California Sea Lions and area sports

The highlights for us were definitely the California Sea Lions at Pier 39, Alcatraz, and the day game at Pacific Bell Park.

Also: cocktails at the top of the new Marriott in SoMa, a nice sushi bar a couple blocks from the stadium, and our hotel (the Park Hyatt).

Quick Tips:

Hotels in San Francisco can be difficult to get - even on weekends - so book early. Finding good rates is very unpredictable, so search a variety of sources and don't give up if your favorite site is quoting rooms. We eventually found a weekend special at the Park Hyatt, which is usually one of the more expensive places in town.

Most Giants games are sold out, but tickets are not that difficult to get. I got the sense that scalping tickets around the stadium was either illegal or frowned upon, but people were doing it. We were able to get seats through a friend ahead of time, so we didn't need to worry about it.

Best Way To Get Around:

If you are staying in the city, you probably don't need a rental car. Parking is difficult everywhere you go in town. The city is small enough comparatively, so cabs are the best way to get around. SF also has a subway, buses, and cable cars.

The Park Hyatt San Francisco is an excellent Hyatt property. The hotel is in the downtown area, near the financial district (and only a few blocks away from one or two other Hyatts). The hotel has extensive amenities, including a nice restaurant and lounge. (We spent time in the lounge, but not the restaurant.)

For our room, we were upgraded to a "deluxe" room. Basically, this is a hotel room with a larger bathroom and a sitting room (not a full suite). We had a large balcony with room enough for 4 people to sit outside. We had a partial bay view, but mostly our view was of other buildings. Still, a very, very nice room.

Although hyatt.com wanted $250+ for rooms at this property, we were able to find a better rate at Expedia (an Internet weekend special). I would definitely return to this hotel again.

This was surprisingly one of our favorite parts of the trip to San Francisco. Adjacent to Pier 39 are about a hundred California sea lions that quite enjoy putting on a show. (They also draw a large crowd of onlookers.) When we were there in June, we saw a wide range of sea lions: about a dozen pups, a few large adults, and what looked like quite a few adolescents (although I'm certainly no expert - that was just the appearance). Supposedly, all of the Pier 39 sea lions are males.

It was fun watching the sea lions play 'king of the dock' and bump each other off into the water. A large bull seemed to enjoy barking at the tourists. The pups were content to curl up amongst themselves and sleep.

Next time we are in California, we will drive down the coast towards Carmel and hopefully see more sea lions in a more natural habitat than Pier 39.

Pacific Bell Park is a great place to watch a game, watch people, watch the bay, or just watch for the beer man. We attended a game last year between San Francisco and Seattle. The stadium is in SoMa, a short cab ride from downtown. Although Pacific Bell no longer exists as a company (it was acquired by SBC), the stadium is still known as Pac Bell Park, and that probably won't change (just like the 'Stick will always be the 'Stick, regardless of who pays to say otherwise).

The most desirable seat locations in the stadium seem to be the outfield bleachers or the first-base side. The bleacher area is where the party is, and the first-base side seats offer a great bay view (the higher up the better). Our seats were third-base side, which was perfect for watching baseball. After a few innings, we wandered out to right field and watched the end of the game on top of the right-field wall where Barry Bonds likes to hit his home runs (he didn't leave the yard when we were there).

Midwestern baseball fans may have a hard time getting used to Pac Bell's concession offerings. It's quite gourmet. What we in the Midwest would refer to as a dog and a Lite becomes a "specialty sausage" and a Chardonnay at this stadium. The garlic fries are something else, though...

There's a good bar at which to pre- or post-party directly outside the stadium on the third-base side. They serve dogs & beer.

Rule Number 1: Natives still call this stadium The 'Stick. They always will. Nobody calls it "3Com" or whatever this year's sponsor is.

The stadium was built in the late 50's/early 60's (I forget which) and instantly became a famously hideous baseball venue (from a player's perspective, not necessarily a fan's), thanks to the swirling winds. For football, I didn't notice this as an issue - possibly because of the way the seats were configured.

I attended a Carolina-49ers game in December 1996. This was the year that both teams were vying for the Western Division crown and a first-round bye. Going in, everyone knew that the winner of the game would take the title. It was a fantastic game with lots of offense on both sides, and an eventual Carolina win.

We bought tickets in front of the stadium. While I'd never recommend this as your primary strategy when attended a sporting event in a strange city, it was very, very easy to do at the Stick. The Niners were actually *good* in 1996, and it was a buyers market all the way. We paid $10 below face value and sat in the lower level at about the 40 yard line, about halfway up in those temporary bleachers that occupy the baseball outfield (these seats may now be more permanent, given that the Giants are over at Pac-Bell Park).

Niners fans are very wine-and-cheese. Not meant as a knock on them, but most of them are not terribly concerned about the game. We sat next to a very nice man and his wife, both in their mid-50's, both lawyers from the Sonoma area. They had season tickets, and brought their own grapes and cheese to eat during the game. The guy had been attending Niners games throughout the 90's (usually with clients), yet he was fascinated when I explained to him how you could sometimes predict the next play based on a shotgun formation with extra receivers on the field (he'd never correlated third-and-long with an extra WR in the game).

A thoroughly enjoyable day...good weather...good game...good stadium (for football, anyway). Traffic in and out is a major pain, so ride the bus if you can (buses get priority getting in/out, but it's still not easy).

December 1996 - Monday Night Football. Chiefs vs. Raiders.

I'm a huge Chiefs fan, so I was obviously jacked to see this game on Monday night. Rule number 1 in Oaktown is that if you are an opposing fan, don't dress head-to-toe in your team's colors. Most football fans have all heard horror stories about visiting fans getting roughed up in Oakland, so we were careful. Jeans, gray sweatshirt, neutral hat.

After getting to the game, pre-partying in the parking lot, and entering the stadium, I realized that Raider fans are just like fans in other blue-collar football cities. They are certainly no worse than the thousands of redneck Chiefs fans out there who love nothing more than to hassle visiting Raider fans. I saw people wearing red, and I didn't see anyone getting their ***es kicked. I probably would avoid the section of hardcore fans that sit in the endzone (you've seen 'em on Sportscenter).

The game itself was a drag. Steve Bono put together had the worse performance ever...no wait, that was against Indy in the playoffs...okay, second worst performance ever - and Oakland won by about 3 touchdowns. It rained a lot and the stadium was only about 2/3rds full. We sat in the upper deck, in the endzone. Not great seats, but passable. I'd definitely look for something lower and on the side if I had the chance.