Monthly Archive: October 2010

sports

We Win !!

Back in early July I was checking out SF Giants.com for some good tickets. There were some great deals. Since the Giants had something called “dynamic pricing” whereby the ticket prices can go up or down depending on the demand for tickets, I wasn’t even looking at tickets for Dodgers or Cubs because those tickets were high priced. The good thing about on line ordering was that you could actually see what tickets you were getting.  I settled on a mid-week Reds game ($8.75 per ticket for upper deck – on the aisle! ) and fan appreciation day against the Padres ($10.75 per ticket for upper deck – row one!)  As the season came to an end, the fan appreciation day tix were turning into GOLD!  Tickets were going of $45 in our section before it sold out, and $100+ on Craigslist after that!

The tension mounted as the final series of the season with the Padres opened. The Giants needed to win one of the final games to snag the western division title out of the hands of the Padres, who were in first place for 148 days this season. unfortunately and fortunately, the Padres won the first two games of the series forcing a final final. The last game of the regular season for all the marbles.

We took BART to the game. A mix of Giant fans heading to the city and Raider fans heading to the Colosseum. We hooked up with friends Marie and Ron at the Bayfair station and headed to the city together. Off at Embarcadero and started our one mile walk to the park along the water front. We had packed a little softr cooler so I made a few drinks (Vodka tonic for the ladies, jack/coke for Jimmy and a couple of Coors for Ron). About half way to the park Ron flagged down a couple of  bike cabs and we rode in style the rest of the way to the park. We still had about an hour til game time so worked our way into Public House, the sports bar at the park, and got to watch the final minutes of the niner game. UGH! Hopefully the Giants would fare better than the Niners.

In our seats at the bottom of the first. Ahh. Jonathan Sanchez pitching was great as usual. Sanchez helped himself by hitting a triple and scoring the game’s first run. Buster Posey’s homer in the 8th was icing on the cake!  Stellar bullpen performance and sure thing closer in Brian Wilson made for a great celebration when the last out was recorded. Team rushes the field then the Panda, followed by the rest of the team ran around the field high-fiving fans along the way!

vacation

B R Cohn Fall Music Festival – 2010

Concert_poster What a great day we had on Sunday.  We had purchased these tickets a couple of months ago because it sounded like it would be a fun day.  Eddie Money, Loverboy, Night Ranger, Greg Kihn band and the Turtles, all rocking and rolling in the wine country!

We started from home early. Left our house around 8:30am  and met Ron and Marie at the Flamingo Resort  Hotel in Santa Rosa at around 10:30.  Ron and Marie were spending the night so we had a short snack by the pool while they waited to check in.  

*side note* – the Flamingo is where we spent  part of our honeymoon  back in 1985. Memories!

Off to the concert around 1130. Only 12 miles from the hotel, the setting couldn’t have been better. The Venue was  Bruce Cohn’s winery in Glen Ellen. The stage, nestled at the bottom of a little hill with rolling vineyards as the backdrop. Wow. 

006 We got there a little late and were able to catch the end of the Turtles’ set as we were walking into the place. It was already very crowded!  Seem all the good spots were taken with only “full sun” spots left. UGH! So we are standing at the top of this hill and we figure out that if we just stay put, the sun will soon dip; behind that big tree right there and we would be golden. And we were! We laid out our blanket and within a few minutes we had it made in the shade!

The music was great. Greg Kihn?  Was Greg Kihn. Loveboy? Awsome and LOUD!  Eddie Money? An icon (61 years old) !  They played all their hits and then some. Did some great covers too. Night Ranger doing Ozzy Ozborne’s “Crazy Train” was my favorite!  Rock and Roll baby!!  Loverboy was my favorite band of the day.  Eddie Money seemed to just be going through the motions but won me over in the end.  It was all good. All good.

IMAG0203_crop It was a fun crowd. Since this was a charity event, the tickets were on the pricey side, so it kept out the old time rock and rollers and put us smack dab in the middle of  the beautiful people!  Mostly older and mellow. But all soooooooo good looking!  Us included !  Lots (and LOTS)  of wine being drunk.  People were  mildly (to falling down)  drunk, or stoned, or both.  We had a great time just people watching.

 The food was fantastic !  We tried some pulled pork sliders and chicken waldorf salad sliders that were yummy. Calamari and fries were oh so good. Thai egg rolls? Ahhh So good!!   The girls shared a bottle of  B R Cohn wine. Ron and I stuck to beer, and all was well in the world.

The sun dipped behind the hills as Eddie Money was finishing his set. By 7:30 we were heading back to the car, vowing that next year, we’d come for both days! Woohoo!