Seth and I were determined to participate in one of our local high holidays this year. As you can imagine, Gay Pride weekend is huge in San Francisco. It's almost too huge, especially over a couple of days of abnormally broiling weather, but we slathered on sunscreen, wore practical footwear, and even took public transportation to commune with the revelers.

Saturday's big event is a party in Dolores Park. It's part lawn concert, part picnic, part excuse to go topless (san francisco loves the topless). There were thooouuusands of people in this little park in the scorching heat. The smart ones brought umbrellas, and the dumb ones wore jeans (me! teresa!). At 7pm the whole crowd siphons onto the street to become the Dyke March, and the march ends in the castro to become the giant Pink Party. We skipped the march and party, because three hours in the direct sun with cold beers is kind of event enough for these two.

Sunday is the big huge parade up Market Street, which ends in a big huge fesitival party at the Civic Center, and parties all over the Castro. It was a rare Sunday without rehearsal, and I thought I'd make it to the parade, but we didn't motivate until the afternoon to check out what was happening. It was packed everywhere, the booth I waited in line for was out of food, and it was too hot to dance at the stages. We clocked about an hour and then moved on.

Even though we're maybe not so much crowd people any more, it's the spirit of Pride that I wanted to see and feel. San Francisco is a great gleaming disco ball, and people come from all over the world just to wear a mesh shirt or a wig or a tutu in public, then dance all night without anyone giving two shits. There are probably people here who don't approve, but on Pride weekend, lucky for all of us, they stay home.

SFGate has more photos here. And Tangobaby has a really great collection here.