I Left My Heart in San Francisco...

I woke up this morning, returned the rental car, and decided to walk down to Fisherman's Wharf for the day. My hotel is conviently located between Fisherman's Wharf and AT&T Park (both within walking distance), so that worked out perfectly.

I decided today that if anyone needs to lose a little bit of extra weight, just walk around San Francisco for a couple of days and you'll burn off calories that you didn't even know you had on you!! Walking up those hills are brutal!!! I made sure to stop by the famous crooked street on Lombard St. before making it to the Wharf. After taking that site in, I made it to the Wharf (via Hyde Street) near Ghiradelli square. I found the first decent looking place to eat, because by this point I was starving!! I decided on Capurro's and ordered fried calamari and one pound of dungeness crab! Delicious! (Although, looking back on it, I wish I would have grabbed a bowl of clam chowder in sourdough bread, because each one of those I saw looked absolutely delicious!). I also stumbled upon an In-N-Out Burger in Fisherman's Wharf, and after a couple more hours of walking, I went in for the real deal, the double double (I couldn't resist!). The views of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay were quite marvelous from each and every pier, even though the Golden Gate bridge was semi-covered in clouds (how those only clouds in the sky consumed the bridge and nothing else around it still baffles me).

After the wharf, I walked back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before the game. I decided to be good and get to AT&T Park a couple of hours before the game to avoid crowds (because I kept seeing people with Giants gear walking that direction rather early, which scared me). I made it to the park around 5 and the game didn't start til 7:15. I was quite surprised to see the entire city of San Francisco waiting in ridiculous lines to get in!!! I completely forgot it was free snuggie night to the first 20,000 fans, and I didn't realize just how serious people get about snuggies! It was a complete shit show (haha, to coin the phrase from our Baltimore trip!).

Another thing I found rather funny was the same reaction I got from Giants fans upon seeing my Mets hoodie........."The Mets.......really?". Haha, EVERYTIME! You see, the Mets would not exist without the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Quick baseball history sidenote: The New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers were two prominent New York baseball clubs back in the day along with the New York Yankees. The three teams ruled the baseball world for quite some time. In the 50's sometime, both the Giants and Dodgers opted to move the ball clubs to the West Coast, relocating them in San Francisco and Los Angeles, thus leaving one New York baseball team (after having 3 awesome teams). The Mets were born as a replacement to these two teams that were relocated, and thus their official team colors are Giant Orange and Dodger Blue. As one Giant fan so eloquently put it tonight (after looking at my hoodie and drunkily staring in my face for about a minute)...."Your Mets are nothing but a bastard son to the Giants and Dodgers." HAHAHA....I couldn't have put it any better myself! Thank you sir, for summing up the entire history of New York / West Coast baseball in the 50's in one magnificent sentence that I will always remember! You see, watching the Giants play baseball in some weird, twisted way, is like watching a part of my Mets play. It means something to me.....

The game was good, but a bit chilly. Tim Lincecum pitched solidly for the Giants in a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals (whom I always enjoy watching lose thanks in large part to the 2005 NLCS when they beat the Mets in 7 games.....it's still heartbreaking). At the end of the game, and really at the end of my journey, it was very fitting to stay in the stadium as Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" played on the loud speakers and sceneic shots of San Francisco rolled on the jumbo screen. Much like the New York baseball teams that San Francisco got it's start from, a local favorite plays at the end of every game (The Yankees are famous for Frank Sinatra's New York, New York and the Mets play Billy Joel's New York State of Mind at the end of every game). So Mr. Bennett, I enjoyed the city, and I'm gonna steal one from you......I left my heart in San Francisco.