Record turnout for San Francisco Gay Pride this year

by Iva Skoch on

I happened to be in San Francisco for this year’s Gay Pride weekend. So did an estimated 1,2 million other tourists, including men, women and the currently undecided.

Lots of people came here this year to get married since it is now legal in California. Lots of people came to make political statements: “I am thirteen and I understand equality. Why doesn’t McCain?” Others came to criticize Boy Scouts of America for raising kids into homophobic adults. Yet another poster said “Christian + Gay = OK.”

It was especially entertaining to watch the unsuspecting tourists stumbling upon the parade on their way fromSan Francisco’s main tourist trap, Fisherman’s Wharf. Different city completely! Yeah, they sell cheesy T-shirts here, too, but they are more original. I mean, what little kid wouldn’t love a T-shirt that says: “I [heart] my mommies.”

One of my favorite people was the guy in the picture. Part backpacker, part nudist. I could only aspire to that kind of liberation.

Photo of the day (07/01/08)

by Grant Martin on

Today’s photo of the day is dedicated to my friend Jarod, who I was supposed to visit in Shanghai this weekend. Unfortunately, I got tied up in a junket for work, so now Jarod has no drinking buddy for his first few weeks in China.

Submitter Willy Volk (why does that name sound familiar?) took this shot of stones engraved with the symbols for Destiny, Peace, Faith and Accomplishment in San Francisco’s Chinatown. I wish Jarod all of the above in the real Shanghai.

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

Internet: An airline extra that might be worth paying for

by Jamie Rhein on

American Airlines may have actually come up with a way to make more money without ticking people off. Instead of charging for a service that used to be free–did anyone say checked bags?–the airline is piloting a system to charge passengers for Internet privileges.

Yep, that’s right. While you’re winging your way through the skies, you can log on. Need to e-mail? No problem.

You’ll also be able to instant message, download videos, and connect to a smart phone through a secured network using your own laptop.

Passengers on one lucky flight today from Kennedy in New York to Los Angeles and a flight from Los Angeles to New York will be able to test the service for free.

In a couple of weeks, American will expand broadband to other flights on Boeing 767-200 jets. Flights to San Francisco and Miami are next.

These Internet capabilities are being developed through a partnership with Aircell LLC. Aircell’s network is large enough to handle a whole plane load of Web surfers.

Knowing that you need to diversify in business, Aircell is also working out details with JetBlue and Virgin America for similar services.

American Airline’s latest money scheme is one I like. Adding a new service and charging for it instead of wringing money out of folks who used to get the same thing for free seems smarter. The price isn’t bad either. Internet will cost between $9.95 and $12.95 depending on the length of the flight.

And in case you’re wondering about the chances of pornography showing up on the screen next to you–or on yours, not a chance–at least not much of one. According to the article, the flight attendant will stop the funny business. There are already policies against bringing pornography on the plane. The same applies to Internet, even though such sites won’t be filtered out . Blocking them might disrupt service. Mind your manners, and the skies will stay friendly. [via AP]

Postcard of the Week: Dolores Park, BYOB

by Justin Glow on

Starting today, we are teaming up with our friends over at the awesome Everywhere Magazine to bring you a weekly Postcard. Instead of spotlighting an image from the Gadling Flickr pool on Fridays, we’re going to highlight one from the pool of contributors’ photos (including you!) from Everywhere. Today’s image is from contributor Sloan Schang. He writes,

“I happened to be in San Francisco during a rare run of 90+ degree days. In this city where air conditioning is rarer than Republicans, a superheated weekday is almost the equivalent of a Midwestern snow day. Computer servers were crashing, commuter trains were backing up, and at least one man walked downtown streets muttering, ‘It’s too hot…too hot…we’re screwed.’ But at 4:00 on Friday afternoon, people poured from stuffy old office buildings and sweltering Victorian flats to revel in the breeze and views of city oases like this, the Mission District’s Dolores Park.”

If you’d like to submit an image to be considered for Gadling+Everywhere’s Postcard of the Week, please sign up for a free membership on Everywhere and start uploading! Every Friday, we’ll choose one to spotlight.

Low on travel money? How to virtually road trip for free

by Anna Brones on

This year the popular summer travel season doesn’t seem quite so enticing. Gas is over $4 a gallon, the dollar is so low that in Europe they’re getting used for scrap paper and airlines now have you paying to check baggage. What is a travel hungry person to do?

Fortunately there’s Streetviewr, a site that compiles just what the website’s name indicates: street views (thanks to the technology over at Google). With streets from over 40 American cities, a little time spent browsing the site is almost like a good road trip… but for free.

Ok ok, obviously sitting in front of the computer is not as good as actually traveling, but we’ll take what we can get. Here’s to cheap summer internet travels!