Yesterday was Steve's last day at work so he said goodbye to the people he won't be seeing again. I saw on Facebook that Newton Faulkner was playing a show that night as a support act to Ingrid Michaelson (no we'd never heard of her either, but she's had some songs on Grey's Anatomy) and the venue was The Great Music Hall which had a really cool old style charm. But unfortunately the gig was sold out so we decided to have dinner out instead as a treat.

Whilst I was waiting for Steve to return home from work, I noticed a couple of helicopters outside the apartment building and then I heard loads of shouting and screaming. I thought it was a celebration party for Obama but when I went out onto the balcony I saw it was hundreds of people marching for Gay Rights. In case you don't know, California voted for Propostion 8, which means gay marriage is to be banned after it had previously been allowed. I'd read an article in the local paper about a lesbian couple who quickly got married before election day just in case Prop 8 got the vote and it looks like all gay marriages will now be annulled. So all these people were marching down Market Street, presumably towards the Castro District which is the heart of the gay community. Traffic was brought to a standstill as the protesters formed a human chain across the street. I thought it was cool to witness the event and I've taken photos and video footage (which hopefully will get uploaded on the blog). The march started about 5pm and Steve got home after most of the marchers had passed our building. The protest continued until around 8pm, when all the marchers came walking back the other way. We decided it was a bit crazy outside to go for dinner so we had a Fry-up Friday instead which was actually a really great meal as we haven't had bacon since we've been in SF (I'm sure bacon turns most veggies back into meateaters!).

Today we decided on a lazy day after a bad night's sleep due to some very loud bangs out in the street - really not sure what they were but they must have been loud to have woken me up! We headed up to Japantown as Steve wanted to look at some anime DVDs and we also had to pay our electric bill at the shop nearby. We first went past the British Motor Cars showroom on Van Ness Street as I'd told Steve they had Lambourginis there and he wanted to take some photos. The showroom looked really posh with all the pricey cars (Bentleys, Lotuses etc.) so we didn't think they'd let us scruffbags in. But Steve was brave and went to ask the man working in there for permission but when he tried to open the door he found it was locked - obviously we thought it was to keep the poor people or goofy tourists out. But the guy was cool and let us in to take some snaps.

It started raining as we exited the showroom so we quickly headed to Japantown. Then someone shouted out "Steve!" as we were crossing the road and we turned around not expecting it to be anyone we knew, but it was John, Steve's friend from work. We didn't chat long as it was raining and we were going round his place for dinner the next day. We popped into Fed Ex Office/Kinkos to get an estimate price on sending Steve's picture home and the man quoted something outrageous like $135!! So we're going to have to find an alternative and hopefully the post office will be cheaper.

We didn't spend that long in Japantown as there wasn't anything we wanted to buy and all the restaurants were either too busy or were closing (it was only 2pm!) so we headed for home. The rain was pretty heavy and we needed to eat so we went into a place called Chevys which does tex mex food. We both had a beer and munched on the complimentary warm corn chips and salsa before our orders came out on huge plates. I got a combo meal of beef enchilada and a pork tamale (heard people raving about them and was curious as to what it was, nothing special I'm afraid to say!). Steve actually ordered a better meal than me for a change! He got the Steak Fajita Burrito which I called Fajito Burrita by mistake, as I'd had more than a sip of alcohol so I was on the verge of being tipsy and then I got the major giggles.

When we got back to the apartment our view was totally obscured by the mist! Check out the video (which we will post when the internet isn't soooo slow!)

It's a bit annoying that all thru the week the weather has been fine and dry (yesterday it was actually really hot and sunny!) but when the weekend comes the weather turns to rain. It was lucky we hadn't booked to go to Muir Woods today as it would have been awful in the rain and we wouldn't have been able to see anything because of the mist.