san francisco adventure

Dan and I just got back from an Adventure in San Francisco with Dan’s mom. I experienced several firsts (my first hotel with a phone in the bathroom! my first time not able to tie my own shoes! my first time seeing the Giants and actually being able to recognize individual players because I wasn’t in the nosebleed section!) which were all very exciting and I’ll detail as I go…

We left yesterday morning and drove down to San Francisco. Marcia actually booked us a hotel in the city, which was pretty cool because I’ve only slept within the city limits two times (despite living in the Bay Area for two years and the Napa Valley for four, which I guess is why I didn’t – I had a free place to stay nearby-ish.) This was a huge improvement over my previous accommodations (a nonprofit organization in the Tenderloin and a youth hostel) – we were at The Palace, a historic (built in 1875; rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire) and gorgeous San Francisco landmark. Apparently Dan’s mom got a really good deal, which is pretty amazing, because otherwise I’m sure I’d never stay in a place that offers $4,000 rooms. (Our room was nowhere close to that, mind you, but apparently such rooms exist. They save them for the president or something.)

To my amazement, I was not immediately kicked out of said hotel for not being fancy enough, and we crashed a few minutes in our rooms (where I discovered the beforementioned bathroom telephone. I didn’t use it, but I did drink the Complimentary Bottled Water.) We had a few hours before we had to get to the ballpark, and Dan wanted to check out Rasputin, so we took a little walk down Market Street to the shops. I decided to step into Old Navy on a search for comfortable jeans, since I was wearing The Most Uncomfortable Maternity Pants Known to Womankind (they were my first maternity clothing purchase, and I had no idea what I was doing) (ironically also from Old Navy, but it’s the style that sucks, not the jeans themselves.) I found a much better pair on sale, along with a cute (and also on sale) tank top. Unfortunately this was when I also discovered I can no longer tie my shoes on my own – goodbye, feet. I did the best I could and made Dan fix it after we got back to the hotel. In Rasputin, Dan found a supercheap video game (usually $20, $3 at Rasputin – that place is amazing!) and after a quick stop at The Coffee Bean, we were back in our amazeballs hotel getting ready for the game.

Our hotel was only a little over a mile from the ballpark, so we decided to walk. Thankfully although I am unable to dress myself, I can still walk just fine, even if my pants fall down constantly (seriously, it’s the plague of maternity wear – super comfy, but as your hips blend into your stomach there’s just nothing to keep ‘em up. Think beer-bellied men with plumber’s cracks, only cuter, because preggies are cute right? At least cuter than fat men’s buttcracks?)

How 'bout I distract you from that visual with a giant glove/Coke bottle combo? From our seats at AT&T park

Once at the ballpark, we once again were ushered to a Special and Fancy Zone – Marcia decided to try some new seats, in the club box section. We were in section 229, about halfway in between third base and the edge of the outfield (visualize it here!) The really cool part was we could watch people warm up, and actually recognize who was who. The other good part was that the club section has much better food, with more options. (The merch shops aren’t as good though, so there are drawbacks. I guess fancy people own all that stuff already.)

Here's me trying to get Dan to take a picture with me as he says, "I don't want a picture"

Mama view - my fat tum (aka baby at his third baseball game, not that he'll remember any of them!)

We found our seats, watched the Padres batting practice, grabbed some food (Dan stuck with his traditional garlic fries; I feared the heartburn consequences and went with a delicious grilled veggie burrito instead, an option limited to the ‘spensive seats) and settled in to watch the Giants outfield warm up. For example (and please excuse my crappy camera – at least it’s not a cell phone!) -

Here's Pablo Sandoval and Orlando Cabrera palling around - right after this, Lou Seal came out to chat them up

And here's a stretching Tim Lincecum with Chris Stewart, who just suited up in his catcher's gear

It was a really fun game to go to, and not just because the Giants won, although that was a big bonus (especially with how they’ve been playing lately…) I always love seeing Timmy pitch – I think he’s my favorite Giant, although don’t tell my other favorites that! – and his RBI single was just amazingly (and somewhat hilariously) awesome. There were some tense moments, but they were mostly smoothed over with delicious ballpark hot chocolate (which, by the way, Baby Boy happens to love – I’ve never encountered a food that made him so hyper. Maybe he was just excited the Giants won?) Oh, and not pictured, but I got to wear my awesome Giants hoodie (which amazingly still fits over my preggo belly) and Giants scarf (not an official team item, but I crocheted it in orange and black stripes in honor of my team.) Wearing cozy clothes is extra exciting when it’s 100+ degrees at home.

The one pic I actually took during the game... before my camera ran out of batteries. Oops. But hey, Timmy's pitching!

The next morning I walked around the block looking for a city classic for breakfast… and settled on a McDonald’s. Close enough. I brought it back to the hotel to lure Dan out with delicious smells (and to probably be the only one in the entire building eating fast food, lol) and soon we were ready to go. We decided it would be fun to go to the Academy of Sciences, since the last time we went it was super crowded and not too impressive. I’d heard things had improved, so we headed over to Golden Gate Park to check it out.

For once, people were right; we had a much better time at this visit. Of course, the tickets are still outrageously expensive, but at least this time I feel like we paid for something good. The aquarium is expanded, and almost a day in itself – you could get lost in there! We actually got to go through the Rainforests of the World exhibit, which is inside an indoor dome, and though it was hot and humid it was worth it to see all the colorful butterflies, birds, frogs and lizards. Though it’s temporary, I of course LOVED the Snakes and Lizards exhibit. They even had the animatronic python from Anaconda on display, along with bones from an extinct python that was even bigger than the movie version. We even checked out the Academy Cafe, which was delicious and not too pricy – I got ratatouille, ‘smashed’ potatoes and veggie gravy, and fresh iced tea for under $10 (and the portions were huge!)

The planetarium wasn’t open until way later, so we ended our day with a highlight – the penguin feeding! I’m a big pengie fan and watch these particular guys on penguin cam, so I was extra excited. All the visitors sat on a big square rug in front of the tank while a rather attractive penguin dude told us all about the African penguins on exhibit. Inside the cage, a marine biologist fed the penguins and answered some questions as well.

Pengies!

That pretty much covered everything at the Academy of Sciences, but Dan expressed the desire for something “chocolate-y or ice cream-y” before we left the city, so we trekked over to Ghirardelli Square. The line was a bit crazy, our order was misplaced, and I rediscovered my morning sickness when a kid directly across from me lost his lunch all over EVERYTHING (seriously, it was a three-mop event), but all was worth it when our delicious ice cream came. (Dan had a cookies and cream cone, Marcia had a brownie sundae, and I had a chocolate peanut butter sundae. It was good, but I’m going back to my classic sundae next time – I need all the hot fudge I can get!) :)

Alas, it was time to come home, and the wonderful Bay Area evening traffic made this a bit of a drawn-out occasion. (Actually, I shouldn’t complain – once we got out of the city it was fine, and I’ve personally experienced my share of East Bay hell, so we got off fairly lucky.) And now I’m in my own comfy bed, which is nice, but I’m trying to un-depress myself from Bay Area exposure (why don’t I live there anymore? *sob*) and that’s not quite as nice. Time to go cuddle with the pregnancy pillow.