8/20 SF2 Trolley, Lombard, City Lights, Castro, Haight Ashbury

On Wednesday, we woke up early and walked down to Market to catch the cable car in order to reach the hills of Lombard Street, the crookedest street in America. Once there, we noticed that the cars going down it could only go 5 miles per hour.



After we left Lombard, we walked down to N. Beach to visit City Lights Bookstore, the one that Lawrence Ferlinghetti opened and was known as a Beat hangout. We also walked down Jack Kerouac alley and saw some literary plaques, like the Steinbeck one in the pic. In addition, we spied some hanging underwear above our heads.

We then walked down again to Market to catch the MUNI, the public streetcar, in order to get to the Castro District, which is at the end of Market Street in the Southwest end of SF. Once there, we took in the stores (costume stores, leather stores, hardware stores) and noticed how clean everything was. So many professionals, so few queens. However, we were amused to know that there was a "Gay Cleaning" store along with a Beaver Street in the Castro. We had lunch at Thai House Express and then headed north over towards the Haight Ashbury while we checked out the Victorian houses in that neighborhood.

In the Haight we dropped into an anarchist bookstore and then we shopped at various thrift stores around the Haight before stopping for a beer and using the facilities. Near the afternoon, we were tired from all the walking and caught a bus back to the hotel, where we rested before heading out to dinner in North Beach at the Steps of Rome, a nice Italian restaurant.

We had our post-dinner cocktails at Vesuvio's, another Beat hangout, and then headed out to the Ha-Ra club, another bar, although less charming than every other site we saw in SF. Eventually, by 10:00, we ventured to Bourbon and Branch, a posh speakeasy also known as the Anti-Saloon League, where we ordered expensive whiskey sours and Old-Fashioneds for an hour.

Near the end of the evening, we stopped in a nearby Mexican restaurant to have salsa, and I then jumped up to work my magic at Karaoke to sing "Suspicious Minds." Aleks and the surrounding Asians and Mexicans were clearly jealous of my moves. We were then kicked out at midnight.