San Francisco (Day 8): Goin' back to California

So I finally made it to the last stop on my road trip vacation, the great city of San Francisco. The drive here was long, extremely tiresome, but not without it's rewards. I saw a minivan from Washington with a New York Mets license plate frame, a UHAUL van with a giant advertisement for Oneonta, NY (my hometown), the Newsboys' truck full of their gear (they were one of my favorite bands when I was a teenager), and an amazing sunset over Northern California.
Today so far has been fairly exhausting as well, not helped by the fact that I had to get up at 6am to move my car to avoid getting a parking ticket. After finding a great secret parking spot (invaluable information provided by a very helpful hostel staff), I took a bus down to the Haight-Ashbury district, then headed over to Golden-Gate Park, followed by another bus ride over to Coit Tower for an amazing view (of everything except the fog-covered Golden Gate Bridge, of course). This evening I think I'm going to head over to Oakland to check out the Oakland Coliseum and the A's. Detroit is in town and I don't really care who wins, but it'll be cool to check out the stadium.
By the way, as the hostel staff told me briefly about S.F., they mentioned the population was 750,000, a number that seemed all too familiar to me, although I couldn't quite place it. Well, during one of my bus rides today, as my mind wandered to thoughts of next week, it finally hit me. The number of students in the Los Angeles school district is equal to the population of San Francisco!!! Yikes... That should put a perspective on how monstrous LAUSD has become!

A Surprise Visit

So today, I got to hang out with my friend Dennis, who was my freshman year roommate at Wheaton College. Dennis has been out in Los Angeles this week visiting the UCLA business school, which I am hoping he will decide to attend. Anyway, it was great to spend the evening catching up, exchanging stories, sharing memories, and then taking in a Dodgers game. Luckily, the Mets defeated the Dodgers 4-1, thanks mostly to a Carlos Beltran home-run in the 8th inning. Anyway, we had a fantastic time! And now only two more days until my road trip begins!!

Turner Field

As you can see, tonight I finally attended a baseball game at the stadium home to the Atlanta Braves, a team that I have grown up learning to despise. From 1991 to 2005, the Braves have won the National League East Division (which means that my team, the Mets, have not). However, the tide is now turning and my Mets won the NL East last year and are going to do the same this year!
Anyway, it was fun going to the game, seeing a new stadium (which was pretty cool) and enjoying a huge part of Atlanta. As much as I hate the Braves, I've got to say that I love baseball and had a great time at the game. [It actually wasn't much of a game. The Braves won 13-0 over the Washington Nationals in less than dramatic fashion].