Today gave many new
experiences, but first, we need to wake up. The coming morning was
not easy to embrace, but we sluggishly welcomed the daylight and
awoke for a new day in California. Our morning routines were all
sorts of screwed up because there was a time difference for all of
us. So the day started with Dan making coffee and Dwylin started
blogging and Jon and Matt switching between watching golf on TV and
playing ping pong.
So we drove north
for a little over an hour. Some good discussions were had as well
listening to good music on our drive. When we left San Jose, it was
sunny and around 75 degrees outside. When we arrived at the Golden
Gate Bridge, however, it was overcast with blustery conditions and
just plain cold. With the weather being uncooperative, it made the
bridge look decidedly less impressive than we had anticipated. One of
the funnier parts of the stop at Golden Gate was a sign that warned
us against “Frequent Thefts”.
With the view being
underwhelming and the frigid winds bouncing off the bay, we made the
decision to go back into San Francisco. We were headed to find an
early supper before the baseball game started. We settled on eating
at Pete’s Tavern, which happened to be right across the street from
Oracle Park. The food was by consensus, lackluster, and overpriced.
Afterward, we still
had about 2 hours to burn before they would allow people inside the
ballpark. So we walked out along one of the local piers and took
pictures and admired the ocean vessels.
It didn’t take
long until one or two in our group started desiring a pleasant treat
called, “ice cream”. We ended up finding a place just about 7 or
8 blocks from the ballpark. So probably 15 minutes later we waltzed
into a Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop. There was so much chocolate and
they even gave free samples. The shop definitely had its own feel to
it. It was a mixture of a high-class establishment and a Steak and
Shake. Most of us got some ice cream and all thought it was pretty
good as well.
Then it was time to
head back towards the ballpark for game time. We got up to the gate
and we were first in line to get into the stadium. When you go to a
Major League Baseball game early and are willing to explore, some perks come with it. You can walk down into the lower
levels and watch the visiting team take batting practice.
Our group had seats
in the upper deck for the 7:05 first pitch. We got up to our seats
and it was frigidly cold. The temperature was 55 degrees at the
beginning of the game. As the game kept moving on, we found
ourselves standing up most of the time as well as moving closer to
the top of the stadium. As it got colder, we kept getting louder.
We sang along with the music, and by the way, it was Beatles night.
The Oakland A’s were also playing a game that night and we were
seeing their stadium fireworks show right from across the bay.
As soon as the game
was over, we were out of there. We took the stairwell, ran all the
way down to the bottom floor, and in less than five minutes we went
from our upper deck seats to outside the stadium and were now closing
in on our rental van. We crossed the bay towards Oakland and saw the
fireworks show going on inside the stadium that we just left. As we
were driving, we suddenly realized that our van was running on empty.
We immediately got off the highway and found a gas station to fill
up and in drives a Ferrari. Then Jon noticed the license plate and
not only that but also its county number was for Kalispell, MT. We
got back on the road and headed back south toward San Jose. We kept
driving and drove by the Oakland Colosseum and the Oracle Arena. We
got back to the house and went to bed because our next day could hold
any outcome.
Saturday the
15th
Once again our day started with people waking up at random times to
get coffee and welcome a new day. We also found some inventive ways
of watching golf this morning. It took a while to decide what to do
on this day. It was an entire day with which we could do what we
wanted so we decided to see if there was a good beach in this part of
California. We spent some time searching and we settled on Santa
Cruz. Roughly a forty-five minute to an hour drive depending
traffic.
So we headed out for the beach. Hoping beyond all hope that it would
be warm this time. We wanted to eat before we got too close to the
beach so we stopped at a sub sandwich shop called “TOGO’S
Sandwiches.” It was a pricey but tasty treat that would hold us over
for a while.
We headed out once again towards our ultimate goal, which was the
beach. Heading through the mountains on Highway 17 we kept finding
out that motorcyclists are very brave in California. It was not
uncommon to be beside a car and out of nowhere have a bike pass in
between you. Once again, California gives good drivers a bad name.
Onward we would go inching closer and closer to the beach, but now
something we didn’t consider. Where can we park? After driving
around in stop and go traffic for what may have been a half-hour, we
finally found our parking spot at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It
seems like it was a pretty big deal. They have rides and everything
and we heard screams so you know they were good rides.
We left our vehicle and proceeded to cross the bridge over to the
beach. We were there to throw Frisbee and to let the girls bake in
the sun. This just also happened to be the very day of Jon and
Heidi’s first wedding anniversary. They proceeded to recruit
Dwylin to take pictures of them with his new phone.
Once the pictures were done and the whole group was back together
again. A duel of words started spewing between the boys. Trying to
figure NBA scenarios and who is the better player between Kemba
Walker and Kyrie Irving. These arguments lasted the whole way until
we got to supper that night back in San Jose.
First off we went to Red Lobster but we didn’t feel like waiting 30
minutes to an hour to wait to be seated. So we found another
restaurant close by called The Kickin’ Crab. This place was
strange and full of people wearing bibs and loud music. After we
figured out how to order, we split into two different groups. We
then waited for our food and were all very interested in how this
would go. Our food inevitably did arrive and all of us were decently
surprised at what we saw. We had two different orders and we were
giving two bags with all our food in it. It was up to us to separate
our food from the rest. This was an incredibly tasty and insanely
messy. It was a meal that required oodles of napkins and multiple
trips to the restroom as well as quite a few wet wipes.
Overall, the day was enjoyable and our day was only made better with us all back at the house watching the movie Happy Gilmore right before bed.
