Home At Last

Okay so the best decision I made was to take today off of work. Our flight was about an hour late leaving San Fran, so it was about 10 p.m. before we made it home from Indy. So today I am just chilling, doing some laundry, getting groceries etc. When I do go back to work, just two days before the weekend. I am a bit tuckered... we did a lot in San Fran, and it was a lot of fun.

So our last day in San Fran, we skipped renting a car and heading to Napa. There were a few things we wanted to do in the city, and Napa/Sonoma probably deserves more time than just a day. First we headed to AT&T Park to take a tour. We just missed the 10:30 tour, and thought we would be stuck waiting until the next tour at 12:30, but they had added an 11:30 tour since they won't be doing tours next week with the All-Star game in town. It was meant to be, we had time to go across the street and get breakfast at Happy Donuts, and the 11:30 tour only had about 10 people on it, and Linda our tour guide was awesome. She was originally from Brooklyn, and this lady knows her baseball. It was the best stadium tour I have ever been on, and the first tour ever lead by a woman... hmmm? FYI, in the picture above we are standing on the on deck circle for the visiting teams, right where Jimmy, Albert and the boys stood a couple of months ago.

After the tour we did a little shopping, actually taking time to go in and check out the many stores we had walked past many times during the week. I scored a $9 shirt at Banana Republic. We also went and checked out China town. It was just 2 blocks from our hotel, but this was the first time we had an opportunity to see it. We went and had a great dinner at The Daily Grill, the steaks were fabulous, and Nikki is still talking about the perfection that was her baked potato, evidently the best part was the endless supply of chive "sprinklets".

So that pretty much wraps up our trip. I will try to keep blogging, but it seems unlikely I will have quite as much to blog about now that I am back home.

Ready Set Gay!

That was the title of the insert that was in our Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. We thought we could dedicate this post to some of various things you encounter in San Francisco that you don't see so much in C-U.

First of all, these people walk kind of slow. I am all for the relaxed and slower pace, fine, whatever, but I am only in this city for short while, there are things I want to see... I don't want to spend 10 minutes walking to Powell Street station if I can do it in 5... get out my way! These folks would not make it in Chicago, on Michigan Avenue especially. Nik and I commented that our very fast walking friend, Lindsey, who lives in Chicago would turn these poor people into dust.

There are homeless people everywhere asking for spare change. Well that is probably in every city, but San Fran has nice weather all the time so they are always out and about. I enjoy the various different approaches they take to get your attention. One guy near Powell Station noticed we were wearing Cards baseball gear so he just started yelling at us "Safe! He's Safe!"

We also have seen several of the R2D2 mailboxes around town, along with Starbucks literally on every corner. Heading back to our hotel one couple behind us was overhead saying "Do you want to go to this Starbucks or that Starbucks?"

Also on the wharf we saw a 55 year old lady on a little razor scooter, usually only 12 year olds ride those in C-U.

The local street muscicians really step it up a notch. Not just your average sax or guitar players. The best so far has been a 4-man band that included an alpine horn (think Riccola!).

This is our last day in the city so, we toured AT&T (phone company of the week) Park this morning, and are now headed out for some shopping, and a bit more sight seeing. Most likely the next post will be from back in Illinois.

Escape TO Alcatraz

After the game on Sunday we took a boat to Alcatraz on Sunday evening. It was a busy day but the evening trip to Alcatraz was totally worth it. We sat on the top deck heading out, and had an amazing view of the city as we left it behind. The evening tour includes several talks by the tour guides on the boat and on they way up to the cell house. We took an audio tour of the cell house that included being "in the hole", in the solitary confiement cell in total darkness with the black out door closed... it was so creepy. We were only in there for a minute tops, but I was so ready to get out. We listened to another tour about various escapes that was interesting too. By that time it was dark and the island was way cold. I had on my gloves and my hood up. The ride back to the city was beautiful, you could see the city completely lit up at night. We only ventured out on the deck briefly, as it was very cold. We tried to take a picture of the city lit up at night, but neither of us could get a good shot with our cameras.

After we got off the boat is was nearly 10 p.m. and we hadn't eaten any dinner yet. We went to Hard Rock Cafe because it was close and it was open and we were starving. The service was horrible, but the food was decent (albeit overpriced, but we kind of knew that going in). Anyway, after eating it was late enough that we were able to ride the cable car back to the hotel, with just one other family (ironically Cards fans from the Chicago area) so we each had our personal pole to hang from.

The first cable car was only going half way down the line, and the very grouchy operator was quick to tell us that. When we inquired if there would be another car going the entire way (at this point it was late on a Sunday night, we didn't know how much longer they would be running) he snapped at us "You see all those cars over there, they have to go somewhere!". He was such an azz, but that has been our only encounter with nasty service. Everyone else has been quite friendly and helpful to us poor tourists.

Do Blondes Really Have More Fun?

Perhaps Cards lefty relief pitcher, Tyler Johnson, can tell us as he is now sporting some platinum blondes locks. I believe his natural color is brown. Tyler is a little hottie, and the fav our our pal April so we were on the lookout for him all weekend but never could find him, but were like "Who is the blonde, did we bring somebody new up from Memphis?". Well now that Tyler had dyed his hair it all makes sense.

I am not sure I am a fan of of the platinum, but Tyler is the Cards resident "Wild Child" and rocks multiple tattoos and piercings so I guess if anyone can pull it off he can. Not sure if this was of his own choosing or if he lost a bet or something.

Oh, a big shout out to our pal April, reading this blog from Central Missouri. We thought of you Sunday night at Hard Rock Cafe... we had just seen TyJo earlier that day and one of the videos they played was Aerosmith's "Dream On". Anyway see you on the 7th.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

So Sunday was our last baseball game here in the Bay Area. It was A's necktie day at the park, in honor of Fathers Day, so we are now the proud owner of A's neckties. They are actually quite attractive, I may wear mine as a belt. Speaking of Fathers Day... Nik and I want to give a shout out to George and Jerry.... Happy Fathers Day. Granted it is unlikely that my Dad is reading this, as it requires a computer, but Jerry probably is.

The game wasn't quite as eventful as the night before, as the fans we sat next to were pretty quiet, with the exception of an STL fan (although he wasn't wearing any Cards gear) that sat next to Nikki. I am not sure why but this guy has some serious issues with the Cards' right fielder, Juan Encarnacion. He just dogged him the entire game. I realize that Juan will not ever be a super star like Albert, Rolen, Jimmy or Carp, and he isn't one of those scrappy, little guys like Eck or Miles, but the guy is decent, he gets the job done, give him a break. Seriously, Juan must have killed this guys puppy or something.

The Cards won the game 10-6, and this was the first time the A's have given up double digit runs in back to back games since September 2004. The A's fans don't appear to be the most loyal of baseball fans... many of them left in the sixth inning when it was still a close game.

We have managed to see a lot of firsts during our three games. Spiezio's first time pitching, Chris Duncan's first ML grand slam, and Brendan Ryan's first ML hit. FYI Brendan Ryan is one of my favs because he was at the Cards Caravan in Decatur in January when I got to go up and sit on the panel because I was wearing a Flores #34 shirt. Then when we went through his autograph line two days later at Winter Warm Up he was like "Hey, I remember you from Decatur!". We also saw him at Spring Training a couple of years ago, and he just seems to be a nice guy. So it is good to see nice guys not finishing last.

I got to see Flo close up today, as the pitchers were throwing out in right field. Of course the one day I don't wear my Flores #34 shirt I am close enough for Flo to have seen it. I did give him a shout out as he was leaving the field and I got a nice little wave back. He had no clue I was his "date" from Decatur, because for one I wasn't wearing his shirt, and two I had on a ball cap so I looked incognito. Also another fun little show while the pitchers were tossing was Adam Wainwright, Kip Wells and Todd Wellemeyer playing a mean little game of hacky sack... they were pretty good.

So all in all our trips the Colesium were good, we went 2-1. The ballpark itself is nothing special, but I enjoy watching the Cards just about anywhere.

Do You Get Hiccups In The Midwest?

So Saturday's game was rather eventful. The Cards came through with a big victory 15-6, and some of the A's fans didn't take it too well. They didn't really yell at the Cards or the Card fans much, but they were less than kind to their own players. On a personal note we had both a very pleasant and a very unpleasant A's fan encounter.

The good news first... we were sitting in bleachers behind a group of 4 or 5 guys in their 20's all grads of Cal Poly. We had lots of fun with two in particular. They good naturedly gave us crap, and we finally gave it back... they said they liked us better when we were quiet. One of them took a little cat nap in the inning when the Cards scored 5 runs, while his buddy was out getting refreshments. He woke up and was like "What happened?"... poor guy, we scored another 5 before the inning was over... he said he should have kept on sleeping. They were heckling random Brewers fans at the game, with a very clever "Hey, Brewers fans, in California our cows are happy!" They were lots of fun. One of them got a horrible case of the hiccups, that was amusing. After an inning or so of hiccups and us giggling at him he turned around and was like "Do you get hiccups in the midwest?" Coindientally Nik got the hiccups back at the hotel after the game.

Okay for the not so pleasant A's fans. Several innings into the game two women came and sat next to us, moving from left field because everyone out there was loud and obnoxious. She made a point to say that she liked the Cardinals and that they were the team she followed in the National League, but then proceeded to knock our manager, every player and the midwest in general for the next several innings. Talk about passive aggressive. She said that she was from Oakland, and didn't care much for SF... obviously because she tried to tell us we would have to transfer on the BART on the way back to SF after the game... no sweetheart, not so much, not if you get on the right train. She also tried to tell us that the A's have been in the post season much more than the Cardinals... we quickly let her know that the Cards have 10 WS championships (2nd only to the Yankees not the A's) and that we had been in the playoffs every year for the past five years. Of course she wasn't one of those fair weather fans that left early... no she stayed for almost the entire game... and would not shut up.

After the game while waiting for the BART some guy in a Dodger jersey tried to tell us he was a scout for LA and that he would get us on the field for tomorrows game. He kept trying to get our names, but fortunately another young lady Card fan waiting for the BART (they had tried to feed her the same line) came over and just started chatting with us about her love of Yadier Molina and her distress at him being on the DL, and completely rescued us from them. She said that they were all over her too, and that us Cardinal girls needed to stick together. Ironically she is from Moline, Illinois and went to college in Quincy and has relocated to the Bay area. So, todays "Kudos" go to her.

Over the past two games we have noticed that the A's public address announcer sounds like a 70's game show host, and sometimes the accompanying music goes along with his voice. He is not the best anuciater either, and the way he says Albert Poooohose is so annoying. Ok, I could see mispronouncing some rookie name, just up from AAA, but Albert is an All-Star, MVP who has been in the league for more than 5 years.

Today's game featured a Flores Family showdown as Randy pitched against his brother, Ron, who plays for the A's. Randy didn't fair so well against his brother... he obviously knew I was there and just lost focus.

Oh, other random note, we saw So Taguchi on the street near our hotel earlier today. He went 4 for 6 at the game tonight... evidently we are good luck.

Well I think I am caught up on the blog... totally broke down and paid for wireless from the hotel for a day. Not that I didn't want a cupcake, but it is just hard to get there when they are open.

In The Land of Nuts & Berries

Did a little sight seeing today (Saturday), and boy did we see some very interesting things. A couple of our favorites are as follows: When walking towards the wharf I saw a man pushing a stroller and hesitated to let him go in front of me... a dad out with his little one, I will be curteous and let him pass through, right? Well good thing I did, if I hadn't let him go in front of me I would not have noticed that he had a small dog in the stroller, not a child. We also saw two old ladies, at least 75, possibly twins, wearing matching red cowboy hats with rhinestone hat bands, red skirts, cowboy boots and knee length leapoard print fur coats.

Walking a long the wharf we saw a young woman not wearing pants... thankfully her flannel shirt was a bit long, but not "this passes for a dress long". Oh, and the featured statue at the entrance to the wax museum was Paris Hilton in her orange jail jumpsuit. Also when walking along the wharf there was a random homeless man, hiding behind a bush facade that he had constructed that jumped out and scared the crap out of people, including me. Another homeless man hit us up for change on the way back to our hotel this evening, but at least he was original... he said "Spare some change? I will be honest, I am trying to get a beer."

Just saw another "crazy" thing on ESPN watching the Cubs vs. Padres brawl, especially Carlos Zambrana ready to "give someone the belt"... what is that about? There were a few other interesting folks we saw at the game, but I will save that for a separate game post.

We also took in some of the more mainstream SF sights as well. We took the cable car down to the wharf, and then a bus over to Golden Gate Bridge. We walked about half way over the bridge and then walked back. Took the bus back the wharf (it was crazy crowded and touristy) and sat and watched the sea lions for a bit before we took the bus back to our hotel. Cable car and multiple buses... so getting our money's worth out of our Muni pass today.

Great Scott!

Friday was our first of three Cards games. We walked a few blocks to the Powell Street station to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to The Coliseum. It was an easy trip, about 20-25 minutes. Oakland really isn’t much to write home about, and neither is their ballpark. It is old, not all that attractive, has narrow concourses, generic scoreboards, and what appears to be dugouts that you would have difficulty seeing the batter from. That being said there is plenty we did enjoy. The Asian usher lady that handed out to us (and apparently all Cards fans) a little fabric fortune cookie made from baseball fabric that had the Cards logo and the A’s logo on the “fortune”. Also a random A’s fan was “Hey, Cards fans, welcome to Oakland!”



Before the game we were taking in BP and David Eckstein came over to sign autographs for what seemed like an eternity. He was mobbed at first so I didn’t go over there, but then the crowd thinned out so I went over and he signed my ticket. I had been trying to get his autograph forever, and kept getting denied. Finally! He really is a super nice guy. He didn’t play (guessing some sort of oblique/back issue… as he was pointing to that general area when he was talking to Pete P. one of the trainers or the “D.S. Designated Stretcher” as we like to call him.



If you saw the scoreboard (Cards lost 14 to 3) you know we didn’t have much to cheer about during the game. The 3rd and 7th innings when we gave of 6 runs each were particularly difficult to watch. However, the bottom of the 8th was HISTORIC!!! We were out of the game, our pen had been used up in Thursday’s blowout at KC, so Scott Spiezio (utility infielder/outfielder) was brought in to pitch. Please see my “Game Highlights” post from about a week ago for more details on my love of Scott Spiezio. Spiez was great! He pitched a scoreless inning (more than some of our actual pitchers can say) and nearly had a strike out. The Cards fans at the game (and there were a good number, considering the distance) went nuts when he got that third out. They were yelling and screaming, and completely oblivious to the fact that we has just gotten our butts kicked. Spiez was a riot to watch. He was out there just having a blast, grinning from ear to ear. We watched him warm-up in the pen and were like “What the …” We thought maybe he was just tossing to warm up to get ready to come in an play defense. When he came into pitch and was tossing a last few warm up pitches, it appeared that Rolen was watching him intently and possibly giving him some tips. Anyway, it was great to see, and if you are going to get your butt kicked, at least give the fans a treat and have your utility man pitch.





The BART ride home was definitely one to remember. It is too difficult to describe in words but basically our train was filled with a variety of drunk Cards fans that were just very chatty and crazy. The poor people of Oakland, especially those that had not been at the game, couldn’t get off the train soon enough. It was very entertaining. Hopefully we can get a win tonight (Saturday).

Only In A Jeep

So Day 3 in the Bay was pretty enjoyable. We got up early and went to breakfast at Lefty O’Douls, a local landmark. It is a baseball themed piano bar, that conveniently serves a quick hot breakfast. I got the Lefty’s Home Run special thinking it would inspire my boy Jimmy at the game that night… not so much I guess, but more on the game later.


We took a Jeep tour with Hank Davis of Golden Gate Jeep Tours. It was a little pricey but worth every single penny, we pretty much saw the entire Bay area in 6 hours. We never would have been able to see that much of the area in that short of time on our own. Nikki took the back seat, and she gets today’s Kudos… evidently it is just way windy in the back seat, especially when crossing the GG bridge and our short jaunt on the freeway, and Nik was pretty much beaten to death by her ponytail.



Here is a just a brief list of the places we saw on the tour: Chinatown, North Beach (Italian neighborhood), Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, Russian Hill, the cable car house, Palace of Fine Arts, the Presidio, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Sausilito, Belvidere, Tiburon, Lincoln Park Golf Course (nearly got nailed by an errant golf ball), Baker Beach, Sea Cliff, Pacific Heights, Haight-Ashbury (which now at the corner is a Ben & Jerry’s that is about as counter-culture as it gets these days)



Some Hollywood tidbits from our tour: we saw the street corner where she crashes the car in “Princess Diaries”, some of the movie was filmed on Baker Beach. We had a view of Treasure Island, where the airport scene in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed. We drove by George Lucas’ house in Tiberon, Robin Williams’ house in Sea Cliff, and author Danielle Steele’s house in Pacific Heights… also we saw the author of Helter Skelter, who’s name escapes me at the moment, walking down the street.


We had lunch on the water at an Italian restaurant in Tiburon. There were two ladies each dining by themselves but were both wearing some really big and fancy hats that they had both gotten at the hat shop across the street. Sadly they did not comment on my hat… I was sporting the baseball hat (go figure)


Our driver, Hank, was great. He was a big A’s fan, so we talked a lot about baseball. He told us that the Cardinals stay a the Westin St. Francis around the corner from our hotel, and that their bus will load on Post Street. Gotta love Hank.





Hank brought us back to our hotel about 3, then we changed for the game, but walked down to CC to post yesterday’s blog. On the way there was a small group of demonstrators telling us “We believe in Aliens, they exist and have contributed greatly to our society”. We were rockin’ the Cards gear, so the alien supporters shouted out to us specifically… we felt special. There are lots of crazy and whacky people here. Some are homeless, some just was to hand you a flier about Aliens and such.

Do You Want To Ride In My Mercedes, Boy?

(Sorry for the delay, but these are the highlights since the last entry, Day 2/Thursday from our trip. We didn't get to CC in time to post Thursday night... so we are basically posting a day behind)



After blogging last night at Citizen Cupcake (herein after referred to as CC) we went to grab dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. By this point we were WAY tired, and the meal was pretty much lost on us. Finally back to the room by 9:30 p.m. and we crashed big time. We were going on about 2 hours sleep over the past 40 hours, and we were both getting a little crabby.
After a fabulous nights rest, we were ready for Day 2. We grabbled a quick breakfast at our hotel and headed a few blocks down the street to Hertz to rent a car to go to San Jose to the Winchester Mystery House. We were supposed to get a Ford Focus (or equivalent), but they were busy, the cheap crappy cars were all buried in the back of the queue and since we were bringing it back tonight we totally scored and they gave us a sweet little Mercedes C230, in a bright candy apple red. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a sweet ride. It took us about half the trip to San Jose to figure out how to work the darn thing, but we are really getting used to it now. On our way out of town I was poking along because we weren’t certain of our directions, and we experienced some road rage from a fellow driver… probably never would have happened if we were in the Ford Focus… don’t judge people, don’t judge.

We toured the Winchester Mystery House today, and it was a great time. It was the home of Sarah Winchester, of the Winchester rifle fortune, and well lets just say Miss Sarah was freakin’ crazy. She moved to San Jose from the east coast after her husband and infant daughter died, and a psychic told her to build a house and never finish… boy did she ever. She thought continually building the house would appease the spirits of the many people killed by Winchester rifles. The mansion tour took over an hour, and we walked over a mile, if you can believe it, and we saw 110 of the 165 rooms in the home. Sarah was wack, there are stairs to nowhere, useless windows everywhere including one in the floor, it was crazy. The tour was very interesting, but one lady in our group was just a little too much. She was just a little too into it, and well she was pretty much annoying us all afternoon…damn tourists! Another mystery from the mystery house was a woman on the tour with a young man about 25, and an older man about 65-70, at first I thought she was married to the old guy, then I thought she was “with” the young guy, and we still don’t have it completely figured out yet. The latest version is that the young guy is her stepson, and the old guy her father-in-law but it really is a mystery. We knew SF/Cali would be expensive, but oh my they take that to heart at the Winchester House snack bar… it made ballpark food look like a bargain.



After hanging with ghosts at the Winchester’s we headed over to the coast for a scenic drive and some lunch/dinner. We stopped in Half Moon Bay for a great meal at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and ate near the water. Nikki was carded, so our Cameraon Diaz look-a-like waitress needless to say received a very generous tip. I tried the seasonal brew, Cherry Bomb Brown Ale, and it was thumbs up. Nik tried it too, and didn’t even maker her “beer face”, so it must have been really good.

We then drove down the coast a bit, and are currently sitting on the beach just chillin’. Typically we type the blog in a word file, and cut and paste at CC, so I am really BEACH BLOGGGING, it rocks (Nathan, it is even better than Sofa Surfing… you must do this in Australia). By the way, Illinois really need to get an ocean. Not that I am a swimmer or a surfer but is just delightful.
All for now. Going to actually enjoy the beach for a bit. FYI, sunsets are lovely, but create quite a glare on the laptop screen.
Back at the hotel, and had to say goodbye to the Mercedes L Continued to take the Pacific Coast Highway back to SF, and then drove up then down the very famous Lombard Street. I nearly panicked and almost made Nik drive, but I pushed through. I think going up was worse, it is like you are driving up to the sky… needless to say I was gunnin’ it in the Mercedes. Going down was super winding and crooked, but you go slow enough it wasn’t that scary. There were random tourists everywhere along the route… I nearly had to take out some dumb lady just standing in the middle of the road taking a picture and gawking… once again… damn tourists!
That’s all for today, looking forward to our Jeep tour tomorrow with Hank of Golden Gate Jeep Tours.



Fyi, today's CC selections included Coconut Creme for Jano and Chocolate Mint for Nik. Having a great Day 3, will post about it tomorrow. Off to the game, Go Cards!

We Might Be Giants

So this has been a crazy albeit enjoyable first day of our vacation. #1 We left Champaign-Urbana to head to Indy just before 2:30 a.m. We have had 1-3 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours. I apologize now for typos, there will be many. Also Nikki and I will be taking turns writing so the grammar/we/me/her/1st person/3rd person will be jacked… get over it we are tired. #2 when stowing my suitcase on the shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal I left my suitcase on its wheels… it nearly flew out the door when we took a turn. Luckily a fellow passenger caught it. #3 Things you can buy at the Indy airport a) star bucks b) an ipod from a vending machine, and c) a quite tasty breakfast for a reasonable price a the Budweiser Brewhouse in terminal A #4 We totally bonded with our waitress, Emily, at said Budweiser Brewhouse, over her new purse she was showing to her co-workers, we were much more interested than they were #5 shortly after breakfast in the ladies restroom we overheard a mom saying “Timmy, don’t drop your ipod in the toilet.”… so very tempted to say from the next stall… “But if you do Timmy you can just go buy a new one from the vending machine down the hall.” #6 do the ipods come preloaded with music already downloaded, why would you buy one at the airport, especially one with no music, that makes for a boring flight? #7 it is kind of toasty here in San Fran, probably hit 80 today, the normal high is about 65 tops, the folks in SF aren’t prepared for this and are overwhelmed by the heat, we find it quite pleasant, no humidity and nice breeze off the bay #8 got to our hotel about 10:30 a.m. local time, 12:30 p.m. for you at home, made a quick change, bought our muni passports and headed to Phone Company of the Week Park (currently AT&T Park) for the Giants vs. BlueJays game. #9 A special thank you to Mr. Nathan J. Holman for graciously providing us with the tix, he is the bomb diggity. #10 Our thoughts on the park, very nice, the upper deck concourse very similar to Busch Stadium, the field level concourse similar to PNC or Miller Park, McCovey Cove is very cool and kind of sad we didn’t see a splash hit today (were actually cheering for Bonds to go yard and hit one in the cove--we had made our way down to landing in right field and were just waiting for him to hit one over our head--he struck out instead--typical). #11 Nikki bonded with some Giants fans over their mutual hatred of Royce Clayton (he would have to play for Toronto wouldn’t he--backstory for those not in the know is that basically Royce Clayton is the reason Ozzie Smith retired and since Nikki worships the Wizard, then Royce is obviously fulfilling the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in this telling of the story). #12 ATT had a Jr. Announcer today (they really need to do this at Busch)… she totally rocked Tim Lincecum, but Schierholtz was a little more challenging for the young gal. #13 the view of the bay from our seats was awesome, but it is little steep up in view reserve section, glad we chose to eat out in the concourse, also from there behind the CF wall a little boring/junky looking you can see batting practice equipment, they need to landscape or something #14 We did see something very unique at the game, 3 Giants got their very 1st major league hits today, pitchers Lincecum and Sanchez, and the catcher Rodriguez #15 Had to try the Gilroy’s garlic fries at the park today, very good but still burping garlic many hours later, very glad I didn’t finish them all. #16 before the game the vendors that sell in the stands were in the concourse doing calisthenics to warm-up, not unlike Orange Krush at Illini basketball games, kind of cool #17 As for former Cardinals that are now Giants, Matt Morris (MattyMo) kept very well hidden from Nik, even though she rocked her Matty Mo #35 Cards t-shirt, he probably just couldn‘t bear the thought of seeing her and not being able to go home with her, Steve Kline pitched in the 9th inning, below is a picture from the score board (random Kliner story, he almost peed on our friend John Todd in the bathroom in a bar in “The Lou“ one night… not on purpose, he had waited until the last minute to hit the bathroom “ready to go“ so to speak and nearly nailed John, luckily John was quick on his feet) #18 Since the game there have been several noteworthy events…1-we totally spotted a random San Fran native wearing a Brandon Lloyd 49ers jersey (Go Illini! We know he doesn’t play for San Fran anymore but apparently he made an impact.) 2-Nikki nearly passed out on the overly crowded overly stuffy subway ride back to the hotel from the stadium. Luckily Jano came thru with an Albert Pujols “Jesus Christ is my MVP” testimony card that quickly became a fan so that Jane would not have to ask the gentleman in the aisle to catch her friend as she fell on the floor. The young boy in front of Nikki was too busy sayin, g “Ooh…Albert Pujols!” 3- Nikki almost stepped on a pigeon, and 4- Currently there is a band rocking Happy Hour not far from our hotel room window across the street in Union Square… to which Nikki quoted our favorite line from “Pretty Woman”… “Look, there’s a band!”

That is pretty much Day 1, hope to get some sleep and have more adventures tomorrow.

Currently blogging from the infamous Citizen Cupcake, our table dancer's name is Rodrigo... just kidding it is a bakery/cafe. The cupcakes are "wrapper lickin' good", will be trying a new one every day. Currently devouring German Chocolate for Jano and Vanilla for Nik (vanilla, go figure :))