Day 26 - One Giant Leap

The main headline in the bay area (and, indeed, throughout the world) this morning was that the J's were involved in an early rise shocker. In a scandalous move, they threw the regulations of wind-down week out the window, and were up and fully concious before 8.15am, perhaps surprising themselves as much as the global community. The decision was deliberate however - we wanted to spend this afternoon in the city, and so we got up early to make time for a few essentials this morning.

A great breakfast once again kicked things off, and after catching up on the day's actual news, and just 'goofing off' on the sofa, this was followed by a couple of phonecalls home. For the first time since results day (day 4), both of us spoke to our immediate families, which was good fun, it was nice to have a bit of a catch up. We were filled in on crucial information from the UK, including Manchester City's (an english football club) sudden takeover by a group from Abu Dhabi and the feedback from the family visits to watch hit movie 'Mammia Mia'; which was generally very high (we're not quite convinced, but have reluctantly consented to seeing it ourselves). We also fortunately had the chance to reassure Joe's mum that no kidnappings had taken place during the San Jose / San Francisco leg of the trip with Arthur 'wait...you're here?' Coddington (see comments on day 20 for the background to this).

Due to our making-time manouevre of getting up pre-noon, we also had time to fit in another swim, which was again immensely enjoyable. The heat was reaching 100 degrees farenheit (for Brits, obviously just use the simple Temp cel = (5/9)*(Temp far-32) formula to convert to Celcius), which, of course, is hot. Hence, the pool was great to dive into, particularly as the water had cooled down nicely overnight, as Bob had left the cover off in a wise tactical move. After more aquatic antics, we hit the showers, and a short spot of primping/packing/lunching ensued...we were then ready to make our way into the City for the afternoon.

Bob dropped us off at the ferry terminal in Marin, and we quickly bought our tickets before, in a dash James Bond would've been proud of, running onto the ferry just in the nick (jonas) of time. We sailed away smoothly to 'Frisco, checking out a map of the city en route just to make sure we had our bearings. Once we arrived at the SF ferry terminal, we spent quite some time shopping around here, as the building is attractively designed with a good range of fairly unique stores. Obviously, we can't reveal our exact purchases in specific detail, as they're mostly gifts/souvenirs...but as a tantalizing clue, it may suffice to say that John picked up a thrilling magazine, the cover of which was graced by a certain curly-haired trio. We moved on from the tween-literature section to check out a variety of downtown stores, and dabbled in confectionary, clothing, and some rare novelty items.

When our consumer instinct was satisfied, we walked back towards the piers, as we had arranged to meet Alicia, Shannon and Lance, at the latter's (extremely swish) apartment. Tonight, they were taking us to a baseball game at the (relatively) new stadium in San Francisco, where the home team of the San Francisco Giants (yaaay!) were playing out-of-towners the Pittsburgh Pirates (Boooo...!). We started the evening with a walkaround tour of the Stadium with resident baseball consultant Lance, and the views of the bay from the stadium (it's close enough to the water that home runs hit out of the stand are likely to end up in it) were particuarly spectacular. We got some classic baseball food - a 'Giants dog' hot dog for both of us - and sat down to watch the game. Unfortunately for the home side, the Pirates were in swashbuckling form, and got off to a much stronger start, from which the Giants never really recovered. However, this didn't stop us having a great night, and learning the complete rules of baseball, down to loaded bases, batting averages, and the curious 7th inning 'stretch' (we'd suggest Wikipedia again, for those not familar). We departed shortly after said stretch, and it had been an extremely cool experience, that we'll have to repeat one day.

We then made our way back on the BART system to Orinda, and we're now here at Alicia's place for the night, where she's already provided us with some (welcome) warm bagels to round off the evening.

Night night (or good morning...),

The San Francisco J and Jiants.