weekend bike rides

with nothing else to do, i went on two bike rides this weekend. here's some pictures i took . . .

saturday

as part of the san francisco laborfest, people were reenacting the 1901 waterfront strike on hyde street pier saturday afternoon. being a fan of both san francisco history and embarrassing, kitschy public spectacle, i had to go. the reenactment consisted of a couple "sailors" standing on one side of the hyde street pier shouting pro-union slogans, while on the other side, a "capitalist" stood on the porch of a building and shouted anti-union slogans. in the middle, a couple costumed ladies said things like "i don't know what to think; both sides have good points." i don't mean to talk shit; in its own way it was pretty great. the reenactors got some tourists involved (the noncostumed people below), which was pretty funny to see. it got better when a homeless(ish?) guy got involved on the side of the business interests. "this is america, man!"

fisherman's wharf was packed and i left as soon as the strike had settled itself. i rode down to mission bay. i biked around the empty streets in ucsf's unfinished complex, out by the houseboats on the water, and east to the ballpark parking lot, which had a carnival going on. aren't you supposed to be able to get into carnivals for free? and then they stick you with the prices for rides and games, right? that's what i'm used to. this one was $5! i wanted to go in because a carnival is a great place to take (kind of cliched) photos, but am too broke to spend money like that.

from mission bay, i biked south along terry francois to illinois street, down into the central and southern waterfront, one of my favorite areas of san francisco.

sunday

i rode west from our place and took o'shaughnessy up to laguna honda. very slowly. it's quite a climb! o'shaughnessy has some crazy roadside geology:

from laguna honda, i went up 7th street into the inner sunset (which has a surprisingly large, awesome farmer's market) and on into golden gate park. jfk was packed with pedestrians and bicyclists as usual on the weekend. i came across the weekly lindy hop party, which was in full force after almost getting permanently canceled by a fun-hating cop.



after spending some time in the park, i rode north on arguello. i noticed the gate to presidio terrace was open and unguarded (i'm not sure if this is unusual or not), so i rode in. presidio terrace is a tiny gated community of giant houses, infamous for its dirty history of racial exclusion.















from there, i rode north into the presidio and did a loop around the park on washington, harrison, lincoln, and moraga, rode east along crissy field and bay street to the embarcadero, and took market street back to the mission. in fort winfield scott, i came across this:

it's a tiny castle. why? i don't know!

thanks for reading!