Trip Report - Day 2 - San Francisco

Our first full day in San Francisco started off quite foggy as I again admired the view from my 26th floor hotel room.

In the light, I discovered my window faced the waterfront. There were lots of ships out on the water, far off in the distance.

After breakfast, I had just enough time to take a short walk around the block. This large tree and the pretty turreted building beside it was quite a sight to see!

At 9 a.m., we all got on the bus and headed off for a tour of the city.  We saw many interesting sights but all rather blurry and quickly passed by. We drove past the stadium where the San Francisco Giants play baseball, which looked quite impressive. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see a game there some day.

We spent some time driving along the waterfront and got out of the bus for an hour or so to explore Pier 39.

Here's Mom and me, taking a look at Alcatraz.

Our next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.  We had just enough time to get off the bus and take photos.  What a magnificent sight!

By the time we got to the ball park for the afternoon game, they were already in the middle of the fourth inning.  The final score was Toronto 7,  Oakland 5.

As soon as the game was over, we got back on the bus and headed off to northern California.  It was beautiful countryside.

We followed a very winding road from the highway towards the coast in the dark and sometimes rain. We arrived at our destination around 9 pm, the small town of Fort Bragg, California.  We had dinner in a local restaurant (not the best meal I've ever had) and then were driven to our hotel. Another late night!

Day 79/100 - #100dayproject

Trip Report - Day 1 - Oakland

Two weeks ago today, my mom and I set off to visit the West Coast and see the Blue Jays play baseball. We were part of an organized tour with about 40 other participants. Here we are at the airport, wearing our team shirts.  

We landed in San Francisco around 4 p.m., picked up our luggage and got on a bus that drove us directly to Oakland Coliseum.  The rush hour traffic was quite heavy but we made it there about 6 p.m., ahead of the 7 o'clock start time for the first game on our tour.

As you enter the stadium, there are several murals depicting famous players in Oakland's history.  I remember the pitcher shown on the left in the picture below very well - Dennis Eckersley. He was quite a challenge for our boys in blue back in the late 80's and early 90's.

I was quite impressed by the large women's washroom and the fact that there were no lineups. Quite different from what you usually find at the ball park in Toronto!

We had no trouble recognizing our fellow Canadian fans! ;)

I liked the pictures they showed of the various Toronto players as they made their first at bat, especially the images of Skydome/Rogers Centre and the CN Tower in the background.

It was quite a cool evening and there were a lot of empty seats, so my mom and I moved down a little closer to the action.

We had a great view of all our boys, including Josh Donaldson, as they stepped up to bat.  (I posted more pictures in this blog post the other day.)

This hot dog vendor was quite entertaining and he actually carried this large metal box around the stadium, offering freshly cooked wieners to hungry fans.

There may not have been a lot of Oakland fans but there was a loud section out in right field making quite a ruckus with several musical instruments.

Unfortunately, the Jays lost to the Oakland A's 4-1.  It was full dark as we trouped out of the stadium to find our bus and head for our first night's accommodations.

By the time we got to our hotel that first night, it was close to 11 p.m.  I had no idea where we were but the view was quite pretty!

Day 78/100 - #100dayproject

The New Toonie

Have you seen the new toonie? (for those non-Canadians who might be reading this, the "toonie" is the two dollar coin we have here in Canada.)  The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a series of new coins to commemorate Canada's 150th anniversary.

This coin is described as follows: " The $2 coin, designed by British Columbia resident Dr. Timothy Hsia, features a pair of paddlers dwarfed by a night sky alive with the ever-shifting movement of the Northern Lights. ‘Dance of the Spirits' is the world’s very first glow-in-the-dark circulation coin."

I'm a bit skeptical about the glow in the dark claim, as I tested out the coin I have, trying to get a photo, and it didn't seem to be working! :(   Maybe it needs to somehow soak up light first before the glow will work, whereas I pulled mine out of a dark room.  Nevertheless, I really like the new design.

Okay, I left it out in the light for about five minutes and then took this picture - you can see a bit of the glow! I expect if I left it longer, it would be much more apparent but I'm too impatient!

According to this article, 3 million of these coins are being released into circulation. I am expecting that most people will keep them when they come across one, so when my 13 year old cousin offered to sell me this one for $3 on the weekend, I jumped at the chance.  Her mother was appalled that I would offer a whole dollar over the value of the coin itself and that her daughter would accept the profit but we were both very happy with our trade!

Day 77/100 - #100dayproject

Father's Day 2017

Found this spray painted on the sidewalk last night as I was walking about the neighbourhood. Coincidence? I think not.

I miss my dad every day and more so on the holidays. So many happy memories.

Happy Father's Day to all who are celebrating today.


Day 76/100 - #100dayproject

The Junk Drawer

I bought tomato juice this week. Normally, I buy the set of six little single serving cans but they didn't have any of those on the shelf so I bought the 540 ml/19 fl oz size instead.  But when I got home and went to open the can, my can opener was nowhere to be found.

I have searched through my junk drawer several times, thinking it must be in there, but to no avail. There are so many other useful but rarely used items in there, surely this drawer is the logical place to keep the can opener which I can't remember using any time in the last decade??

I don't even know what to call the type of can opener I'm looking for - the one that punches tiny little triangles into the top of a can of liquid contents.  Not the one that cuts a circle around the top of the can, allowing you to lift the lid off.  The one that has a bottle cap opener on the other end, also known as a "church key".

A couple of days went by before that dusty corner of my brain where this particular tidbit of information was stored reminded me that there was a container full of even less frequently used kitchen utensils under my sink.  And sure enough, the can opener was in there (along with an egg timer, a wooden pate spreader, a spare pair of egg beaters, a gadget for measuring different serving sizes of spaghetti and a tarnished set of silver sugar tongs that have claws on them that look like birds' feet - where the heck did I get that?!).  

Now, as I sip on a cool glass of tomato juice, I have to ask myself: do I really need all the miscellaneous items jumbled up in my junk drawer?  And if so, why don't I use them more often?

Day 75/100 - #100dayproject (wow, 3/4 of the way done!)

Up Close with the Blue Jays

By the time you read this, I'll be at the Skydome/Rogers Centre with my sister and cousins watching the Blue Jay play the Chicago White Sox.

Last week, I had the pleasure of watching the Jays play in both Oakland and Seattle.  At Oakland Coliseum, we had a clear view of the players warming up before the game.  Here's where we were sitting:

And here's a close up shot of the players in the centre on the left hand side of the above photo

We got to watch Marco Estrada taking some warm-up pitches.

Ryan Goins, Troy Tulowitzki and Kendrys Morales doing a little back and forth.

Third baseman Josh Donaldson stretching with a rubber band.

And right fielder Jose Bautista getting his kicks. :)

Here are some of the players during the playing of the national anthems.

I was hoping to get even closer to the players the next day - if we had gotten to the ball park in time for batting practice, I would have gone down to the edge of the field.  But as it happened, we didn't get there until about the fourth inning, so no chance for additional photos or autographs.  :(

Stay tuned, I've got lots more photos to share of our west coast trip!

Day 74/100 - #100dayproject

This Week's Mail

This week has been an extra special one in my mailbox.

I received this beautiful handmade postcard from my friend Beatriz.

With these very cool stamps on the clear wrapper in which it arrived.

I received this envelope from Suzanne of @artstamped, enclosing some postage stamps I had ordered from her Etsy shop.

Here's a close up of some of those fabulous British stamps.

The otter stamp is probably my favourite of this bunch but the Girl Guide stamp is completely awesome!

And last but certainly not least, my copy of Nathalie's book arrived - whoo hoo! Can't wait to read through this on the weekend and hopefully get some art on!

Day 73/100 - #100dayproject