I finished my homework for the night, and downloaded my final exam. Fortunately for me, the exam is multiple choice, which means that I stand a fighting chance against Accounting, a subject that in one more week I hope to only have to deal with from a distance. I went upstairs and laid down, setting my alarm for 4:30am.
12:30 came around. I was still up. 1am. Yep, still just tossing around the bed. I was going to be in California the next day, and wasn't used to going to bed so early. 2am. I heard my parent's clock chime downstairs. The last time I saw on the clock was 3:17. My alarm got me up at 4:30. I showered and hopped in the car. Mom and Dad dropped me off at Dulles.
The line for jetBlue was surprisingly long. I got through all that okay, and only had about 20 minutes to wait at the gate before it was time to board. The flight was excellent. Well, it was long, but I was occupied. Each seat had an LCD panel with TV, so I got caught up on world events while I caught up on some reading. The plane went over the mountains of West Virginia, the flatland of Kansas, the Rockies, desert dunes of Utah, and the evergreens of Yosemite. The view was terrific, since it was so clear outside.
When I landed, I stopped in the store to get some postcards, and by the time I got out of there, my bag was waiting for me at baggage check. I caught the bus after a bit of good fortune, and then shuttled over to the Civic Center stop. Only needing to go .7 miles, I opted to walk with my gear up to the hotel.
This proved to be the dumpiest hole in the wall hotel I've ever been to. Shittier than the little one in New York where Klause, Pat and I stayed on travel from TruSecure. The lobby had a hand-written sign over the register saying NO-AC. I asked (since it was stuffy) if this applied to the lobby, or the entire place. Through some broken English, she told me that no one has AC in this hotel.
I immediately got to the Dumpiest Room Ever™ and dropped my bags down. I ate my sandwich and regrouped. I didn't have time to call Travelocity and arrange for a new room, since I was booked for Alcatraz at 2:15. The room, as it turns out, isn't hot though. It's 65 degrees here in San Francisco. Still, I'm on vacation. I can spring for a nicer place than this. So- lesson to everyone out there. If you don't see "AC" in the hotel 'amenities' listing, don't assume it's there.
As it turns out, not having AC in this area is common. The morning fog that occurs like clockwork keeps the entire city cool year-round. I decided to hold my call to Travelocity until I'd stayed a night. After all, I was exhausted.
Alcatraz was awesome. I walked around instead of taking a tour, since I'd seen about a dozen different History Channel specials on various aspects of the island (incidentally, if you haven't heard about the Indian occupation/takeover of the island, it's a really interesting story)
I was out in the sun longer than I thought I'd be, and got a little burned on the back of my neck, so I'll have to be a bit more careful out there, especially when I get the convertible in a few days.
After Alcatraz, I took a street car back to the hotel and did some homework. I was completely exhausted, but still had something planned for the day- the Giants vs. Diamondbacks ballgame at the former Candlestick park. I opted not to get dinner until I was at the park. What a great decision that turned out to be.
The food at the park was awesome. They had garlic french fries, which were an awesome contrast to the spicy italian sausage. Everything's expensive at a ballgame, but this stuff was WAY expensive. Dinner for just me (the fries, the dog and a soda) came to 21 bucks. Pretty steep.
My seats were awesome. I was about 10 seats higher than the camera guys at Fox Sports, if that tells you about how great the view was. (I'll post photos sometime later). This park is beautiful, because it is a really nice field overlooking the San Francisco Bay. It was amazing.
Had to turn down some hookers on the way home, but other than that the rest of the night was uneventful. i finally hit the hay around midnight here (which I guess would be 4am EST) That made for a long, long day.
