GAME DAY

Pat and I went to our first NBA game on Saturday night. We’ve always joked about flying up to San Francisco for a game, but we back down. The usual thought is it would be cheaper to find a game to go to in LA. Turns out, that isn’t necessarily so! When Pat brought up the idea of going to see the Pistons take on the Warriors at home we laughed it off fairly quickly. Unbeknownst to both Pat and myself each of us actually went and priced out the flight and hotel. You know what? More people should be looking up combo deals on sites like Priceline and Orbitz. The travel and boarding were very cheap, cheaper than what a round trip train ticket and hotel in LA would cost on most days. After a couple of days of knocking the idea around we said “fuck it we ball” and bought the tickets.

It was a great, if exhausting, time. We left San Diego at 8am on Saturday and got to our hotel around 10am. We couldn’t check in yet so we decided to walk to the Musee Mecanique over by the Wharf. It was a long walk, something I’ve missed doing regularly since coming back from Japan. It took us through Chinatown which was a place I’d love to explore further. As we walked the smell of early morning baked goods filled the air. We walked by one place and I had reached my limit. We turned around and went back in. I grabbed a tray and tried to keep myself in check. I bought a hunk of fluffy plain cake, one of my favorites. Pat compared it to Angel Food cake which is a pretty close analogy. I also grabbed a BBQ beef bun and Pat had a ham and egg bun. It was all as tasty as it smelled. If we were staying for more than one day I would have stocked up further and stored some at the hotel for later.

The Musee Mecanique was very cool. Pat had been before, but I had not. In fact, this was my first time in SF. The museum was full of old electromechanical oddities and games. We saw a puppet get hung, played an air raid and horse racing game, and watched a bunch of cowboys eat beans and fart. A real treasure of a place taking care of genuinely ancient treasures.

The game itself? I feel a live NBA addiction coming on. The energy was incredible, even though I wasn’t among my team’s fans. I personally wasn’t pleased with the outcome of the game, but in a way it was awesome to see what a home arena is like when the home team wins. Pat was happy and that was infectious.

We ended the night at a little Mediterranean spot that served me one of the best gyros I’ve ever had. We split an order of baba ganoush that was a little different than what I’m used to and it tasted incredibly fresh. It was a good cap to the day.

We left the next day at 7am, made all the more difficult by losing an hour of sleep due to the clock change. I got home and crashed for another three hours and finally felt caught up on sleep Monday morning. It was all worth it and I hope to get another game in with Pat before I move back to the east coast next year. 

-Ian