SF Giants

Last week, my father and i went to a ball game at AT&T Park.
"AT&T" is not very catchy, and i dislike saying it. I wish someone else would buy that thing so we wouldn't be bored by saying "AT&T Park." Although, if there were to be a name change, there would certainly be a lot of signage that would need to be changed.

I wouldn't want to be in charge of that.



All the Giants paraphernalia you could want.



After taking a long time picking out just the right shirts for my nieces, (nieces, if you are reading this, you didn't hear it from me.) dad and i took a walk around the perimeter of the park, where we saw these signs about every 20 feet. I don't quite know what they could be referring to. Birds? Planes? Spit wads? Does anyone have any ideas? If a spit wad does happen to hit you and knock you out, AT&T Park won't be held responsible?

But after that, we took a tour of the park. This is the visitor's dugout.





Dad is seen here making a phone call to the bullpen. And thank goodness, something really needed to be done.



I thought i might pitch in before the game.
I think it is important to do my part for the Giants.






After the dugout and the indoor batting cages, and a quick stop to take a picture, we hiked to the very top of the stadium, to the View Box.



And here's the View.



From the View, we worked our way down to the press box.




It was so cool and HUGE. I was surprised at it's vastness anyway.




This is on a fancy level. You know, the level where you pay thousands of dollars to have your own suite for the game. If only i could remember what they are called. Anyway, this totally cool painting was found there.



These folks were getting ready to catch a homer.
I didn't get a picture of it, but we saw a guy who wouldn't be bothered with a boat.
He had a fishing rod with a net attached. I think that is the way to go.




Garlic Fries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




That screen is just so HUGE.
That was the only reason for this picture.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

It's all rather self-explanatory, I think.

The Charles Paddock Zoo used to house crocodiles or alligators or something not very cuddly. I believe that is what prompted the, "No Swimming in this Area" sign.
It was cute, sure.
But I wasn't ever going to be tempted to swim in the shallow water with the huge reptiles.
What i was most concerned about was the distance between me and that sign. It is about 10 feet. And there was no chain fence. Just a few wooden poles masquerading as safety.
But there was no safety. Just fear.



Currently, the ol' croc/alligator waters now house a striped necked turtle of some sort.



The girls are taking a drink from the lion's mouth, and it appears to be unpleasant.

But addictive.

We took about 5 drinks from that thing.



Also, I saw this stroller. I stared at it for quite sometime, and we all discussed it's practicality in stores and what not, and wondered what someone would do who needed to go shopping, but had to have a stroller for three.



I wonder how long this counter has been counting. Do they reset it every year?




This tiger killed it's brother.
Apparetnly, they were just goofing off, having a good playful time, and she took it a little too far.

There used to be two... and now there is only one.



We are pretty sure this owl should be off delivering some mail somewhere.






Who knew?
The state reptile is the Desert Tortoise. No, excuse me, MY state reptile is the Desert Tortoise.



No, those Desert Tortii didn't get to that position all by themselves. It would have taken forever. The zoo keeper put them there.

Cambria Sunset

My father came to Cambria with his folks when he was growing up.
I had no idea about this until we recently went to see the sun set. And dad happens to mention the family history of the place.
Cambria is about 40 minutes away from home, and is a rocky kind of beach.






This bird was pretty nice. No complaints. I think it really liked being in my picture of the sunset.
In fact, i may venture to say he comes around these parts every sunset, just trying to get in pictures.




It's pretty windy in Cambria, and if you don't believe me, go there yourself.
Or you can check out the trees in the photo.
They will tell you like it is.
They may even whisper a poem to your heart.



A super awesome feature of Cambria is the ability to walk right out onto the rocks, and fall into the water or get heavily misted, if you wish. I chose neither of those, and i was still able to capture that great shot, without even using the zoom.



Brandon happens to be King of the Rock, and sunset is his rejuvination time.



And after all that, the sun set.

Big Sur

As part of the F.R. we went up to Big Sur to go on a hike. The jaunt up there was lovely. I always enjoy a ride on Highway 1.
At the park, we embarked on the Pfeiffer Falls trail.




It took about 25 minutes (maybe) to reach the Falls.
Seeing how we were already hiking, and the kids seemed to have some spunk left, we decided to veer off onto Valley View trail.
I had warned everyone that the last time i was at Big Sur, I had hiked Valley View, and the title is quite honest, you just see a valley. So... not exciting... and also, the trail leads you out of the red woods and into the hot non-woods, so it's not that great. Seeing how Pfeiffer Falls is all about the huge trees, soft ground, and filtered light, it was not a pleasant experience to walk the hot, dusty trail of Valley View.

When we finally reached the end, i took about a gazillion pictures. And they all looked like this:



On the way back, after Elle had fallen asleep in her dad's arms, and he got to carry her down the mountain, we finally reached peace again. And thank goodness.

California and the Beach

I will take a moment from reading Nancy Drew and the Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes to update you on our "Family Reunion." I say " " because it was only an honest to goodness Family Reunion for maybe 4 hours, when the extended family got together, and for about three days it was my brothers and i, but after those three days Paul and Marissa (seen here) had to go back home.
I guess all I'm saying is that I'm glad we visited Morro Rock, and this Family Reunion was no "Wear a T-shirt with your name on it to distinguish between the thousands of cousins and aunts and uncles" affair.



It was a very beachy F.R. and it is important to sunscreen your kids every day. I had no idea. But this is general practice.


Also, if you have ruffles on your swimsuit, you tend to run faster.

House Hunters

One of my most favorite shows on HGTV is House Hunters. I rediscovered it while i have been house sitting. It comes on every night at 11:00.

Tonight at around 9:40, i was at my house, and we were watching TV.

H. G. TV to be exact. And i see a commercial for House Hunters, a whole hour, coming on next. I thought, how great! It'll be on an hour earlier today, and that means i will get to bed earlier.
So, i hustle on over to the house sitting place, to take the dogs out for a potty break before the show comes on.
I sit down to watch the wonderful full hour of House Hunters, and realize that it won't be on until 11. Like usual. It then hits me that my parents have cable and this place has satellite.
Jeez.

I have 25 minutes to kill, and i am already done with my post.
I guess i'll check my email again.

you may wish you were me

The Mid State Fair came to town, and Tara and I went to it.

I'm not a huge Fair person, but with Collin Raye on the free stage, who could keep themselves away?!



Oh man, do you see how close we were sitting?! And i hardly used my zoom.

Although i was pretty excited for Collin Raye, Tara's grandma was the most excited. Collin Raye is a babe after all.




After Collin Raye i bought some overpriced Fair food and we went to the Main Grandstand. A free concert was going on there, too. The Jonas Brothers. Apparently, they are all the rage on the teeny-bopper scene. There were tons of young girls all over that place.
And they appeared to know the songs.

That is one of the Jonas Brothers. He has a dynamite on his shirt. Probably because he is dynamite. Unfortunately, we spotted a wedding ring on his finger. Someone already snatched him up.

Red Rover

We went to the beach a few days after the corn feed, and witnessed this huge group of teenagers enjoying a game of Red Rover. People were even running from the ocean shouting, "Wait for me!I love Red Rover!!!!!"

We were all amazed.
I know i haven't seen anyone that excited to play Red Rover since 4th grade.

The corn feed!

I have really great friends, and that is all there is to it.
We had a corn feed at the beach to celebrate my removal from Higher Education. It would have been more of a corn feed if my party hadn't gotten crashed, but it was still a good time. With all the extra people it was more like a "Corn."

We also had hot dogs and chilli, cooked right in the can of course.






We love putting corn into ocean water.


Because of the surplus of guests, we retired to a friends house to have cake. It was a good cake.


We also found this cake, and decided to eat it, too.