2014 Pride Parade

Ok, so I'm 2 months late posting about Pride Parade. So sue me, better yet, just read on! Of COURSE I had to experience my first pride parade in San Francisco. It was truly epic and a great display of pride and acceptance in the city!  I had a blast, but I will tell you there were so.many.people.everywhere! At one point we got stuck in a bottleneck on the sidewalk and people were pushing and yelling. It was ridic!!  But all in all I've never seen so many assless chaps and boobies everywhere!

It was another #beautifuldayinCA with perfect weather and not a cloud in the sky!  The parade itself was a blast, but the after party area near City Hall was AMAZING!!! 

Groups that were walking in the parade were queued up and getting ready!

Some of the sweet rides of the parade

An old fashioned trolley blaring music

 Reppin my American Flag scarf!

One of the floats

Assless chaps #1 of 5,478,936,890,372,062

I'm not sure how awesome leather outfits would be in the heat, but carry on dude.

Buster reppin his Maryland "Pride" shorts

Party at City Hall!

CRAZYYYY but OH SO FUN!!!!

Alcatraz Night Tour

I took a trip out to Alcatraz with my favorite work group for a night tour...well, we never saw the night! I guess in the summer it gets dark so late and we didn't want to wait for the very last ferry back so we never saw night. It was pretty cold on the island, so if you go bring warm clothes! Did you know that Alcatraz is a registered U.S. National Park? Well, it is!  If you want to visit, I recommend purchasing tickets in advance because they frequently sell out quite a bit in advance, several weeks in advance during the summer!

I met my favorite boys at Pier 33 to visit "The Rock" as Alcatraz is called. Before it shut down in it was a Federal Penitentiary (1933-1963) and before that it was a military garrison. Its also the home of the oldest functioning light house on the West Coast. We took the ferry out to the island, it was FREEZING on the water!

Looking back at the city

Our up and close sighting!

It looks so majestic

Native Americans occupied the island to protest the federal policies related to American Indians for almost two full years!

 You can see some of the graffiti they painted. Many of the buildings were destroyed or damaged during their occupation.

 Below is their showers...yeah, no thanks to showering in the open like that!

Tiny cells

 

A lot of the cells were kept in the dark. These in the middle at least had skylights

Some of the office

I did a panorama of the island! Beautiful!

 Looking back at the city.

And ending with an amazing shot of the lighthouse!  Who would have thought an iPhone would take as pretty of a picture!

Overall I had a pretty good time! Definitely worth seeing once...and only once. Ha!

Junior League of San Francisco

As many of you know, I moved to San Francisco just a few months ago and my boyfriend recently left for a 5 month deployment. I have all of 1 friends here, so I decided that I needed another avenue to make friends! I've always wanted to join Junior League, but I've never had the time or financial resources to join. I know the first year has a massive amount of required activities and you have to achieve a certain number of points to be able to become an official member. Man, its like the first year of joining Phi Mu!

Before I even moved, I researched how to join the San Francisco chapter. Glad I did because I had to make a mandatory meeting in order to be eligible to join and the last one scheduled was 2 weeks after I moved!  Well, I'm happy to report that I've successfully started my first year as a provisional member! I'm really excited to get started with JL and make loads of new friends!

Here's a bit of background on JL from their website:

Since its founding in 1901 by social activist Mary Harriman, The Junior League has evolved into one of the oldest, largest, and most effective women’s volunteer organizations in the world, encompassing more than 150,000 women in 292 Leagues in four countries.

Our Mission

The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (AJLI) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.

And then for the San Francisco Chapter specifically:

The Junior League of San Francisco, an organization of women – 2,000 strong in the Bay Area – is dedicated to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.

The Junior League of San Francisco is one of the largest and oldest affiliates among the 294 Junior Leagues throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the U.K. Our volunteers are women of vision and passion who’ve been making a powerful difference in Bay Area communities for 100 years. Since the JLSF was founded in 1911, our volunteers have raised more than $24 million and contributed over six million volunteer hours.