It’s Eleri’s birthday and we are off to the SF Giants baseball game. For her 4th birthday, we were at the Beijing Olympics. She has all the fun birthdays! This adventure day included the Lyon four, Terri & Andy and Mimi & Papa. We drove to Palo Alto and took the Caltrain to the City. The ball parks has both of the public transportations arriving near it, Caltrains and Bart. However, it was not cheap for all of us to take the train, it cost $68 with senior and children discounts.
The forecast was for fog and cool weather. It has been a cool summer in California of 65F in the mornings and evenings with a high of 80-85F. I MADE Elle wear jeans, which she hates. Everyone took their Shanghai fleece for a summer ball game in San Francisco. The weather was beautiful with no fog, no clouds and a blue sky. I did get the “MOM” look for dressing everyone for winter.
The girls have never been to a baseball game. The relatively new Giants stadium (opened in 2000) is wonderful. It is on the waterfront in the China Basin in the neighborhoods of South Beach and Mission Bay. This park has it all. It has the old feel of a brick built stadium with more than anyone would expect in a ball park.
As we walked to our seats, the promenade is along the water with a beautiful view of the Bay. We could see all the rafters/kayakers waiting to catch a home run ball.
Stadium food for lunch of hot dogs, pretzels, soda and peanuts…life is good!
Birthday ticket documenting the fun of another birthday.
The stadium has all kinds of activities to entertain the small non-baseball fan. The coke slide was a favorite hang-out for Eleri. The coke bottle has four slides – two guzzlers (56ft) and two twist-off (20ft) slides. Elle was tall enough for the guzzler. From the platforms of the coke slide, you can see the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge and downtown.
There is also a little league sports field, Coca-Cola Fan Lot. It is a 50×50 replicate of the stadium. The children bat with a plastic bat and a plastic baseball (a whiffle ball). After hitting, they would run around the bases.
When Elle hit the ball the first time, Jim was surprised as Elle has never played softball. Elle’s reply to Jim, “Dad, I play cricket at school”. Oh, but of course!!
As you can see, I saw about 10 minutes of the game. Jim had said they have standing only tickets for cheaper…that is what I need next time. Emmy enjoyed watching the game with Jim and Andy along with Mimi and Papa. Aunt Terri played with Elle and me. There was a grand slam I missed along with Jim and Emmy making the big screen dancing at the 7th ending stretch song.
The only thing Emmy really wanted to get at the game was the foam finger. The girls had fun with their form fingers. Aunt Terri bought Emmy a SF Giants baseball and Elle a small bat – both picked them out.
The gang minus Andy, the photographer.
On the walk to the train station, Elle was more than pleased to get a ride from Jim.
The birthday girl at the train station with her birthday date on the platform information sign. Next stop of the birthday adventure was Paxti’s pizza in Palo Alto – last time before leaving tomorrow for Shanghai.
