I always encourage family and friends to visit the Bay Area at the end of June for Gay Pride. In 2005, Darlene came with several of her grandchildren, Christopher (C.J.), Wynter, Sean, and Wynter’s friend, Christy.
On Day 1, we went and saw David and Leslie in Rodeo and then went to breakfast. After breakfast, we all took the ferry over to Fisherman’s Wharf.
Christy and Wynter
Group bottom right under Fisherman’s Wharf Sign
Jake
Leslie, David and Jake
Milton, Christy, Leslie and David
Me and Milton
Sean, Christy, C.J., Wynter. Darlene in back. On Ferry.
Me, Darlene and Milton
Wynter
Wynter and Sean
On day 2, we got to Market Street early in the morning. Here we are after the barricades went up. CJ and Sean are sitting on the curb to the left. Then Milton, Christy, Darlene and Winter.
All of us waiting for parade to begin
C.J.
Milton, Christy, Darlene and Wynter
C.J., Sean, Milton, Christy, Darlene
Wynter dancing in Civic Center
Wynter and Darlene
On day 3, I took everybody on a tour of San Francisco. I had rented a van to carry everybody around in. We started out the day riding BART under the bay to West Oakland station. A nice man took our picture so I we could all be in it. hen we road a cable car up California Street to Powell Street and then walked back down to Chinatown. We had refreshments at Union Square before going to Macy’s. After Macy’s we went to Coit Tower. The we drove down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. We also went to the Palace of Fine Arts but my camera’s battery ran out! We drove by the famous houses called “the painted ladies” which for years were featured in the opening of the “Full House” sitcom. By that time, the kids were already pretty tired so we didn’t stop. Then we drove out to the ocean through Golden Gate Park. It was pretty cold and windy. We took a couple pictures with Darlene’s camera. CJ touched the ocean for the first time.The we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog and went back to Vallejo exhausted.
The Whole Group: Milton, Darlene, Wynter, C.J., Christy and Me. Sean in front.
On day 4, we all went to Marine World. CJ, Winter, and Sean wanted to get wet on a water ride. Sylvan even rode this one but Christy didn’t want to get wet. Then they all rode Boomerang. It flips them upside down twice and then does it all again backwards.