Heading out this morning in a little while to grab some food and map out our next few days. We have until Friday night to make it down to Los Angeles for a game between the Dodgers and Angels, just need to figure out where we want to stop along the way.
We finished touring San Francisco yesterday, getting up early to make a 10 o’clock boat to Alcatraz, where we took a tour that focused on various escape attempts over the years. We wound up from the loading dock, past some of the old administrative buildings and up to the cell blocks, which definitely looked like a miserable place to be. Decommissioned in 1963, it’s great that the National Park Service has been able to preserve it, since it is a truly one-of-a-kind piece of Americana.
We were near Fisherman’s Wharf when we got back to the city, so we headed there with all of the other tourists for lunch before heading across the Bay Bridge and into Oakland.
Got to McAfee Coliseum before the gates opened, giving Chris the chance to buy an extra ticket so that he could tag along for his first Major League Baseball game. Before the game, we joined the crowds at the annual Beerfest celebration inside the park, where we got some cool souvenir mugs and sampled a couple of different beers from local and national breweries.
The A’s and Marlins traded runs in the first four innings, ending the fourth with Oakland up 3-2, before a Cody Ross solo shot tied the game in the top of the 8th. In the 9th, Florida loaded the bases against Oakland’s closer, Huston Street, before Dan Uggla dropped a bases-clearing, three-RBI double into left field.
An RBI-single in the bottom of the 9th pulled the A’s to within two before they loaded the bases. With two outs, Ryan Sweeney lined a shot down the first-base line after running the count full; but a diving stop by Jorge Cantu saved the drive that would’ve scored at least two. Though the home team lost 6-4, it was an exciting finish, and a good first game for Chris.
We drove about 50 miles southwest of Oakland and settled in Mountain View. We’ll sit down with our guidebook in a little while and make some plans, probably stopping off around Santa Cruz tonight.
The Phallic Road Trip 