CanDiego Hiker

Birthday at the Ballpark!

(September 20, 2014)

Today, September 20th, was my birthday and, after a delicious birthday breakfast (Apple-Cinnamon German pancakes with Bacon, made by Maria), we all loaded up in the car and headed into Oakland for an MLB game!

(Click on any image for full size)

Allison brought her baseball glove

We saw the 1:05 PM game between the Oakland Athletics (84-70) and the Philadelphia Phillies (71-84) at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (O.Co).

The Coliseum is older; it was built in 1966. You can tell, both on the inside with its narrow, dark hallways, and in the field as well (very little is digital, fewer box seats, etc)

We had our picture taken at field level, prior to the game starting

A local high school sang the American anthem. Tristyn was proud. The stadium wasn't full. Maybe 60% capacity? The upper decks were closed.

Opening Pitch

Allison was in awe of people walking up and down the aisle yelling "Peanuts", "Popcorn", "Ice Cream", etc. Each time one of them walked by, she would raise her hand and yell "Yes Please!". Her tally for the day was:

Cotton Candy
Cracker Jacks
Hotdog with Ketchup
Coke
Peanuts
Pretzel

Our seats where in the 120 section. The field level seats were below us, the bleachers above us (and the upper deck above those). Allison and Tristyn were great through the game, but we did have to take some breaks to give them a change of scenery. Here, we are in the bleachers for a picture.

I was wearing a Ricky Henderson HOF Jersey I got prior to the game.

7th Inning Stretch - Ricky Henderson in the lead

I took a 4 vertical pictures, rotating about 30 degrees each time and then stitched them together at home to give this panoramic shot of the park. Click on it for full size.

Miscellaneous shenanigans

Tristyn fell asleep at the top of the 8th. I don't blame him, it was 3-0 Philly at this point, and Oakland had maybe 4 hits. It was a pretty slow game. I took a break too.

Once the game finished we waited for everyone to clear out. Tristyn, in his "Oakland A's Rookie of the Year Onesie", asleep in my arms, got alot of attention as people filed out.

Allison and I snuck down to field level after the game for a quick picture.

We drove into Oakland and had supper in Chinatown. It was traditional chinese food, as opposed to Americanized. I tried frog legs, which were good. I couldn't stand the chicken feet. Maria was horrified. Sorry no pictures.

We got home to birthday presents, and a great cake (chocolate peanut butter Oreo cream) made by Maria on Friday (which I'm told Allison helped with by sampling all ingredients to ensure they were "Fresh")

Allison enjoyed a lot of cake.

It was also "Fergies" birthday. Fergie is her pet pig who was "born" one year ago today in Palm Springs - when Allison and I picked him out and stuffed him. Maria wrapped a present for Fergie - an official Thomas the Train engine whistle.

We finished the night with me reading them some of the books they gave me as presents.

The End!

South x South-West

(the most South Western point in the USA)

This past weekends "Hike" was rather simple - Maria was tired and stayed home - so Allison and I packed up and headed south 15 or so miles to the Mexico-Tijuana border to visit the Border Field State Park - which is the most southerly and westerly point in the continental US.

We took a slight detour on our way there to visit Imperial Beach, the last San Diego beach town before Mexico.

(Note: Click on any image for full size version)

Imperial Beach is the home to the US Open Sandcastle Building Competition. That's what this monument is.

You can see the skyline of San Diego off in the distance (15 miles)

Imperial beach ends at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve - the mouth of the river then empties into the Pacific (it's only a river in the Spring, otherwise its dry, which is typical of all rivers here)

The reserve is a popular Birding and Horseback riding site. It also has some sort of hybrid ground squirrel who was rather intrigued by us.

Said squirrels have quite the view - the mountains of Tijuana to one side, and the Pacific on the other

We took a quick picture (Mexico, and thus our destination, is in the background)

Since we had to get around the reserve, we jumped back in the car and headed a couple miles inland, then south, then back west to get to the actual park. Its rather barren on the way in - and the road is full of pot holes and loose rocks.

It cost $5.00 to get in (or you can park outside and hike in, but Allison wasn't in the mood)

We follow the border fence on the way in (that's Tijuana on the other side)

The park itself is rather small - BBQ's, a well kept washroom, and some decent views (That's San Diego in the distance).

We had our picture taken at the marker sign (ironically, the lady who took our pciture was from Toronto, and her husband graduated from the same university I did - "The Power of Chance Events"