A Padre Baseball Game

I love baseball. And I love the Padres. I know, they are just an expansion team. They have been to the World series only twice since they were elevated to Major League Status back in 1969. And they have won only one World Series Game. I still remember it. I was there in October of 1984. It was Game 2 between the Tigers and Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium. Kurt Bevacqua, a character who wasn't that good most of the time, hit a 3 run homer to give us a come from behind victory. That was it. It's been since 1984, but I am still keeping the faith. That's how it is with Baseball. Sometimes the 2nd or 3rd string players end up being the hero. You just never know. So you never give up on a game.

I used to go to lots of games. That was back when the Padres played at then Jack Murphy, now Qualcomm Stadium. Tickets were cheap. Seats were easy to get. Even Good seats were easy to get. Then, after a winning season, the public was given a song and dance that the Padres needed their very own ballpark to play in. Smaller, cozier, more state of the art, and downtown, where the action is. So it was put on the ballot, voted on, and the ballpark was built.

Now the Padres play at Petco Park. It is a really nice ballpark across the street from the Convention Center, near the Trolley, surrounded by high rise fancy hotels. The ticket prices went through the roof, and any seats I could afford are so far out in left field, that I really can't follow the game. So, in the past 5 years, I've only been to 3 games. Which is kind of sad, for a person like myself, who is a rabid baseball fan. Thats how it goes. But, any time I get the opportunity, I'll jump at it. Like today: August 22, 2009



Craig bought a couple of tickets from the lady who owns the Video rental store in the neighborhood. She has season tickets down in the field level, just to the first base side of Home Plate. And just a few rows from the very front. He never had been to a Petco park Padres Game, and wanted to experience it from the best seats he could get. I was the lucky person who got to go along as his guest!


Here is Craig with his ticket. You can see the red uniforms of the St Louis Cardinals, taking batting practice in the background.



I asked the nice attendant to snap a photo of both of us. In the background you can see the Western Metal Supply Company building. That is a relic of the old structures that once inhabited this block. The planners incorporated it into the ball park, and Western Metal now is where you buy group Padres tickets and enjoy food and drinks in a room with a closed circuit TV. You can watch the game from inside the room, or go out to the seats and try to catch one of the rare home runs that sometimes end up in the Western Metal Building.



Here they go. The Padres are taking the field. Its 7:05 PM. Play Ball!



This is Tony Gwynn, Number 18, at bat. Tony is the son of Tony Gwynn, Number 19, now retired. Number 19 played his whole career as a Padre. Now, his son has come home to play for the Padres. Number 18 is a good disciplined hitter, and what I like about him is that he rarely swings at the first pitch.



This is Adrian Gonzalez. Our fantastic first baseman. This guy has 33 home runs, even though he is mired in a weak-hitting line up and is frequently walked. The thing that I hate about being a Padres fan is that I realize their role is to basically develop the great players who will end up on large market teams. We just can't afford to keep them once they get established. So, I am sure we won't have Adrian much longer. But, while he's here, I sure do enjoy watching his sure-handedness at first, and his sweet swing at the plate.




Just a photo of the message board with Tony Gwynn's photo.



One thing about Padre games. You usually need other entertainment to take your mind off of what's going on down on the field. I really don't understand this mascot. A fusion of Friar and Frankenstein.



Look how close our seats were to Friar-stein!



The excitement peaked with the Friar race. Friars from different eras raced each other. The 70s Friar (The dude with the big Afro) won.

We brought our gloves to the game. And we almost caught a foul ball too. It was so close. As in, hitting off the top of Craig's glove, and bouncing into the lap of the lady sitting in front of you kind of close.

I also want to mention that the Padres have this great food deal, called the Five for Five deal. For $5.00, you get a brown paper bag with a hotdog, popcorn, peanuts, and a chocolate chip cookie. Plus a Coke. Best deal in the ballpark.




Okay. You can see by the final summary that we were shut out, 7 to nothing, by the Cardinals, who happen to be a very good team. We were basically shut down in the first inning. Well, I've seen alot of games like this in the past several decades. But, like I have said. You should never give up. Because with baseball, anything can happen. I had a blast at the game. Great seats, great company, great deal on food. So we didn't win. There's always tomorrow.

The Mystical Old City of Safed

This is a travelers brochure for Safed. Safed is an ancient city high in the Galilee hills. We visited Safed in the height of summer. Unlike the sweltering, humid coastal modern city of Tel Aviv, Safed was dryer and more comfortable. This city is home to ultra-religious Jewish families. It is also home to dozens of artists, who have set up an Artists colony along the narrow alleyways of the old city. I had been looking for a particular piece of jewelry inspired by a biblical reference, and I found the perfect pendant at a tiny shop in the Artists colony. It was exactly what I was looking for and couldn't find elsewhere.



Narrow and uneven walkways, hundreds of years old, were interesting to wander through. Little shops displaying oil and acrylic paintings, jewelry, pottery, metalworks, and glass, were tucked in along the way.



Being a religious city, there were reminders along the way that women were expected to dress in a respectful manner, if they wanted to enter the synagogues or other mystical religious spots in this city. We brought long sleeve blouses and light weight ankle-length skirts in our day packs so we could quickly adhere to the expectations, if we wanted to check out the inside of a synagogue. It was really no problem at all. Otherwise, I wore hiking shorts and boots, and tank tops.



I was taking a photo of something on the wall, but what really made this photo cool was the family in the background. I could tell they are not really that amused with the daily onslaught of their city by irreverent tourists. We all feel like that when strangers invade our towns, so I could relate.



One thing I noticed right away were the many posters of Rabbi Schneerson. He was born in Ukraine in 1902, went to Berlin to study math and science, was chased out by the Nazis, and ended up in New York in 1941, where he spent the next 45 years leading the Lubavitch movement, which believes that if everyone takes responsibility for their actions, and starts doing good deeds, it will usher in the messianic age. It seems so simple doesn't it? If we all just start being good to each other, the world will be a better place. The thing is, everyone has to participate in this concept, for it to work. Anyhow, the Rabbi died in 1994, not seeing his dream realized. He did, however, get a Congressional Gold Medal for his attempts to improve things in the world.


Tour groups usually have an armed guide, or armed security. This group had their protection, like everyone else. We felt pretty safe in Safed.

A pretty cool store: The Safed Candle Factory. This store made candles of every type. You could see them in the process of their work. They had candles you could buy, and candle art that was not for sale.



They had space aliens from other planets.


Remember the Bible story about little David slaying the Giant Goliath with just a litle sling shot and small round stones?

Another David and Goliath depiction in wax.


I am a Noah's ark fan, and I loved this one. There were all sorts of great animals, both inside the ark and in the water below. I really got a kick out of the fact that they had a Snoopy beagle napping on the edge of the ark, oblivious to the cataclismic event going on around him.



The Safed Zoo. They had shelves full of different animals for sale.



A wax depiction of the story of Joseph, as a big wig in Egypt, listening to his brothers (who sold him into slavery years before and told their dad that he had been killed by a wild animal) now coming to him to beg for food during the great famine. Of course, they didn't recognize him after all those years, and Joseph had to play a few pay-back games with them.


I loved the wax books on the bookshelf, because I am an uncontrolled book collector and have thousands of them everywhere. So many books to read, so little time.



"Live Long and Prosper"
On a very old building in the old city, we noticed this and were reminded of Star Trek's Mr Spock. Wasn't this his way of saying goodbye to his Vulcan pals?

San Luis Obispo 2009

We took a recent drive to San Luis Obispo California, to visit the University where Carl will be attending this fall. Of course, we had to also see some of the sights in town as well, so I'll get the gross landmark out of the way.

Bubblegum Alley: This is a weird little space in between two downtown buildings. The entire length of each wall is covered, disgustingly covered, with chewed up gum. Evidently, the city authorities gave up on this little footpath alley decades ago, and let destiny takes its course. The result is a truly unique, though germy attraction.



We knew the wherebouts of this thing was somewhere around Higuera and Garden Sts. Before we saw it, we smelled it--strong odor of chewed spearmint gum, bubblegum, you-name-it- kind of gum. It was actually a larger set of twin gum walls than I had imagined. Oh, yeah, and the police officers who spoke to us at the University's orientation program told us that not only do people love to leave their gum there, they also like to pee there every night.

I just love the smell of a million people's chewed up gum in the morning!


Everyone likes to leave a little DNA behind. Carl made like he was going to push his dad into the wall, and my latent germophobia suddenly kicked in. Aaaaarrrgh!

Otherwise, San Luis Obispo is a beautiful little town on the Central coast. Surrounded by rolling hills, with the beach about 10 minutes away by car, this town is known for its fantastic Cal Poly University. A bargain university that provides a first-class education, they specialize in Architecture, Agriculture, and Engineering.




Here is the new college student at the sign on Monterey and Grand.



This is a typical dorm room. It houses two people. After spending his whole life in a tiny 1925-era bedroom, with 3 doors opening up into the space, Carl can already see that even with another person in the dorm room, he will have plenty of space. Even his closet, as tiny as the dorm closet is, is twice as wide as his closet back home. Having recently been to Europe, Carl commented that the cement buildings reminded him of the old soviet-era apartments he saw while he was on tour.



This is Musty the Mustang, who is the school mascot. Musty marks a memorial for Cal Poly students who have passed away over the years, from various wars, and a terrible airplane accident from 1960, that evidentally killed 22 or so people from the football team.



A shot of some of the student housing. You can see the big white P on the hill above the University grounds.



Back at the hotel in town. We stayed at the La Cuesta. Its right off the 101 on Monterey St, about a mile walk to downtown. This is a really nice hotel, compared with the rat trap across the street that we stayed at in April of this same year. Its got a clean solar heated pool. Complimentary Breakfast in the morning consisting of: bagels (with a toaster) oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, waffles, fruit juice, coffee, and tea. In the afternoon they have hot and iced tea and plates of cookies. They have a binder filled with the menus of every eating place in the area. Also, they have a bookshelf full of DVDs for you to watch if you want. We saw the one about the Frost/Nixon interviews, which was an interesting movie.




The water was cold, and I am spoiled by hot swimming pools. I got used to it once I got in there. The hot tub was great after the cold swim; it felt good after a long drive and a 5 mile walk around the town.



This cute little thing stands outside the Splash Cafe. They have breakfast and lunch there. It is a place I am sure we will try during one of our many trips to SLO in the next 4 years.


The Mission


For those who aren't aware of California's history, I'll put it in a quick paragraph. The Spanish Missionaries, headed by Juniperro Serra, (the statue in the photo above) started establishing Missions along a coastal route beginning in San Diego around 1769 and heading north, for two main purposes:to get a leg up on the Russians who also were exploring the territory, and to convert the Native peoples to Catholicism. San Luis Obispo came to be in 1772. The Friars finished up in Sonoma in 1823, and not long after that the Mexican Government basically evicted the Spanish guys and sent them back to where they came from. Politics, years of battles, and treaties have brought us to the here and now, where the Missions (or their remnants) are Historical Landmarks. Some are beautifully restored, others are rubble, from the centuries of earthquakes that California is famous for.



I had no idea that they named their bells until I visited this Mission.



If you click on this photo, you'll be able to read it better.



A view from the front.





Beside the sanctuary, was this beautiful grape arbor. And beside the arbor, were some very old bells.






This Mission has the biggest collection of items from its earlier days. There are rooms filled with artifacts from the early mission days, newspapers, clothing, Native American tools and clothing. So much to look at. This Mission, and all its treasures has been lovingly cared for. If you are in the neighborhood, its worth a stop, especially if you are into eras gone by.





This little stream runs right across the street from the Mission. This also appears to be the place where hippies, bums, and derelicts like to sit with their dogs, not doing anything in particular. There were lots of them there that day.



Yes, it has to be. There must be photos of the USPS office.



Here is another view of the San Luis Obispo Post Office.

SLO is a great little town. Downtown is walkable and filled with great places to eat and shop. There is just enough weirdness to make it an interesting place. I sure do wish I was the one getting to go to college!

Nimrod Fortress

Way up on the map of Israel. North, and up into the mountainous area of the Golan Heights, is a really amazing place called Nimrod Fortress. This marvelous work of earlier civilizations sits 2600 ft high up on a mountain. The fortress provided an excellent lookout over the Hula Valley below. This rock block structure, carved into a hillside, was used by a variety of people over the centuries. We were there on a hazy morning, so the photo of the view to the valley is not crystal clear.




There are only remnants of turets, and other parts of the fortress were destroyed by an earthquark several hundred years ago, but otherwise, this site is remarkably preserved.





Made by human hands, with carefully carved blocks of solid rock, it proves that man can do just about anything he puts his mind to. It was most likely created by Muslims around 1230 to provide a lookout and defense against invading Crusaders and anyone else who was thinking about a takeover.


It may look like a bunch of stacked up rocks from the outside, but there is so much more that you can't see. The architects of this place had a plan, put it all together, and this place served its purpose for hundreds of years.


Ancient Arabic writing on this wall. I wonder what it says?



This spiral stone staircase takes you down to a big water reservoir, that still has water in it. It also takes you to an observation room.




The silence in this dark cool rock room was noteworthy. The fortress had lots of lookout windows. They were designed so you could be up there watching who was coming up the road in their chariots or whatever they used at the time. And you had space enough to shoot at them with arrows or spears.






It blows me away every time I see something like this ancient lion. Its been there since the 1200s! Think of the things this silent sculpture has witnessed over the years. Granted, the first 300 years of its time as sentry were fairly stressful. Now, the Royal lion is pretty much just posing for photos with friendly strangers.



The keystone,the most important part of an arch holds it all together. This aging keystone is slipping, but its still hanging on, though time and mother nature have taken their toll. The keystone reminds me that we are all keystones too. People depend on us to hold things together. And even though we are tested by time and trouble, we're all still here, hanging on the best we can to keep everything from falling apart.

I had never heard of Nimrod Fortress before the guide took us up that long mountain road to see it, feel it, walk into it, climb upon its rocks. I am so glad to have had the experience.