By Rachel Levin, associate travel editor

In honor of Lights Out San Francisco (as well as a fridge full of beer leftover from a recent party), my husband and I invited a few friends over Saturday night. The plan was simple: Little Star Pizza (best deep-dish in the Bay Area, by the way) by candlelight. Lucky to live on top of Mount Olympus—a quiet, steep-hill-of-a-neighboorhood, smack in the middle of the city and home to killer views—we had, uh, high hopes that we’d have a perfect vantage point for appreciating the darkened city. Per Lights Out organizer Nate Tyler, we obediently switched off all of our lights promptly at 8pm, toasted to energy conservation, and waited for the city to go dark for the hour.

8:04 pm, we could still see into our neighbors' windows. 8:11pm, the bright lights at the apparently empty Kezar Stadium were still on, as was the neon-red Bambino’s sign and entire business strip of Cole Valley below. We wondered if we were the only ones in the city participating, so we scurried up to the roofdeck to take in the almost 360-degree view of the city. Below, streetlamps glowed but--ah! our faith in our fellow citizens was restored. City Hall was dark! As was what we could make out of the Transamerica Building.

Meanwhile, a few miles away in Dolores Park, another friend was dressed up as a panda, passing out info about World Wildlife Fund, and rousing the crowd of roughly 500 folks who had gathered in the park for Lights Out revelry. All in all, the city lights were dimmed, at best, and it seemed to be the mostly Biodiesel-driving-Blue Bottle Coffee-drinking set who participated, but, of course, change takes time. And a little more advertising. But it’s a start! No doubt, Lights Out will soon be a national phenomenon. The next one is scheduled for March 29, 2008 (8-9pm); so far at least 11 other cities have signed on, including Seattle, Los Angeles, and Denver. At 9pm, although our Lights Out duty was done, we happily polished off our pizza, and beer, in the dark.

And, you know what? Even with our new low-watt flourescent bulbs firmly plugged in, we dined by candlelight the next night, too.