We went for the first time on Saturday. I'd been wanting to go just to people watch, but never made it over. We finally went. Took the trolley down there so we avoided parking fees.
I thought there would be more politics there. I didn't even get approached by the Libertarians. They were just sitting in their booth. Even the Nader people were still trying.
I haven't been there before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, and also I wasn't partaking in all the festivities if you know what I mean
, but it seemed pretty fun to me. Lots of good speeches, good music, monumental people watching, decent food, decent location. I liked it.
Even the cops and security weren't too bad. They searched us on the way in, but they made it really clear they were only searching for glass bottles. In fact, a guy near us was holding a big box that had a lucite lid and was clearly full of weed and they didn't look twice at him.
At one point I saw a really straight looking older woman talking to the cops on bikes and pointing in the direction where I'd seen a bunch of people really smoking it up. The cops just shrugged. Easy day for them.
I was sorry to see it start pouring rain at around 3pm, sending us rushing back to the trolley station. I'm looking forward to going again next year and seeing all the stuff I missed this year.