Remember a couple of posts back asking about where we humble fans can visit the new digs at the Presidio in San Francisco without getting tasered? Well, as it turns out, my brother who lives in SF knew (sorta) where to go. Which is nice given that the entire Presidio park is HUGE. On a Sunday afternoon, we parked along one of the streets nearby and walked the grounds in search of the Yoda statue. Silly me left the directions thoughtfully provided by members of the SF Fan Force at home.

We found the little trickling "creek" that goes downhill to a nice little gazebo type thing and little ponds. But no Yoda there. We wandered around until we found a security guard and asked him where it was. Poor guy probably gets that question 300 times a day. He pointed out where it was and said something about stuff being on display on weekdays as well. (Unfortunately, I didn't make it back during the week. Bah!) We found it, right in front of the main entry to Lucasfilm's offices. Since it was Sunday, it was closed and nobody except for people walking their dogs and a small group of well dressed people speaking in Chinese were around. The statue is pretty cool. My dad took pictures of me and my bro in front of the fountain where the statue is located. Then my brother and my dad thought it would be a great idea to press up against the front doors and peek inside the reception area. My dad then started taking pictures with his camera. I told them to get away from there, as I didn't want the security guys to come after us. But from what I could see, there's a statue of the guy who made King Kong (no, not Peter Jackson or Dino DeLaurentiis) and a bunch of old movie posters on display in the lobby. As we walked away, I noticed that in one of the windows, there was a Darth Tater peering out at us, lightsaber in hand. It was just too cute.

The grounds are gorgeous, with lovely red brick and white buildings on lots of park space. There are nice benches everywhere, perfect for daydreaming, eating lunch, or your 80th cigarette break. If any of you reading this are Lucasfilm/LucasArts/ILM, etc. employees, you guys get to work in a wonderful place! There's a cafe and a chi-chi poo-poo restaurant on the grounds that are open to the public, but we didn't eat in either place. In any case, this is a welcome opportunity for fans to at least breathe the air where the magic happens, unlike Skywalker Ranch, a place only slightly less secure and secretive than Area 51. By the way, the Ranch isn't all that close to SF. I was pointed out the exit you'd take off the 101 to get there and it's about 15-20 miles out of town. All in all a great experience.