Full Report of Our Millennium New Year's Eve Hike Across San Francisco

Left the house at 3:15 p.m. after taking a nap from 11:30 till 2 PM after a regular night's sleep. Easy ride to the city and we parked overlooking the Golden Gate on Lincoln Blvd., just outside the Presidio, north of Baker Beach.

Hiked straight down a sandy walkway to Baker's Beach with the possibility of meeting Tina. Found a guy with a bonfire and had a girl take our picture. Then the ranger showed up and asked him to put out the fire and leave. We offered to help but then walked out and I found keys in the sand and M gave them to the friend of the guy who was having a tough time.

Found a telephone for M to call Tina then walked east on Clement and had Chinese food at the Village Restaurant. Backtracked a little to enter the Holy Virgin Orthodox Cathedral to hear chanting and watch people genuflecting, making signs of the cross, and kissing icons. Young lady suggested view from balcony. Other guy already up there tripped in the dark on exit, but we were quiet when we left.

Couldn't find the Columbarium shown on our map but sat on steps of Saint Ignacius (backpack felt extra heavy with unnecessary junk), walked around and thru University of San Francisco's Lone Mountain campus where it was completely quiet and then back across Turk Street and up the steps to the old building. Found a couple of places to pee behind ROTC buildings.

Impressive building on Steiner turned out to be Archbishop's Mansion. Walk to Alamo Square found us too exhausted to climb steps to see Painted Ladies but we had to get on anyway.

Fulton to City Hall, past Civic Center, zigzagging up to Union Square where a couple leaving with extra tickets gave them to us and we found a place to stand and take pictures, split a banana and listen to a little music before continuing on back to Market Street where we became part of a massive crowd headed to Embarcadero.

Couple of dead ends in plaza before we made it outside to a grassy spot, spread couple of blankets, split apple, then watched the fireworks start just before midnight. Tight yuppie next to me was talking on cellphone and waving a lit cigar in air for the entire show.

Walking north on Embarcadero, another young man stopped me, identified himself as a police officer and asked to see the contents of my backpack. I told him I didn't believe him. He even talked to a fireman standing there. M said this was serious. I pulled out my camera and was going to take his picture and he scooted away.

We found a liquor store and bought a Pepsi, beer, and scotch, then found a bench overlooking dock.

Got up and walked thru a walled garden patio near the Cannery which might be called The Anchorage then found a bus stop where a girl gave us a bus map and told us to take Route #1 from California St. It was a long walk up hill and we wondered why the buses we saw were labeled Owl.

The map eventually showed us that we were too far east and that the #1 actually traveled west starting on Sacramento. So we backtracked and found the bus stop. After sitting and waiting there for awhile (and watching a well dressed young man staggering up the hill and straight into a tree), we then discovered that the only Owl (finally figured out what that meant) was #38 on Geary, and we had to backtrack again. It was another long walk but the bus arrived shortly. During the ride to the Presidio Parkway we saw the drunk girl who was sitting behind M trip to the sidewalk on exiting.

At our transfer stop we waited maybe an hour, seeing two #91s going the other direction. Then the next two #91s we were waiting for passed us by, BOTH out of service! M suggested that we start walking again so we got back onto another #38 to 25th and hiked all the way up Lincoln along VERY quiet streets to the car and found the coffee in the thermos still warm. (The couple in car parked next to us was making out.)

Drove to the 24 hour Video Cafe at Geary and 21st, almost got run over crossing the street, (Where did THAT car come from?!), had hot chocolate, coffee, and hot apple pie while watching a bad Bruce Willis flick on three televisions until almost 6 AM.

Made it to Dolphin club and looked inside where the leader was lecturing a group of some 30 hard-core athletes on the quirks of their swim from Alcatraz, but we didn't see Tina.

Drove up to Coit Tower to wait for the sunrise. Saw several Chinese doing Tai Chi. Realized that the view of Embarcadero must have been pretty good from there last night.

Got on Highway 101 and almost nodded out several times. M wanted to drink from thermos and spilled some coffee on her turtleneck. We played math games to keep ourselves awake. The stumper was 12 cubed. We guessed 1728. We were right.

Got into bed around 9 a.m. Slept solid until 1:30 then reviewed the video tape made off the TV last night to see channel 4's coverage of the event we had just attended. It was blurry. (You really had to be there.)