Alright here it is, the post you've been waiting for ... I'm going to dub this the 'Big San Francisco Gay Pride Post'  It's a real pain in the ass for me to take the time to post multiple postings, so I've decided to combine the photos and details for the past week into one huge post of photos.

Friday:
Bernard, Philip, Justin and I decided to start off the day with a relaxing waterfront lunch at the Ferry Building

Following lunch we walked back up Market street.  In preparation for the San Francisco Pride Parade the city lines Market Street with Rainbow flags on every light post.  It's enough to bring tears to any queer boys eye.

Following lunch, we headed back to Bernard's place, changed clothes and then headed up to the Castro to grab a few drinks before meeting friends for dinner in the Mission.  We started at our old hangout, the Bar on Castro and then over to Badlands, where it was two for one happy hour.

After having a few two many drinks in the Castro, we walked our drunk asses down to the Mission where we were having dinner at Limon, a trendy Peruvian restaurant known for it's sangria and shrimp ceviche.  Dinner and dessert was exquisite and complements of Philip.  Immediately following dinner, we all headed back to the Castro for some more drinking back at the Bar on Castro where we quickly ran into some old friends.

After a bit of bar hopping to the Bar on Castro, Badlands, and the Mix our long night of drinking came to an end.  Philip left a little early and took a cab back, but Bernard, Justin and I decided to walk the entire 3 miles back from the Castro to Bernard's place in SOMA.  We were going to grab a cab, but after several blocks of talking, walking and laughing, it appeared as if we were just going to walk the entire route.  At some point along the trek, Justin decided he needed to stop and pass out for a few seconds while Bernard and I ducked behind a building for a quick pit stop.

We arrived back at Bernard's place around 3 AM where Philip was already passed out on the couch.  We headed to bed to prepare for what was going to be a long weekend.

Saturday:
It was a beautiful day outside and Bernard, Philip, Justin and I decided to talk a walk around Bernard's neighborhood.  We eventually headed over to the Mr. S. Leather Store to see if we could find any necessary accessories that we'd be needing for this fall's leather party in Montreal. 

Following our walk around the neighborhood, we started to get ready for Pink Saturday and the Colossus Party (The Official San Francisco Pride Circuit Party)

Around 9 PM, we hailed a cab out front and headed up to the Castro for Pink Saturday.  While we were walking along Castro we ran into a few familiar faces like Jamie Bell & Andrew Frakes, the boys from my summer pool party last year, and also my ex Danny, who courteously said 'Hello Richard' as he walked on by with his friends.  We only stayed in the Castro for about an hour before we decided it was time to catch a cab and head down to the party.  As we started walking, there were no cabs heading our direction, so we sucked it up and walked all the way down to the San Francisco Gift Center to officially start the party weekend.  We met up with the San Diego Boys -- Tony & Mike as well as Bernard's friend Frieda at the party.  It started around 10, and we continued dancing until the hint of sunlight started beaming through the windows.  Around 6 AM we caught a cab out front and headed back to Bernard's place to catch a few hours of sleep.

Sunday:
The San Francisco Pride Festival at the Civic Center.  Justin and I got up from our Colossus party coma around 1 PM and decided to head up to the Civic Center area for the San Francisco Pride Festival.  This is always one of the highlights of our pride visits to San Francisco.  We would have gotten up to watch the parade, however getting in at 7 AM from the previous night's party is just not very conducive to getting up at 10 AM for a parade.

The weather was beautiful outside and the straights & queers were out in droves.

Speaking of queers, we ran into some old friends like Mark Chase (left) and Craig Wenzel (right)

As Justin and I were walking around the festival we came across a few people with some very interesting costumes.

Then we came across yet some other people with even more interesting costumes ...

We 'innocently' stumbled into 'Leather Alley' and found out where all the bad boys and girls go to get a spanking.

Justin and I always enjoy the San Francisco Pride Festival. It's a place where we can people watch, walk around, hold hands and just enjoy ourselves.  We stayed for a few hours, grabbed some food and then headed back to Bernard's place around 5 PM to change, meet up with Bernard and Philip and start walking up to Union Square for Fresh which started at 6 PM.

Fresh at Ruby Skye (A monthly / special-event T-Dance held at the Ruby Skye venue in Union Square)

Monday:
Dinner at Garcon (Regional French) in the Mission and then drinks at Badlands.

Tuesday:
Shopping in and walking around the Castro.

Wednesday:
Bernard, Justin and I started out by heading down to Fisherman's Warf for lunch.

We then headed up to Union Square for some quick shopping and a few photos.

We left Union Square and headed back to Bernard's so Justin and I could pick up our things and Bernard could drive us down to the San Francisco Airport to head back home to Phoenix.

As always, every time Justin and I go back to San Francisco it brings back so many memories and really rekindles our love for the city.  It's always sad for us to leave, and sometimes I ask myself why we ever moved away, but I know the answer to that question.  As Bernard always tells me, even as the grass may seem greener in the city, remember that we can visit and enjoy it whenever we want.  I do believe that someday Justin and I will end up back in San Francisco.  It's where we met, and it's a very special place to us both, but until the time is right, we will continue to visit our friends and enjoy San Francisco as often as possible.

Lastly I love my friends.  It's great to have such loving, caring and amazing friends like Bernard and Philip.  They're both practically our family and together with Justin and I we have our little 'gay gang'  We all get along so very well together and enjoy the same things and love partying and taking trips together.  Above and beyond anything else, spending time with our friends really made for a fun visit, and gave us all a chance to be together again.  We're all really looking forward to our next trip together to San Diego in July where we'll be staying with Tony and once again partying it up on the town.

Well that's pretty much the end of the 'Big San Francisco Gay Pride Post.'   I hope you enjoyed the photos and as always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop me a line.

Labels: Bernard, Circuit Party, Gay Pride, San Francisco, Tony