and contentious issue around here still, and has put a dampener for a lot of people on the election of Barack Obama. Jon tried out his photojournalism skills and got in there with a couple of the marches:

This afternoon we headed to the movies to see the latest Bond movie, and thne took a couple of cable cars around town just for the hell of it. Pizza and now an early night (Jon has a roll-out bed in my room) becasue tomrrow we are going to walk across Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito - around 8km- and then catch a ferry back to San Francisco. On MOnday I'm off to the Napa Valley for lunch at Bouchon - still no movement on the French Laundry waitlist.