On Saturday (6/23), me, Pat, my cousins Ashley & Nicole, and Ashley's boyfriend Jake had made plans to drive in to San Francisco and spend the day exploring the city and catching a Giants game against the Oakland Athletics.
We all got together early in the morning and headed downtown to make our reservation for brunch in the city. Jake is a chef by profession, so obviously he is very interested at pursuing good eats and took us to a hidden little restaurant called Bar Tartine. Us girls ordered Mimosas right away, and I ended up with the restaurants twist on Eggs Benedict for breakfast. While we were eating, Nicoles friend who lives in the city, met up as well. With the addition of an extra person, the driving situation was a little tight and we ended up pretty crunched in the back seat trying to figure out where to go next. We ended up at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal and Pier Building since we only had a little bit of time to kill before we needed to make our way to Oakland for the Giants game that my uncle got us all tickets to.
((( Funny side story... while me, Pat, Ashley, and Jake were all crowded in to the back seat of Nicole's car, Jake started rubbing Pats knee thinking it was Ashley's! This went on for a solid 10 seconds before he realized what we were saying. It was hilarious! That is one way to get quickly acquainted with someone and was an on going joke and cause for bursts of laughter throughout the day. )))
The Pier provided great views of the Bay Bridge, and the interior and reminded me a lot of a little market near The High Line that Leah had taken us to last summer in NYC. The boys, who we left alone for a few minutes, managed to find a little beer and wine shop, so we all stopped inside to try some fancy beers. One was around thirty dollars and tasted more like champagne. I thought it was delicious, though I think Pat preferred the more classic beer varieties. We stuck around here until it was time to head for the game, but picked up a few bottles to tail gate with.
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| [[ around the pier. wind blown. inside the market. the bay bridge. beer & wine shop. the group. ]] |
This was only my second professional baseball game, the first being at Yankee stadium last summer. It was a major bummer (*major bummer* <--- you will only get that reference if you watch How I Met Your Mother regularly) that the game was not in the Giants home stadium which is a LOT nicer and I totally wanted to buy a hat to wear. The game was still a lot of fun though. We found our seats, grabbed beers and hot dogs (of course) and sat down to watch the game. They were ahead almost the entire time but started having some serious issues towards the end and after a couple extra innings they finally pulled it together for a win. Jake, as you will see from the pictures, was very excited.
By the time we pilled out of the stadium it was getting dark and we were all pretty hungry again, so we debated for a long time about where to grab some dinner. After a series of traffic jams and a lot of detours we finally ended up somewhere by Haight Ashbury at a little place called Cha Cha Cha. We got some sangria and ordered a ton of tapas to share. We ate, drank, and closed down the bar. Our driving issues did not however end there. Apparently the next day was the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, which, is a pretty big thing, so... there were essentially giant block parties/raves happened around every corner and cops posted everywhere. Nicole even got "hit on" by a Jeep full of drag queens. "Oh giiiiiiiiiirl, you are gorgeous!" to which I instructed, "Say 'thank you' Nicole..."
Eventually we were able to drop off Nicoles friend and make our way out of the city and back to Ashley's condo where me and Pat crashed.
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| [[ us at the giants game. ]] |
Admittedly, I was a little sad because I had wanted to actually spend the day exploring the city itself, going in to eclectic little shops, spending some money on small treasures, eating street food, snapping shots of the Golden Gate Bridge... you know, the usual stuff. I suppose I just need to make sure I get another trip to the city so that I can fulfill my San Francisco adventure needs. If only we had one more day... It was however a lot of fun.
