Oddities

A pleasing anagrammatic baseball name, I saw a man called Odubel hit a double (Odubel Herrera plays for the Phillies)

In the hotel in Oakland, the first time stepped into the lift, a buzzer went off and a bright red button lit up on the control panel with the work "SEISMIC" on it!

Winning 4 game tickets by blowing some plastic cups over by blowing through a straw?  C'mon, man!

I'm sad to have missed the Chewbacca bobblehead giveaway at AT&T Park in a couple of weeks' time.

I like the music choices at Target Field to cover challenges of plays that have been called the Twins way - it's Let It Be.

I've got a GoTo card - allowing me to go to lots of places in Minneapolis & St Paul.

Many thanks to Mary E and her supervisor at the Twins Plaza ticket office who, on my day of departure, gave me a refund for the rain-out on Friday night - despite the fact that the website said "no refunds".

Special mention for the lady on the information desk on the arrivals level at Toronto Pearson airport terminal 1 this evening.  She spent most of 90 minutes phoning around hotels trying to find me (and others) a room for the night, without success.

Special mention of another kind for Air Canada for providing ONE person to help people at customer services, leading to queues of over an hour and a half - and then providing pretty much sod all assistance to anybody.

A bonus sight: dawn and sunrise over Toronto.

Toronto airport - at night

The 90-minute-long total ground stop at Toronto on Saturday afternoon left us stuck at Minneapolis-St Paul, although we were offered water to drink and when it became clear it was a serious delay, we disembarked to wait in the gate area which was more comfortable, but with instruction to remain in earshot so we could go the moment the stop was lifted.  Our pilot called us at 5.50pm and thankfully everybody was sensible and had obeyed and 20 minutes later we had wheels up at 6.10pm - just two hours late - after what seemed to me like high-speed taxiing (we were leaning going round the bends!) and an extremely long drag down the runway - it's only a little CRJ200 and only half-full at that!

With some tail-wind assisted low flying, and some more very high speed taxiing, we landed just 90 minutes later in Toronto (8.40pm) which was the exact time of my Heathrow flight, which I missed, I discovered after racing through the terminal and the fast immigration line (it took less than 30 seconds)

I found that I have already been automatically rebooked on Sunday's flight.  I stood in a short queue for 90 minutes as just one person was trying to help people at the customer services desk, to see if I could get on the late flight.  I could have opted to fly economy on the late flight, but declined their kind offer as it was not made with any promises of refunds or compensation and I already know the seats are too small.  I asked about hotels and was told it was my problem.

Additionally, suspectedly due to the Toronto International Film Festival, there are no hotel rooms anywhere.  The (not Air Canada) woman on the information desk spent 90 minutes ringing dozens of them, pretty much going out to a 30km radius, on my behalf and other people's behalves to no avail.
Even my newly-awarded Gold Elite standing with Marriott was insufficient to swing a room at any of their properties.  The closest place that had anywhere was Niagara Falls but that's 70km away!  Air Canada would have refunded the hotel cost, but I thought I might not get refunded the £900 for the one room in downtown Toronto that I could find.

So I'm currently sitting here, at 2am 3am 4am, in Swiss Chalet fast food joint, as it's the only place open 24 hours a day, until around 5.30am when I'll go through security and go up to the Maple Leaf lounge for breakfast and comfort.

Minneapolis to Toronto

Currently, we are sitting on the plane at the gate in Minneapolis, waiting for a ground stop in Toronto to be lifted before we can leave.  We were already going to be late due to the incoming flight having been delayed due to heavy rain in Toronto, but the connection time now looks very short indeed, but our flight attendant has taken a note of all the connections that everybody is making (only 3 people are staying in Toronto!) so that the other flights know to wait or not.  Since it's a total stop, nothing's leaving Toronto either.  We've also just been offered a drink of water, which is much better than what happened last time I was delayed into Canada.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Minnesota Twins (game 2)

I went to dinner at 5pm at Seven on 6th Street and 1st Avenue.

It was slightly spitting with rain again when I went there, but it's only one block away.

I had  the filet steak on the bone with a sauce, except the waiter forgot to order the sauce, so he then went to order it, and took it off my bill and also offered me an extra side of crab meat.  He also offered me a dessert on the house, which I took him up on.  At the end, he asked if I'd like a coffee and when I asked for a cappuccino, he apologised and said their machine was broken, so I could have any other coffee free too.  So all on all, I had about $20 off my dinner!

Unfortunately, it was still raining when I left.  I asked the waiter where the nearest Skyway entrance was, because once I could get into the walkway system, I could make my way around to the hotel, which is also on the Skyway.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the entrance and ended up getting more wet and walked & run a lot further than I would have done if I'd just nipped back directly.

Today, rather than going along to the stadium, I stayed in my hotel room, watching the rain continue to fall, and inevitably, after an hour or so, the game was postponed until tomorrow - which is a problem as I won't be here to attend it.  In the past, the Twins have allowed exchanges for same-priced tickets, or the value of the old ticket to be put towards the cost of a new ticket.  Hopefully, this will apply to any ticket for next year.

It's a shame to end my holiday on a damp note (again!) but I have seen 15 games, and now I have a chance to pack carefully (and hope that security won't want to have it all out again like they did in San Francisco!)

Golden

With a master stroke of timing, Marriott have today awarded me a trial period of 3 months at Gold Elite level.  Of course, I shall not be staying in any hotels between now and Christmas, so it's a complete waste of time as I won't be able to take advantage of any of the special benefits, such as the free super-wifi.  I've gained enough nights in the past three weeks to main my Silver Elite level for another 18 months anyway.

Mall of America

Today, again, the weather forecast wasn't great, so I went down to the Mall of America to have a look around.  It is one giant shopping mall, with an amusement park in the middle of it - all under the one roof.  The metro train goes all the way there from near my hotel, so it was easy to get to.

There are so many shops, that the whole place is divided into North, South, East and West zones and 4 levels.

There's a large Lego store there, that has some large Lego models.  Here are some pictures of them.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Minnesota Twins (game 1)

Thursday was the first game in a 4 game series between the Angels and the Twins.  They are fighting hard for one of the wildcard slots.

The Twins jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning, highlighted by a 3-run home run by Torii Hunter, number 48.  He's now 40 years old, but still going strong.  He made a terrific sliding catch in to foul territory and just missed another.  This big start chased Detroit's starting pitcher, Tommy Milone, after only 2/3 of an inning.

However, in the top of the 2nd inning, the Angels struck right back with a 6-run inning, highlighted by a grand slam by the young star Mike Trout, getting rid of the Twins' Hector Santiago.  Seeing Trout standing at the plate next to the home plate umpire and the catcher, you can really appreciate what a huge human being he really is!

After 2 and a quarter hours of play, with numerous pitching changes, we were still in the 4th inning (you normally expect to play 9 innings in 3 hours).  The whole thing dragged along, really.  Towards the end of the game, there were very few fans left again, just like last night, as the final out was made just about 4 hours after the game started.  A lot of this time was down to the number of pitching changes.

My seat was a lot further back today, which made it somewhat easier to see the action.


I was sitting next to a Royals fan from Kansas City, who was in town for a training course and had decided to attend a game (and has an early flight tomorrow morning!)  We chatted through the game about all things baseball, and he stayed until the end too, even though it was a quarter past eleven.

Detroit Tigers @ Minnesota Twins (game 2)

The final game of this series was played on Wednesday night.  However, the signs were not good - there was rain in the weather forecast, and I made the mistake of entering the stadium without noticing that the tarp was still covering the infield.  If I'd noticed in time, I could have gone back to my hotel and waited out the delay ... which was due to the threat of rain.  Having seeing the rain radar, it had been decided to keep the field covered until a nearby heavy rain shower had passed.  In the event, it didn't rain - so everybody had had to mill around for an hour, just waiting.  Ironically, just after they removed the tarp, it started to rain a little, but not too heavily to dissuade them from starting the game and it soon stopped, although there was always the threat of the rain returning.

This game was probably the most exciting in terms of lead changes through the game.  Once one side got ahead, the other sie either levelled it up or took the lead themselves.  In the end, it was Detroit that prevailed with an RBI single by Ian Kinsler and a 2-run home run in the 12th inning by J.D.Martinez.

By going 12 innings, this came finally finished at around half past midnight - by which time the stadium was almost completely empty already.  So much so, that the traffic police had long since packed up and gone home.

The Twins seem to be playing like the Giants: they can't consistently beat the teams that they need to be beating.  The difference is that the Twins are currently seriously involved in the wildcard race, and with the Royals out of sight in the division, that's their only hope.

Minnehaha Park

 With the forecast for the rest of the week looking decidedly dodgy, I decided to go down for a walk in the Minnehaha Park this afternoon, and perhaps look to visit the Mall of America later in the week if it's wet.

I noted that there was a restaurant at the metro stop just outside the park, so I had lunch there before crossing over the main road into the park itself.

I took quite a few pictures of places throughout the park.

 The trees are starting to turn here.  Many of them are showing a lot of yellow and some a big of red too, like this one.

 The river winds its way through the park, with lots of boulders that have been eroded from the waterfalls.

The rocks by the side are deliberately put there for provide somewhere to sit and watch the water flowing past though.  There were a surprising number of people there, just walking their dogs or themselves.

The waterfall is the centrepiece of the park.  Although the muddy path up to the side of the waterfall is gated off with 'Do not enter' signs on it, some people still forced their way past it and stood on the rocks in front of the falls.  I had to wait several minutes for one young couple to finish taking photos of each other there.

It was a warm day and I got quite hot walking about.  I did the small circuit of the park, which took a couple of hours, and then got the metro train back to the hotel, so I could change ready to go to this evening's game.

Detroit Tigers @ Minnesota Twins (game 1)

My first game here in Minneapolis saw the Twins  playing the second of a three game series against the Detroit Tigers.

I had an excellent seat in the front row of normal seating behind the wheelchair section.  Having said that, the seats point straight forward, which is towards left centre, so you have to look sideways to watch the action at the plate, which is a little awkward, but you do get to be quite close to the players at first base.


 Detroit has one of the true superstars of the game in Miguel Cabrera, #24 of Detroit.  Obviously, he works hard at hitting and fielding, but he always appears supremely relaxed.  Whilst other batters waiting in the on-deck circle are often quietly building up their concentration for their forthcoming at-bat, Miggy can often be seen chatting with the fans - and not just at home games, with the opposition's fans too.  He always makes sure that the fans get the foul balls that come his way, and plays with a smile on his face.
 

When fielding, he chats with any opposition base runner who makes it to first, watches the videos on the scoreboard, and just seems to be enjoying himself, whilst playing the game, but with the ability to switch on to the game as soon as he needs to.

This game went on a long time - too long for some members of the crowd, who weren't really up for the sing-song in the middle of the 7th inning.

The two figures that light up and animate whenever the Twins hit a home run are named for the two cities - Minnie and Paul.  They simply shake hands, as they stand bridging the river that divides the twin cities.

I've not visited St Paul, but seeing as I may have to visit Minneapolis again next year, I shall have the chance then, perhaps.

San Francisco to Minneapolis

I had to leave relatively early this morning to catch my flight to Minneapolis.  I decided to rely on the number 30 bus, as I knew where to catch it and I knew that even in the worst-case rush hour traffic, it would take no more than an hour to get to Market Street where I could get on the BART at Powell station for the trip to the airport.  I got on very near the start of the route, but the bus was already busy and become very heavily packed.

The journey to the airport was fine, although my flight changed terminal, so after queueing for 20 minutes in terminal 3 in the hugely long priority access queue that looked like it would take at least an hour and wondering if I was going to actually get through in time, I had to dash over to International Terminal G instead (presumably, because the plane had arrived from Mexico earlier in the morning).  Fortunately, the queue was much shorter there, although security decided they did want to search my little bag for no apparent reason.

 The flight was OK, except for the chicken salad debacle.  There were 12 seats in First Class, and of the lunch choices, they only had 2 chicken salads.  So everybody was being offered the chicken salad, some spicy chicken curry thing or pasta, and when they chose the salad, being told there might not be any.  Fortunately, I got one of them.  It also came with tomato soup and a roll, which was nice.

I arrived at Minneapolis-St Paul airport mid-afternoon and travelled into the centre of Minneapolis to find my hotel, which is just a couple of blocks away from the metro stop.

My room here is on the top floor, on a corner again, so I have windows on two sides.  When I first entered the room, I thought it was quite small, as the kitchen area was right in front of me and the bed to the left, but as I went in further, I found the room went on and on around the corner.


And I even have a walk-in closet for all my clothes to hang in.

Afterwards, I went to the travel centre to buy a GoTo card (to increase my smartcard collection again) as I can put a multi-trip pass on it plus some stored money without needing to pay $2.25 by credit card every time I want to travel, which costs me a lot more on the currency fees.

Cincinnati Reds @ San Francisco Giants

Earlier in the day, I'd had a minor victory with the hotel over the cost of my room.  On my reservation, they'd quoted $670 as the cost for Monday night (that's just for the room), as part of the city-wide price-gouging that's going on due to a every large conference starting on Tuesday.  However, the sign on the back of my room's door stated that the maximum rate for the room was only $449, and that this was binding by law.  The man on the front desk didn't agree, but said he'd ask the manager to come and talk with me.  So Julia the manageress came out and immediately agreed that they could not charge me more than the posted rate and said she'd fix the rate on my account and gave me a voucher for a free breakfast!


My final game in San Francisco this year was the opening game of the series against the Cincinnati Reds.  I'd already seen the Reds play three games against the Cubs right at the start of my holiday, so I was familiar with most of the names of the players on show.

 I was slightly on the 1st base side today, with another excellent view.

This was my last chance to see Tim Hudson pitch before he retires at the end of the season.  

He started really well, but then got into trouble in the 5th inning and was taken out of the game.  San Francisco went on to win 5-3, with Matt Duffy putting in yet another good performance.

Lou seal was up in the next section, sometimes sitting in a seat, sometimes sitting on somebody's lap, but generally being there for photo opportunities for young children, and older children, and some adults as well.

After the game a kind lady took my photo and then I travelled back into town on the metro and took the cable car back to the hotel.  The city is quite pretty at night, all lit up!  However, most of the photographs don't really come out very well as a lot of the best are views across the bay as you cross the top of Nob Hill, before dropping down the other side to the harbour.

San Diego Padres @ San Francisco Giants (game 3)

The final game of the series and I had a seat that was slightly off to the 3rd base side this time.

As it is Sunday, it was an afternoon game.  Mike Leake, recently acquired from the Reds (who were arriving to start a series the next day, so he missed pitching against his old team!)   Unfortunately, he gave up 3 runs over the course of the first two innings, but then, helped himself in the bottom of the 2nd, by hitting a 3-run HR to put San Francisco back into the lead for good, as San Diego never scored another run and the Giants piled on a total of 10.

After the game, I returned to my hotel on this cable car.  It turned out to be by far the most reliable way of getting back to my hotel from the ballpark, as the end of the Powell-Hyde line is just a very short walk away from my hotel.

The cable car takes about 20-30 minutes to cross the city - usually you have to spend longer than that queueing for a ride, but the queues have been mostly absent this week.  The $7 cost per person per trip must put some people off, but if you have a MUNI passport (1-, 3- or 7-day pass), you can ride as many times as you want, and it's not all that expensive.

San Diego Padres @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

The second game of the series saw our star pitcher, Madison Bumgarner (centre, wearing the jacket), start for San Francisco.

He did not disappoint - except in one respect: everybody in the crowd was hugely disappointed when San Diego's Melvin Upton Jr. hit a single in the 8th inning, breaking up his bid for a perfect game (there have only been 23 of those in the last 135 years of play!)  Up until that point, MadBum had retired the first 23 batters he had faced.  He went on to retire the next 4 after Upton as well, to complete a 1-hit shut-out.

San Diego Padres @ San Francisco Giants (game 1)

My first game in San Francisco this year was the opening game of a 3 game series between the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants.  These are games that San Francisco need to win to have any chance of catching the division leaders or the wildcard teams and they should beat them, but then again, they should have beaten Colorado and Arizona but didn't.

I had an excellent view from where I was sitting.

This game was notable for the scoreboard failure - none of the statistics were working, and none of the game videos would play either.  The only information that was there was the positions of the players - even the scores and counts were being updated manually - and as pinch-hitters came in and pitching changes were made, you could watch the live editing of the names by the operators!

In this game, the son of the Giants' manager came into pitch.  He did OK, and completed his inning of work.

Carmel

Our final, most southerly stop was Carmel-by-the-sea.  Many famous people lived here, including Clint Eastwood, who served as mayor for 2 years.

It is quite picturesque, with lots of flowers everywhere and little squares with tourist shops.

It was still daytime when we arrived there, which is a good job, because, as our driver told us, there are no streetlights here - once it's dark, it's dark.

There was a very steep hill to walk down to get to the beach and consequently a very steep hill to walk back up again to return to the pick up point, as coaches aren't allowed to take people down to the seafront.

I made it all the way down to the seafront, although there wasn't an awful lot to see there really - and once I'd taken a few photos from the look-out point, I started the trek back up the hill.

By this time, the sun was starting to get low as it was getting on a bit in the day.

After leaving Carmel, we drove back to San Francisco, although most of the trip was inland, so there wasn't much of a view of the sea, but I did get to see the sunset from the coach.

Eventually, we arrived back at just about half past eight, and I was able to take the BART back across the bay to my hotel in Oakland in preparation for moving over to San Francisco the next day.

17 Mile Drive

 Part of the ongoing journey towards Carmel-by-the-sea involved going along the 17 Mile Drive, which runs mainly down the coastline.

We stopped in a few place on the way for photograph opportunities.

The first was a rock with all the seals sunbathing on it.  The rock was quite large, and covered with seals.

The shoreline along the coast is quite rocky in places.

Here, you can see the waves breaking over the rocks on a pretty-much deserted beach.

This well-known tree is growing on top of a rock.  It's the only tree on the rock, but sadly you cannot visit it, as the authorities had to build a wall around it after some people tried to damage it a few years ago.

It looks most strange just sitting there on its own, though.

 The next stop on the drive was the championship golf course at Pebble Beach.

We were able to walk around the open areas of the clubhouse and see the clock and the garden areas.

If there had been more time here, we could have had an afternoon coffee and cake and sat in the lounge area, overlooking the 18th green of the championship course, but with not much time, we had to settle for photos instead.

The whole 17 Mile Drive area is strictly a daytime-only place.  It closes at 6pm and visitors must have left by then, so that the residents, some of whom are famous (I'd never heard of most of them, but there were some pop musicians that I'd heard of) can sit outside on their balconies and terraces and enjoy the sunset over the Pacific Ocean without being disturbed.

Monterey

The next stop on our trip was Monterey.  It has a very touristy feel to it, with tourist shops all down the main street and lots of restaurants, with the aquarium at the end of the street by the sea.

Some people had tickets for the Aquarium as part of their trip, but I did not (I didn't even see the option), and I decided not to pay the $40 entry fee.

The main street here is Cannery Row, and several of the old warehouses are still there, most of them having been converted into restaurants nowadays.

I decided to have lunch in a restaurant overlooking the sea.

This meal seemed to take a long time and in the end, I only had a little time to wander around the shops, but I didn't buy anything there.

Some of the larger birds seemed very protective of their rock once they'd moved onto it.

There  were some people sailing their boats in the bay, with the water taxis darting across now and again.

 Some people even went out in canoes and were paddling about in the shallows.

Kenneth the driver told us that when he did tours of San Francisco city, the people would often ask him why there weren't very many birds about despite it being a harbour.

His answer is that they're all in Monterey!

Pigeon Point

Although we set off over half an hour late, our driver, Kenneth, said that he doesn't mind setting off a little late on this tour, because it gives the fog a chance to recede a little as we go down the coast.  The coach was quite full, and unfortunately, I sat on the wrong side for all the best views of the sea.

It took quite a while to get out of San Francisco, due to the rush hour traffic even at 9.30am, but soon we were racing down to our first stop, the lighthouse at Pigeon Point.

As you can see, the fog had lifted by the time we reached this point, although as we were leaving the lighthouse disappeared under a blanket of thick fog.

Although there were some very narrow beaches, the main landscape features here were the rocks.

There were lots of impressive rock formations here., with a surprising variety of flowers growing in the crevices and even on the exposed parts of the rocks.

One of the other passengers took my photo here, and I reciprocated.  As you can see, the fog was starting to roll back in even as this photograph was take, not 10 minutes later than the first one.

In the small inlets, the waves were crashing in, even though it was mostly calm out in the ocean itself.

It was a warm day, so the nice breeze up on the exposed high ground was welcome.

After leaving Pigeon Point, we headed on to Monterey.  At one point, we saw the whales in the far distance in the ocean, but quite hard to see apart from the plumes of spray.
 We stopped at a small cafe for elevenses and bathroom breaks for those that required them, before heading on again into Monterey.

Gray Line tour to Monterey and Carmel

Today, I did manage to go on a Gray Line tour - I'd booked it the day before and half expected this one to not run either, but I dropped by the Gray Line office at Fisherman's Wharf yesterday to check the details of where to go and the lady said that instead of making my own way up there, I should just be picked up at the Hyatt hotel next to Embarcadero station, which would be much easier for me.

So I set off for San Francisco on the BART - except I didn't get very far very quickly, as apparently, 1 person or 2 people were spotted walking into the Bay Tube (the BART tunnel under the bay) and they had to check it whilst we sat on the train just outside the tunnel.  I'd left plenty of time to get there, but with the 20 minute delay (to what was a less than 10 minute journey of 2 stops along the line!) arrived just after the pick-up time.  Fortunately, the pick-up bus hadn't arrived yet so ten minutes later I was picked up and taken up to Fisherman's Wharf to get my boarding pass.

Once there, everybody got off to get their boarding pass and boarded the different buses for the different tours.

Our driver today was Kenneth.

I'll post several smaller items about each place.

Houston Astros @ Oakland Athletics (game 2)

Another packed stadium for the final game of this series between the Houston Astros and the Oakland Athletics at the Coliseum in Oakland.

The second game was a reversal of the first - this time Houston couldn't stop hitting and Oakland got pretty much nowhere against Colin McHugh - perhaps some Scottish heritage there?  You can see what Houston is capable of, but on the evidence of yesterday, I can't see them prospering in the play-offs - if they get there.

Many teams offer one or two lucky fans the chance to win prizes by answering questions in an innings break.  Some of the time, these questions are tough and require real knowledge, sometimes the answers will have been prominently given earlier in the game, and sometimes, they are utterly weird.  The "contestant" today had a tray with empty plastic cups and had to blow them all off the tray, just by blowing at them through a straw - and won 4 game tickets as his prize.