Bay to Breakers is an annual spectacle in San Francisco and is a gold mine for Safari Specimens. The "race" starts along the Embarcadero and winds through the streets of the city to emerge at Ocean Beach. People come in costume, drink and revel, throw tortillas, and generally let loose.

Some do the
B2B scantily clad or not clad at all--avert your eyes and stop reading now if you're prone to blushing...there's a full moon coming soon :-)

Here we are lined up near the starting line. I loved these corn-cob-hats.

Watch out or you might get beaned in the head with a tortilla. Many have words of wisdom or claims to fame such as "We invented Post-Its".

Some people bring booze along like this shopping cart full of champagne and beer. Unfortunately, this cart was turned around by police on the course since no glass bottles are allowed this year.

The crowd is huge and numbers greater than 35,000...and that's only those that officially register. Many others tag along or jump in from the sidelines because they can't resist the fun.

Some people bring floats. Blow-up dolls seemed popular this year. Look way off in the distance...

Here we are approaching the official starting line -- 5 blocks aways from where we lined up!

As I mentioned, blow-up dolls were popular this year. We saw this team at both the beginning and end of the race. They were carrying the gurney the whole way!

"Push Here for Beer!". That and many other slogans abound along the course.

Loved these beer hats glinting in the morning sun.

Even King Tut made an appearance!

I thought these kissing booths were the most original costumes that we saw.

We also caught a glimpse of Obama's stimulus package.

Woo Hoo! It's
Beaker, my favorite experimentally inclined Muppet!

Every year, it's a tradition for a school of salmon to swim upstream. We caught a peek of them here.

The sun was hot today and cast a long shadow.

Bacon! Who doesn't love bacon!

You can see the revelers stretched out for miles as we worked our way up the Hayes Street rise -- the only moderately steep part of the race. This hill separates the serious from the half-hearted.

A modern interpretive dance along Hayes St...

Elvis makes an appearance in front of the DMV!

Someone actually brought a pot-belly pig onto the course...in a stroller! Talk about pampered...

We saw many a Birthday Suit today...

She looks like a colorful Medusa.

More fun costumes...

We made it to the finish line! The course ends near
Ocean Beach--over 7 miles from where we started.

As we were entering the venue for the after party ("
Footstock"), we spied Fred Flintstone, some of the Cat-in-the-Hat's minions, and some Super Girls.

Foster Farms had a large presence at the event with it's "Say No to Plumping" campaign. They were giving out tote bags and t-shirts. Cool. Free stuff.
Sugarfire, one of the food shacks at
Footstock needs to work on its motto: "Guaranteed Not to Suck!" Then again, maybe that sums up the event perfectly. I can definitely say that Bay to Breakers is guaranteed not to suck. Check it out next year -- you'll be in for the safari of a lifetime!
I came across this art installation near the bus stop at Divisidero and Fulton on our way home for the race. This orange doggie looks just like we felt: tired from sensory overload.
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