“A lil bit of ghetto and a lil bit of gay…”

… as Clare described Haight… a funky town in downtown San Francisco and my favorite part of the eclectic Northern California city. There we went thrifting (for the umpteenth time on this trip) at Crossroads Trading Company, Goodwill and Mission Thrift. Crossroads and Mission Thrift were obviously a bit more pricey than the gigantic Goodwill but the finds were undeniable. Below is a street in Haight which somewhat describes the ghetto/gay culture in this town… the barbed wire next to the graffiti and further down the road the colorful store fronts with gay pride slogans lining the door.

Another great find in San Francisco was Pat’s Cafe, a great little cafe just North of the Fisherman’s Wharf (Fisherman’s Wharf is where all of the “tourist” attractions are… cheesy novelty stores, Alcatraz souvenir shops and countless [aka mindlessly expensive] restaurants. After an amazing breakfast of granola, yogurt and fresh fruit with about 5 cups of coffee Clare and I headed to the Wharf for only a short time while waiting to board for the Alcatraz tour… All things considered; the huge crowds filled with overly rambunctious children and their neurotic parents a short time was enough to spend on the Wharf for travelers in San Francisco. Below are two images, the first was taken outside Pat’s Cafe, the second is an example of one of the corny attractions near the Wharf.

After a much-anticipated wait, it was finally time to board the Alcatraz Cruise… Clare and I being the two scaredy-pants that we are were hyping this trip beyond reason. It turned out to be a nice cruise to a cool looking abandoned island… not a bit scary if you ask me.

Here is a photo I captured on the way to Alcatraz Island…

It was a crime of passion fashion… here I am in an open jail cell at Alcatraz wearing one of the items purchased at Goodwill.

To get an idea of how small the cells were…

This building was where the officers would go to relax on their days off duty…

The view of the life prisoners were missing out on while serving time on Alcatraz Island…

It wouldn’t be a trip to San Francisco if we didn’t check out Lombard Street aka San Francisco’s Crookedest Street. Not only was this street super crooked it was also quite steep but that didn’t stop us from trekking to the top to see the view… just imagine being the newspaper delivery boy! Good luck with that…

From the bottom…

… to the top.

The last thing I have to say about San Francisco is… What’s the deal with the army of balancing scooter-ers?

For more on the meaning behind this journey click here.
Detroit . Chicago . St.Louis . Tulsa . New Mexico . Grand Canyon . Las Vegas . Los Angeles . San Francisco . Yosemite . Memphis

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