The City of San Francisco Part 1

Okay, I think I'll go ahead and break this post down into two parts. I plan on posting several photos so I thought it would best to break it into parts one and part two. On Monday night our conference director set up group tour of San Francisco. The entire group boarded a trolley car that took us all over the city. This was a 2 1/2 hour trolley tour that took us to Ghirardelli Square, The Palace of Fine Arts, The Golden Gate Bridge, an expensive housing district, and some large mountain that I can't seem to remember the name of (with awesome views by the way). Once again, Sam and I froze our ass off on this little adventure. Luckily, the trolley drivers are use to people getting cold so they provided blankets for most of us. So without further adu, I'll provide pictures of the Palace of Fine Arts, and some great views ontop of that mountain. I'll post the remaining photos for your viewing pleasure tomorrow night.

Believe it or not, these pictures were taken the same evening. Notice the difference in weather and blue sky in less then an hours time.

Alcatraz and Beyond

Since my last two posts on San Francisco were focused on the end of the week, I feel the need to rewind to the beginning of the week...then go forward. Sam and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and after we checked into our hotel we decided to do our first bit of walking...to check the place out that is. We were lucky enough to stay at the Hyatt on the Fisherman's Wharf...right where all of the action is. We were walking along the Wharf glancing into the many shops when a local fisherman was soliciting people for a bay cruise. At this point we already knew that we would be unable to visit Alcatraz. Apparently, we didn't know we should have gotten tickets a few weeks in advance. So we figured the bay cruise would be the next best thing.

The bay cruise was our first taste of how cold San Francisco really was. It was very foggy, and very windy on the bay. The boat went directly below the Golden Gate Bridge and as we looked up, we still couldn't see the entire bridge...it was that foggy. Once we made it back to land, it took me two hours to get warm again. So tonight I think I'll share some pictures of the bridge and some pictures of Alcatraz.

Crooked Street

I suppose I need to begin by telling everyone a little bit about my trip to San Francisco. I realized I didn't do this in my post from last night....sorry. Anyway, I left last Saturday bound for San Francisco on a business trip. I knew for several months that I would be going to San Francisco and I was really looking forward to it. Jim was unable to take time off from work so I took my best friend Sam with me, which worked out really well. Sam happened to have a free ticket voucher from Southwest Airlines and she just happened to have the same week off from work. She mention to me one day that she had always wanted to go to San Francisco so I asked her to tag along...hell the hotel was paid for by the credit union so she only needed spending money. We kept the week pretty mellow considering we were two girls in a big city alone.

Anyhow, Sam and I had a wonderful time together and even though I was in class during the day we did managed to pack in lots of sightseeing. Sam spent the days studying, as she is working on becoming a certified Montessori Teacher while I was in class. First off, we froze our ass off! I would swear it was October, and I certainly wasn't prepared for the cold weather. You know it's cold when vendors sell winter jackets on every street corner as someone would sell t-shirts in most tourist towns. We did have one day of "warm" weather, Thursday, it was the only day we awoke to a blue sky. Otherwise it was foggy and cold most of the time.

So today I plan on sharing pictures of the Crooked Street in San Francisco. If it weren't for Sam I wouldn't have even known this street existed. This was a sight that Sam was really interested in seeing. So, before the baseball game on Friday Sam I decided to walk to this street. Since most of the streets in San Francisco have extreme hills and this walk was pretty difficult for us...it was straight uphill. I think going down the hill was much harder then walking up the hill. We sat at the hotel for about an hour after this walk.

Bonds Record #758

Sam and I got back late last night from San Francisco and we had a wonderful time. I spent the majority of my time in class but our evenings were free to sight see. Neither one of us wasted any time in the evenings and we crammed in several sights during the week. So, during the course of this week I'll post pictures of our trip and tell a few tales. Check back often as I hope to make a new San Francisco post daily...I took 130 pictures while there, so trust me I have plenty of things to talk about.

Anyway, I chose the highlight of my week for my first post. On Friday class was over at 11am so we had most of the day to wonder before catching a baseball game. We all knew Barry Bonds was getting close to breaking Hank Aaron's record well before I left for San Francisco so I hopped online to see if Bonds was going to be in town and sure enough they were scheduled to play the Pirates this week. I got even more lucky when I was able to get tickets for the game Friday night....I couldn't control my excitement.

Before I arrived in San Francisco, Bonds had already tied the record and I was holding my breath each night with the hopes that he would break the record on Friday, while I was at the park. Bonds did break the record over the week, but not on Friday. Yes, I was very bummed that I didn't witness it, but it was still exciting to be town with this kind of history. Bonds has continued to hit home runs and while Sam and I weren't lucky enough to see Bonds hit #756, we did witness home run #758! Below are some pictures of AT&T Park and of course a few distant pictures of Bonds...the new home run king.

By the way...I pretty much had to drag Sam to the game since she hates baseball, but in the end she said she had a great time. We both enjoyed the stadium, even though we froze our ass off the entire time.

Here are some pictures of AT&T Park.

Here's a shot of Barry Bonds warming up in the outfield and one of him running the bases.

Here's Bonds running the bases after hitting #758.

AT&T Park officials changed the field home run ticker immediately, so here's a shot of the current count.

And finally, I can't close out this post without showing everyone our "view" from our seats....this picture says enough.

Runner Up

I have excellent news to post today. Jim, Jimmy, and myself spent this past weekend in Ruidoso watching me and my team compete in the USSSA NM State Tournament. We had a great time in Ruidoso and our team placed second. This is the best the team has placed at state since I've been a part of this team. All of the games were really exciting and our team played awesome!

When I got to work yesterday I received a team email saying that we have been invited to compete at the Midwest Nationals in Texas. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and our team couldn't be more excited. We played our last league game last night (we placed first in the league) and we're still trying to officially decide if we will attend. Nationals will be held just outside Dallas during the Labor Day weekend....it should be exciting if the team goes. Anyway, here are a few team photos and a few of our players receiving awards.

Getting Back In The Saddle

I didn't waste any time getting back in the saddle and playing some softball. We had a doubleheader last night and I was so excited to play. For the most part things went really well...although I'm still having some problems batting since I started playing golf. I did have a de-ja-vu moment playing the outfield again...another pop fly from the same batter that hit the ball that hit me in the forehead. No, I didn't catch it...it freaked me out and consequently I didn't get under the ball.

I originally had plans to have Jim hit balls to me tonight, but the weather is horrible and cold. I'm still hoping that Jim can hit balls to me so I'm hoping maybe we can find an open field before we start playing on Saturday morning. I just feel like I need to get it out of my system so that I don't have any problems this weekend.

Jim, Jimmy, and I leave for Ruidoso tomorrow for our State Softball Tournament and I'm really looking forward to it. Ruidoso is a beautiful town and I can't wait to go. We plan on leaving after Jim gets off work and I'm hoping to hit the batting cages in Santa Fe before leaving town. I need to correct the golf swing that I've got going...it's really starting to annoy me popping the ball straight up just behind the infield, which happens 50% of the time now.

I have no pictures to post today but I plan on taking the camera with us, so maybe I'll shoot some good photos that I can share.

One Week Later

Well it's been one week since my stupidity hit me square in the forehead. Currently, there is very little swelling in my forehead and my eyes still look like they have permanent eye makeup covering them. My colorful eyes are getting better but I'm guessing it will be close to another two weeks before my eyes look normal again. It also still hurts to chew on the left side of my mouth. I'm actually starting to get worried at this point, hoping it's not some other underlying damage that we don't know about yet...like a broken or chipped bone. During the last week I have felt improvement in the pain but it hasn't improved at all the last three days.

As promised here's an updated photo that Jim took just a few minutes ago. The stripes on my forehead are still holding up well and I'm not sure when they will fall off on their own. If they're not gone by Wednesday then I'll take them off myself...one week should be long enough for them do what they need to do. Anyway..

Stef, I hope your flashbacks to when I was six will start to subside now...