San Francisco and Oakland: Are not the same!

Around this time last year, an opportunity presented itself to join a friend of mine on an NFL pilgrimage to Seattle. We went and watched the Seahawks/Bengals game and thoroughly enjoyed our weekend. At that time, we discussed making an annual jaunt down to the U.S. for an NFL weekend. The NFL schedules came out just before summer this year and after some research we decided that this year's trip would see us go south to San Francisco and Oakland. Here is a recap of this year's excellent trip:

Friday, September 5

Three of us went this year. Greg, Mark and I. It could have been easily more but others had commitments, excuses and one had become suspiciously larger over the past 8 months (thereby cancelling out her invitation). Our flight for San Francisco left around 1pm in the afternoon on United Airlines. When it comes to modern trappings, I think United might rival the luxury of Somali Airlines. Don't get me wrong, the flight was very smooth and had no problems. However, there was not one tv on the entire plane, no plug-in for radio, one puny washroom and everyone got 3 cubic inches in the overhead for their luggage. At least there were no Somali pirates. You know its not the most entertaining flight when our greatest thrill came in perusing the airport maps section of United magazine and deciding that Chicago O'Hare was built in the shape of a pelvis. Don't ask me about what the green coloured international terminal represents. I simply do not know.

Chicago O'Hare --->

The San Francisco airport is user friendly. It is not hard to figure out where you are and where you need to go. We easily found the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station and took off for downtown. It seemed that every stop that took us closer to downtown featured a different ethnic group gathered on the subway platform. It was like a mini United Nations tour carried out in the cozy confines of the San Francisco subway system. Really...it was kind of neat.

BART spit us out a couple of blocks from our hotel which was ideal. Weather was nice and downtown San Francisco was much more inviting than I had expected. As we walked, part of me could see a resemblance between San Fran and Auckland, New Zealand where we had toured last summer. Good stuff. We ditched our stuff at the hotel and then carried on east for about 10 minutes to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

Our only glitch of the evening was that Mark was almost killed minutes into the trip. He forgot that he was not in India where you can meander the streets willy-nilly. He was nearly killed in a turning lane. It would have been sad, but he was kind of asking for it.

(Sidenote: Later as the others slept at the hotel, I snuck back to the intersection and made a little inukshuk out of wonton noodles as a reminder to other Chinese-Canadians to pay attention here. Seriously I did this. It was gone the next day when we went past there again though. Pretty sure one of the homeless guys ate it.)

Happily we all did make it down to the stadium in one piece. They got it right when they built this park. For one, the area is nice. If you live in Edmonton this is a novelty in itself. I am not saying that the areas around Rexall and Commonwealth are a dump, but I am strongly implying it. And if you were here, then I would say it to you. Maybe whisper it to you. AT&T Park is the opposite of everything Edmonton sports venue. Palm trees, ocean background, upscale neighborhood. Very nice.

When you walk around the inside or outside of the park, you realize they did this right. Did you know there is a slide in the giant Coke bottle that you can slide down? Did you know they fire off water fountains after a home run? Did you know that those fountains will leak on your head (for free!) when you stand out by McCovey Cove? Did you know that on the night we were there, a Singles Night was in full swing? Well, more full swing for some than others. One girl was loving it...still very much alone...but loving it. Lets just say I was disappointed in my single friends for their lacklustre efforts on this front. To use a baseball analogy: there were runners left on the basepaths. Disappointing.

Anyways, good seats for this game as shown below:

Other highlights included:

1) The ballpark nachos were sufficient.

2) The biggest ballpark wedgie in the storied history of ballpark wedgies.

3) A masterful Zach Duke pitching performance. Yep, we will be able to tell our grandchildren about watching the greatest game in the MLB career of Zach Duke. Now if I could just get tickets for the night Kwame Brown goes off for 8 pts and 4 boards. Sports history...WE WERE THERE!

4) Watching Ryan Doumit, my fantasy baseball catcher, go off on a 4-5 night when I knew he wasn't in my starting lineup.

5) And an old lady/man (it was dark over there) was nearly killed by a foul ball. Nearly killed, not killed. Because I am not heartless enough to enjoy watching an old person be killed, but it was kind of entertaining to watch her/him at least glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel.

All in all, a pretty darn good first day.

Saturday, September 6

This was our day to tour around San Francisco a little bit. We started our day by trekking to Powell Street to hop on the cable cars to travel up to Fisherman's Wharf. A couple of thumbs up and thumbs down to hand out here:

Thumbs Up 1- The cable car experience is pretty cool. They are nice to look at and the people running them seem to have some enthusiasm to be running them. Tickets were easy to scoop up and were not that expensive. The cable car starting point is in a good location.

Thumbs Up 2- There was a casting call for America's Next Top Model going on directly behind us as we waited in line for the cable cars. I could have cared less but I think one friend (wearing Beverly Hills 90210 free plastic sunglasses) toured up and down the block to do a little advance scouting. His excuse was that he had to get out of the sun, but we all know better. Some pretty high maintenance looking ladies and some really questionable attendees. Not to be mean, but really? Really?

Thumbs Down 1- Don't get me wrong, I like crazy street evangelists as much as the next guy but wow. There appeared to be two approaches to street evangelism going on here. One guy stood quietly and held a sign that simply said "Jesus Loves You". He didn't say a word the whole time we were there. Didn't need to. The sign said it all. No need for any other promotion, the sign was written on that horrid fluorescent green colour that works as a flamethrower on your retinas anyway. Approach 2 involved the sweatiest, angriest little Samoan guy I have ever seen. He yelled at everyone in the crowd while holding a bible in his hand. And I mean yelled. And he did not stop. When the cable car finally came after a half hour wait, we hopped on, headed up the hill, and he was still yelling. Made me want to go back and give the green sign evangelist guy a hug.

Thumbs Down 2- We had to wait a long time, in the hot sun, to get on that cable car. And some old Italian guy budded his way past the whole line and snuck on to the first available cable car after he had been there about 3 minutes. I hope global warming decides to let the oceans gobble up Italy first. Let the polar bears live and put your focus on Italy. A polar bear would have waited his turn in line with the rest of us.

We saw the crooked part of Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge and Pier 39 on our trek to the north end of San Francisco. Really nice. Then a huge NFL shop at Pier 39 which was cool and featured Raiders cheerleaders signing calendars for creepy guys. Decided to walk back to downtown past Coit Tower and through Chinatown. About an hour walk, but really worth it for the experience. A little shopping at the trendy Union Square shops and we were done for the day.

We got back to the hotel around 5pm and decided to go to another Giants game for the evening. Just showed up and asked for the cheapest seats ($25) and settled into the upper deck on a real nice evening to watch baseball. Much better game this night. We actually saw a competitive 7-6 game with some homers, some defense and the near death experience of a BallDude down the first base line, who landed on his face chasing down a foul ball. The BallDude's are old guys who work as ballboys at the San Fran stadium. They are kind of a novelty here. But after almost watching an old person nearly meet their maker at last night's game, I was starting to wonder about this place. On the way out of the stadium, I kept looking for the sign that read "AT&T Park: Where Young People Come to Watch Old People Die". If they do put that sign up, I better see a royalty cheque.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed the pool and hot tub. And we met some interesting people who invited us out for the evening. The good married guy (ME!) stayed back at the hotel while the youngsters went to check things out. If you know Mark or Greg...ask them how things turned out. Your guess: Boom or Bust?

Sunday, September 7

Time for the 49ers-Cardinals game on this day. We watched the first half of the morning NFL games at our hotel and then caught a cab to the game. Cost us only $20 from downtown which was clearly the best way to go. The area around Candlestick Park could be nice. Isn't...but could be. The Pacific Ocean is only a couple hundred yards from the front of the stadium, but there is so much garbage and junk you barely even notice it. A lot of tailgating going on which was pretty cool. You do not see that at a CFL game...and if you are going to argue with me that you and a truckbox full of rats party hard before Riders games...then you really need to get out more. Get out of Saskatchewan that is.

Wow, it was hot sitting in the sun at the game. The wind swirled around the stadium making it feel a little cooler but it must have been 28celsius in my chair. (Sidenote: Later, I would get back to the hotel and find out that the UV index was "very high" the day. This would have been interesting info, had I not burned all of the exposed skin right off of my body already. I was this colour: COLOUR I WAS. I kid you not. Ask those who were there. I still have burn remnants on my body three weeks later!) The crowd was pretty subdued for an NFL game. The 49ers lost to the Cardinals by a score of 23-13. There were some pretty good hits in the game and my buddy Larry Fitzgerald caught a TD pass. A good experience. And Mark got us $3 express bus tickets back downtown so we won in pretty much every facet of life on this day. Other than the smell of my burning flesh.

Monday, September 8

Disclaimer: We went to Oakland. It was intense. This is my first person account of the attrocities of the day. You think I am kidding...

We watched the start of the MNF game between Green Bay and Minnesota before heading off to Oakland for our own MNF experience. Vikes looked good and I thought it might turn out okay. I would find out that it did not turn out okay when I watched it over the shoulder of two popcorn vendors on the Oakland Coliseum concourse. We took the BART to Oakland to watch the game. Again, a cheap trip. I have to give a lot of credit for the cheap and efficient transit service in the Bay Area...it really was the way to go. When you go to Oakland, the BART travels in a dark concrete tube under the San Francisco Bay. When you emerge on the other side, you are not in Kansas anymore. Figuratively, not literally...because both of these cities are in California and you knew that already. Oakland does not look like San Francisco. That is my observation. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely noticeable. We all looked at each other on the BART car like we knew that we were now somewhere else.

The outside of the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland is not exactly breathtaking. Kind of fits in with the industrial feel of the area. You get to go through a chain-in walkway to get from the BART station to the stadium. The whole thing feels kind of gritty. Like eating a dirt sandwich. Followed by drinking a rock smoothie. The Oracle Arena (where the Golden State Warriors play) is just around the corner and is much nicer to look at than the Raiders stadium. Once you get inside to your seats, its a nice place to watch a ball game but the outside could use a little Communities in Bloom tlc.

Our seats were at the bottom of the second deck. A good view of everything. The game started and the crowd was in a festive mood. It did not last long. The Broncos quickly took control of the game and by the time it was over, the final score read Broncos 41 Raiders 14. Ouch.

Read this for the news report on the game:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10421066?source=most_emailed

This is what we saw:
1) Anyone wearing a Broncos jersey, shirt, hat, undergarment was in trouble. Last year in Seattle, Greg wore his Bengals jersey. He was mocked a little, but all in good fun. Very little of this was in good fun. The Broncos fans had stuff thrown at them and heard every swear word you could possibly think of (and a couple that I think Raiders fans have made up themselves). No way I would have worn Broncos orange.
2) If you read the article above, it talks about Section 324. We were in 322 and saw the huge brawl that broke out right next to us. People flying over seats and down the concrete stairs throwing punches the whole way. Must have been 15 cops in our area. At least 5 guys were taken out in handcuffs and one guy left on a stretcher with what looked like a broken leg. Yikes. Let's see that at an Eskimos game.
3) The language was NC-17 all night. No exceptions. I particularly liked the story from the behind me bragging about his 5 year old daughter who he had taught to rhyme. Guess how proud he was of what she rhymed with "truck"...
4) Another fight broke out in the lower bowl in front of us as the game was ending. By this point, it was hardly even entertaining anymore.

After the game, we had to crowd into the BART with angry Raiders fans for a ride back to San Francisco. Here I had a great encounter with the locals. This is how it went down:

Me (sitting on the aisle seat, minding my own business)

Gang girl (sits on my armrest): Do you mind if I sit here? I am tired of standing...

Me: No problem.

Gang guy (gang girl's boyfriend...makes a goofy face)

Gang guy (to his girlfriend): Do you still have my weed?

Gang girl: Yeah, it's in my pocket.

Me (thinking sarcactically, not talking): Great. This is nice.

Gang girl (to her bf and looking at me): I have been eyeing this guy up since we got on the train.

Me (thinking): So...I'm dead.

Gang Guy (laughs and goofy grin again)

Gang Girl (to me): Do I smell like paraphernalia?

Me: Uhhhh, yes.

Gang Girl: What do I smell like?

Me: Uhhh...weed.

Gang Girl: Is it bad? Is it really bad?

Me (sarcastically): Uhhh...yep. A little bit.

Gang Girl and Guy: Laugh! Hahahahahahahahahaha!

And then, in one of the most awkward and surreal moments in my life, the guy puts up his hand and wants me to high five him! I look at Mark, I look at Greg...and I give the guy the most hesitant high five ever given on this planet. Ever. Out of fear, not out of agreement. Because I certainly did not agree with him on the awesomeness of illegal drugs. Wow. Apparently fear is a great motivator.

We got back to San Francisco, gave our heads a good shake and went to bed shivering. And it wasn't cold. It wasn't cold.

Tuesday, September 9

We had time to do some last minute shopping and we walked down to the Civic Center BART station for the ride back to the airport. Interesting crowd around the Civic Center. A little different than the uptown crowd. But not unnecessarily scary. Back to the airport, on another United flight and back in Edmonton before dinner. It's always good to be back in Canada. It always feels right. I am looking forward to the options for next year (Denver? Baltimore? etc.) and am pretty pleased we chose the Bay Area of California for this year's adventure. It was a great time. I learned many things. And the greatest of these might be that there is definitely more separating San Francisco and Oakland than a bay.