Well, yesterday was kind of exciting! I booked a trip to San Francisco! My travel buddy Jenny and I are going in June for just 4 nights. But it will be fun. I went once on a trip for the former employer (who shall not be named). I also went out there on a store trip once, but it doesn't really count since we just flew into the airport, got into a van on the tarmac and drove to visit Bay Area stores, none of which are actually inside the city. We spent the night in San Jose which was a neat place and flew back the next day.
But the first time the former employer (who shall not be named) sent me out there was actually in the day when things were fun at work and they gave us perks. I was able to take a friend and for the most part it was just a long "play" weekend. We went to Sonoma and hit a few wineries. We did a bus tour of San Francisco, there was a dinner cruise that lasted 4 or 5 hours one evening. We sailed all over the bay and went under both bridges and around Alcatraz. Which incidentally was as close as I ever want to get to it.
I don't understand the attraction that people have to Alcatraz. I see it as a very sad and depressing place. Yet thousands of tourists flock there annually as though it is some sort of pilgrimage. I mean I understand pilgrimages in general. But when I think of a taking a pilgrimage, it is to a place where some significant religious occurrence took place.... or to the wine region. But I don't get a pilgrimage to an island where criminals lived out their final days with no hope of leaving. Yesterday when I was researching, Trip Advisor said that Alcatraz is one of the most popular places to visit in SF. I can think of so many better places to spend my time when I go there. Maybe as Americans we just have a blood lust that we don't want to admit to and a trip to a place like that helps to satisfy it, however temporarily. If that's the case you people are sick and I am happy that you are not my travel buddies.
Since I have been there before and it is Jenny's first trip, I told her that I don't really care what we do. Fortunately, we both agree that Alcatraz holds no interest for us. I have already done most of the things I am interested in there although I do look forward to going back and getting "better acquainted" with the city. I think San Francisco is very much like NYC in that respect and in others. I think that if San Francisco is a place that you enjoy, you can go back year after year and never run out of things to do. For one thing, you could probably eat at a different place every night for years and never hit the same place twice. There are also so many iconic sights. Everywhere you look you see something that you have seen on TV or in a movie.
You don't get that stuff in Dallas. I mean sure, you could go to Southfork, but I have lived here for nearly 20 years total and I still haven't gone out there because in all honesty, I don't want to. We also have Dealey Plaza and I have been there several times. But I always am so sad when I leave. I understand that it is a sad place and this is the way I should feel. But at the end of the day, I'd rather spend my tourism dollar going to a beach or at a Broadway play or snorkeling with a turtle that just happened along.
Getting back to San Francisco, the only thing that I told Jenny that I really want to do is to go see a San Francisco Giants game while we are out there. She agreed since she knows that I am kind of weird about baseball. I looked at the schedule and as luck would have it, they are playing the Rangers while we are there!!!! Can you believe it? So, I am taking my new Rangers shirt and we are going to a ball game! I cannot wait.
I used to have this crazy dream of visiting every major league ball park which I gave up on when I was in Los Angeles several years ago for a work related function and I couldn't get anybody to take a later flight back on Sunday and go to a Dodgers game with me. When that happened, I knew that it wasn't destined. I mean, if you can get cheap Dodgers tickets, you are already in LA at someone else's expense and you can't arrange to go, then how are you going to get to a game at freaking Milwaukee?
Jenny and I went to Seattle a few years ago and planned to go to a Mariners game while there. But we chickened out. The homeless population in Seattle is pretty extraordinary and most of them seem to spend their time between Safeco Field and the area where our hotel was located which, by the way, was just a short walk. We thought it would be too dangerous to walk back to the hotel through that area at night and didn't know how difficult it would be to get a cab so we didn't go. We drove through the area that night about the time the baseball game was ending and several thousand people were walking through there. Turns out we would have had many other people to walk with and everything would have been fine. But who knew? Anyway, I am going to buy tickets this week for the Giants and Rangers so that we can't back out. I'm really looking forward to it.
My friend Katherine came over last night to watch The Bachelorette. Sorry, I can't comment on it since I saw very little of it. (We talked the whole time.) I will re-watch it today sometime in case anything interesting happened that I need to make you all aware of. Anyway, she suggested that while in San Francisco, we need to go to the Muir Woods. I had read a little about that yesterday. It sounds real cool. Katherine said that she loved it. So, Jenny and I would probably like it too.
Well, it is getting late and I must get some things done. I will talk to you all tomorrow. Make it a great Tuesday!
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