San Francisco Giants vs Chicago Cubs
Upstairs on Caltrain
For a variety of reason, we have not been doing much traveling lately. On Sunday though we had tickets to go and see the SF Giants play the Chicago Cubs in the last game of a four game series. The Cubs had won the first three games. The game started at 1.05 and Tom and I were pondering how we were going to get to AT&T Park. We normally drive all the way up and park next to the stadium in a parking lot but the charge is $30. There are several alternatives. We could have driven up to Millbrae and caught BART to Market Street and then taken Muni; or we could have driven up to 3rd and 16th, found some on-street parking where there are no parking meters; or we could have driven up to Oakland and caught the ferry across to AT&T Park. In the end, we did none of those. Instead we drove into San Jose and caught Caltrain all the way up to San Francisco.
(Click on the images for larger versions)
We caught the 10.00 am train and sat upstairs. I have been on Caltrain before but never upstairs. I thought there were only single seats upstairs but there is one double on each side in every carriage and we were lucky to snag one of those. I spent most of the time looking out of the window and very little in reading my book.
Obviously I can’t recall everything I saw but I can recount the highlights. My first impressions were not what you would call highlights though. Rusty rails strewn alongside the tracks, rank weeds, fences with razor wire on the top and lots of graffiti. The houses which backed onto the railway were a bit mean as well with piles of rubbish in some places which had been tipped over the fence. But raising my eyes over the mean houses gave me a view of the mountains in the distance and they were a far better sight.
Just before we came to the Sunnyvale Station we passed the apartment block Tom and I lived in for the first year of our marriage. It was a lovely
Out front of AT&T Park waiting for Tom's Brother
apartment, the only problem being the trains that passed close by. In the middle of the night a freight train would lumber by which rocked the place but the most annoying feature were the whistles which some drivers sounded very enthusiastically as they passed our apartment.
From Sunnyvale to San Bruno the scenery changed to be very pleasing, apart from the fact that we passed lots of our old haunts. At Mountain View they hold a farmers market on a Sunday morning and that was in full swing as we passed by. It is one of the best farmers markets in the area. The best has to be Sunnyvale on a Saturday because of the shady street with the cafes on the sidewalk where you can sit and have breakfast or drink a cup of coffee while drinking in the sights and smells. There are no cafes near the farmers market in Mountain View and no shady trees to sit under.
Passing San Antonio reminded me of a trip I took on Caltrain from Sunnyvale to Stanford shopping center with my daughter a few years back. The railway conductor had a very distinctive way of talking and when she announced the name of the station it came out as ‘Saaaaaaaan AAAAAntOOOnio’. Every time I see a sign for San Antonio I mimic her rendition.
At California Street we saw the Farmers Market down the main street. This is one we have not been too but we must go some day. Next stop was Palo Alto. From the train we could see the entrance to Stanford University and some of the palm trees lining Palm Drive but the distinctive buildings of the university could not be seen. From the train station it an easy walk to the fabulous Stanford Shopping Center.
Between the California Street and Palo Alto stations is a bike track, which was being well used. I wonder how far it goes. The original station building at Menlo Park Station is the oldest station in California. It has been refurbished over the years but is still a charming building.
Atherton was our next stop and this is a really nice location. It was once described as a “plain of oaks” and it still is. Looking down into the gardens of the houses we passed, they all had large shady trees and many of them were well established. Redwood City is an interesting place. From the train we could see a large painting on the side of a building. It depicted a lady in medieval dress sitting in a boat. I’m not 100% sure but I’m guessing it was from the ‘Lady of Shalott’ which was a poem by Alfred, Lord Tenyson. Here is a short quote:
‘Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.’
Just past the station, near the railway crossing, is an old sign which used to be on El Camino. It boldly proclaims ‘Redwood City – Climate Best By Government Test’. To read why the town claims this distinction check out this website.
San Carlos station was next. Here the tracks are raised and below, on the station forecourt, there was another farmers market. Tom pointed out the unusual station house building which was more or less hidden by the raised tracks. This one was almost as old as the one at Menlo Park but completely different architecture. San Carlos station is built from gray stone blocks unlike the conventional wooden structure at Menlo Park.
Margaret, Tom's Step-Mom, Arlene, Tom's Dad and Brother Jeffrey
Yet another farmers market was being held at Belmont station. Tom used to live in Belmont when he was a little boy and remembers driving with him Mum to collect his Dad from the station in the evening. The next few stations are unimpressive. Hillsdale used to be the station for Bay Meadows racetrack but that closed down in 2005. There is, of course, the big shopping mall at Hillsdale.
Burlingame has a very impressive station building. It’s architecture is Mission-Revival style and is painted bright yellow and is now a museum. Tom was born in Burlingame.
The next few stations are OK but not outstanding apart from the clock at Milbrae which showed the wrong time and the date as January 2, 1995! Once passed San Bruno things began to deteriorate again. The only thing which impressed me was the graffiti. OK I know graffiiti is a blot on the landscape and taken as a whole really gives a neglected look but some of the individual paintings are very artistic and far more colorful than the specimens displayed near San Jose.
Just before 11.45 we arrived in San Francisco and joined the merry throng walking down King Street to the AT&T stadium. Most of the fans were dressed in the Giants colors but there were a good few Cubs fans in amongst us. And it was a beautiful day. We stopped at Starbucks for a cup of coffee as we had at least half an hour to wait before we met up with Tom’s Dad and Arlene and his brother Jeff by the Willie Mays statue outside the stadium. It was an invigorating experience being a part of the hustle and bustle outside the station. Of course there were the scalpers selling tickets and parking passes for the game, street performers and the occasional homeless person with their handwritten signs. There were also stands selling programs and memorabilia. More interesting TV cameras were set up to televise the pre-game show. The majority of movement though came from the fans pouring into the stadium not only from the train station but also from the car parks on the other side of the Lefty O’Doule Bridge and the muni station on King Street.
Eventually the five of us all found each other and we made our way into the stadium. We went through the wrong entrance but we didn’t find out
Batter Up!
until we left the stadium. Our tickets were in Field Club and we entered through the Willie Mays Plaza entrance and walked up the ramp to the Promenade level. From there we were directed to an section but we had to walk all the way down to the bottom, back through a tunnel and into the right section. We almost gave up but eventual we found our seats in Section 109, Row O. They were great seats midway between home plate and first base.
There is nothing more American than a baseball game. All the razzmatazz of the game beforehand and then the music, exhortations to shout, stand and make a loud noise during the game; the large scoreboard giving a wealth of information including replays of each ball; the seventh inning stretch and then of course there is the game itself. Being so close to the action we saw more of the expressions from the players and the occasional comments. We were also in line to catch a foul ball although none came close enough to attempt a catch. It was a great game and both sides played very well but the Giants won so that put the cherry on the cake as far as our day was concerned. We sat there enjoying ourselves immensely, eating hot dogs and ice creams (though I made a mess with mine when it melted all over my jeans and sweatshirt) and drinking beer and lemonade. We clapped every good hit and catch, no matter which side executed it, and groaned whenever a home run was never quite achieved. We stayed right to the end and stood, clapped and cheered as the teams left the field.
Then we made our way out of the stadium through the food court entrance without having to climb any stairs. Tom and I made our way back to the station, crossing the roads with hundreds of others and taking up the whole of the sidewalk. At the station we were lucky to get onto the non stop to San Carlos train which cut the journey by half an hour. It was the end of a perfect day.
October 04 2009 10:17 am | Special Places
