Once upon a time, when I was a recent college graduate, I worked with a woman who told me that every year she danced in San Francisco’s Carnaval parade in the mission.  I have been meaning to check it out ever since.  That was a long time ago, but I finally got around to it this past weekend, and it was pretty spectacular.  I have to say, I have given San Francisco a hard time about its parades – as an ex-New Orleanian, I have found parades here to be less than satisfying and really quite awful, if I’m being honest.  Parades require floats, glitter, costumes, music, and throws — all of which most SF parades really don’t have.  This one proved to be an exception.  It was no New Orleans parade, but I think it’s as close as we’ll get here & I’ll take anything close.