Our Saturday in San Francisco

Saturday morning we woke up in the suburbs of San Francisco, where we hit Trader Joes for breakfast, and caught the BART train into the city.

We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and had some crab, prawn, and calamari for lunch.

 Musée Mécanique.  A fun stop at Fisherman's Wharf.  We loved seeing all the ancient video games, and neat to think of them as the predecesors of our modern day video games.

Mike getting in on some of the parade action.  They had tons of these dragons, all chasing "Dragon Balls" that bring good luck.  Have you ever noticed how many things bring good luck in the Chinese culture?

Then it was off to see the Chinese New Year Parade. It is the biggest celebration outside of Asia, and over 100,000 people were in attendance.  This part of their culture is absolutely beautiful, and I wish the kids could have been here for this part of our trip. 

We had lots of people ask us if we were scared to be there. And other than the occasional firecracker landing by my feet and the bazillion "snaps" going off all over on our walk home, it was not scary at all. It is a very non-riotous celebration. Elementary schools and childrens marital arts groups all particiapted, we saw absolutely nothing offensive, and it was fairly non-commericial. The commercial entries were all very celebratory, and well-decorated to add to the occasion.

It was nice to have a hotel in downtown for the rest of our time in San Francisco, and great to be able to just walk home after the parade and enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by happy people.