Sans Jose and Francisco — San Jose, CA
A trip to the legendary Redwoods is a hard act to follow. But fortunately we had an ace in the hole; a trip to San Jose to catch up with the man with the most nicknames in the world... Luke Miller!
Drinks at Mountain View (home of Google) turned into a late night session of Rock Band on the Playstation accompanied with copious red wine. Pretty good fun… but NOTHING compared to the childish pleasure we took in an egg hunt on Easter Sunday (Luke won hands down thanks to his height advantage!)
We spent a fun few days with Luke in San Jose and San Francisco, the highlight of which was watching the San Francisco Giants play the Atlanta Braves at AT&T Park.
We had been told that AT&T Park was a must visit; and it is. The view over China Basin (a section of San Francisco Bay) is breathtaking and the park has a couple of eye-catching features such as the huge 'Giant 1927 old-time four-fingered Baseball glove' made of steel and fibreglass and a 24m-long Coke bottle.
The Giants are reigning World Series Champions (travel tip; never ask an American how many countries play in the ‘World Series’) but the Braves triumphed after a tight tussle. Baseball was the winner on the day, though, with perfect weather, a great atmosphere and our introduction to the wonders of garlic and parsley fries.
After the game we hit the San Francisco tourist circuit, riding a cable car from Fisherman’s Wharf (which is worth steering clear of) to Chinatown for dinner. We then whiled away a good few hours in City Lights bookstore (a ‘literary landmark’ famous for being the publisher and social haunt of several key ‘beat’ writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg).