San Diego Pride

More fun

31-Jul-06. On Saturday, Don, Ken, Réal and I headed off to San Diego for the gay pride festivities and to see a musical revue called When Pigs Fly.

Doris Day must have been watching over us; parking spaces appeared just when we needed them, where we needed them. As we drove into town we passed a big parking garage a block from where we wanted to watch the parade. That evening when we drove to the theatre, a parking place opened up right on the corner, a half-block from the theatre, on our first loop around the block looking for parking. And later that night, when we went to Hamburger Mary's, there was an open space in the lot right alongside the bar. It couldn't have worked any better if there had been a script.

As customary, dykes on bikes led off the parade, vroom vrooming noisily down the street.

There was also the usual assortment of strange costumes and fascinating footwear.

One fellow really had spring in his step.

Then there were the balloons. Huge balloons being towed on low platforms with teeny-tiny wheels. They were all sponsored (ie paid advertising), but they had no obvious connection to being gay, being proud, or being related to the theme of the parade ("Equality: there's no going back").

Some of the more interesting sights, however, were among the spectators.

The parade was, to be frank, a bit of a bore. There were huge gaps between many of the parade units and they grouped all the similar kinds of entries together: all the politicians one after another; all the churches one after the other; all the community organizations one after another. If they had mixed it up a bit it would have kept it more interesting. Didn't they see Mary Poppins? A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down, ....

After the parade, we followed the crowd to Balboa Park for the festival. Ken, of course, wanted to hang around the country-western dance tent, which he and Don did. After a while, however, Réal and I sneaked off to the beer garden for a spot of refreshment.

Then it was time to go check into our hotel, grab a quick dinner, and have Penelope guide us to the theatre for When Pigs Fly, which she did admirably. The show was very fun, with funny songs and silly costumes. I had seen it off-Broadway in New York perhaps eight years ago. All the songs had been updated to reflect current events and cultural trends.

After the show, we headed to Hamburger Mary's in Hillcrest (more country-western dancing and music for Ken and Don), where we drank a couple of beers before heading back to our hotel for much needed sleep. After breakfast the next morning, we headed back to Palm Springs — to take a nap.

Check the slideshow (sidebar) for many more pictures and witty captions.