Fin de Semana

This weekend was great. On Friday, I met up with some old college friends Megan Zitting and Katie Jensen as well as another girl Amy I hadn't met before. They traveled from Provo to SF to visit / scope out the scene. It's always an adventure hanging out with them, and the past few days were no exception.

After some initial communication issues, we started off the weekend by going to the Giants game but didn't make it there until right in the middle of the 5th inning. At first I wasn't paying much attention to what was happening on the field... In fact it took me almost an entire inning to realize the Giant's pitcher Johnathan Sanchez was more than halfway into a perfect game. I think the crowd was apprehensive, not wanting to build up their hopes and then be disappointed, but by the 7th it started getting pretty loud. Things quieted down in the 8th after a Padre's batter hit a line drive to the 3rd baseman, who bobbled it and let the runner get to first.

I was sad to see the perfect game go, thinking how cool it would have been to have seen that happen live (sidenote - there have only be 15 in all of MLB history)... It took me a few more batters to realize even though the perfect game was gone, the "hit" had actually been ruled an error, so Sanchez still had a no-hitter going. After the crowd realized it too, the noise level picked up again.

The 9th was really intense, especially after a Padre's batter with one out on the board hit a screamer to centerfield all the way to the warning track. The fence read 399 and this guy must have hit it 398.5. The crowd erupted when the Giants centerfielder made an incredible catch, and Sanchez only had one batter left to seal the no-no. It was deafening in the stadium as the final Padre's batter went down looking at a called 3rd strike, and the whole Giants team mobbed Sanchez. It was really amazing to be a part of the whole thing, even though I don't really consider myself a baseball or Giants fan. I guess I just never thought I would see a pitcher throw a no-hitter in person... It just goes to show you never know what you'll see at the ballpark!

The game was a great opener to the weekend. On Saturday, we all went to the temple in Oakland where I sat through a session and the girls watched the new(ish) Joseph Smith video. There was a lunch prepared for our group afterward, so we ate and mingled with some ward members and then took off for home. Later that afternoon we all met up again (this time with Jae Clarke and John Gabrielson as well), and we drove out to Muir woods. We did a small 3-4 mile hike and enjoyed being outside and seeing some massive redwood trees. On the way back to SF, we stopped in Sausilito, grabbed some food at a tasty burger joint, and enjoyed our meal at the dock where we had a nice view of downtown SF. Our luck continued as we sat there and saw two rainbows stretch across the sky (Megan should be sending me some pictures soon). We ended the daylight hours at the Presidio where we saw one of the best sunsets I've seen since I've been here, and on Baker beach where we played in the sand and got some nice handstand / sunset pictures as well.

Sunday (today) was a little lower key, but we did manage to see Ghirardelli square and Lombard street, two things the girls wanted to do before they left. Although I'm dead tired, I'm really glad they all came out and we could spend so much time together. It really helped me appreciate again and be reminded of how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful city.

San Francisco is growing on me!