| April 8-10 | Friday |
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| Saturday |
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| Sunday |
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Doors Opening and Doors Closing in the Bay Area
The middle of April marks an interesting time on the sports calendar with the NBA and NHL regular seasons coming to a close, and the MLB season in its second week. This transition is most certainly felt in the Bay Area, as the Golden State Warriors give way to the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, and the San Jose Sharks make their annual Stanley Cup Playoffs push. This weekend features these beginnings and endings, with the Giants home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Sharks regular season finale against the Phoenix Coyotes. The Warriors will be hosting their second-to-last regular season game at Oracle Arena this weekend as well.
Friday
- AT&T Park
- Chinatown
- Rocco’s Café
If you are coming in from out of town then you won’t really have much time to do anything prior to heading to AT&T Park, home of the world champs, for their 1 PM local time opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Giants take the field for the first time since Game 2 of the 2010 World Series, a game the Giants won 9-0 over the Texas Rangers.
AT&T Park is situated along the San Francisco Bay with breathtaking views of the Bay Bridge and the marina. The setting for this beautiful, classic ballpark with an old-time feel and modern-day amenities is just one of the reasons it was named the 2008 Sports Facility of the Year by the Sports Business Journal. Since opening in 2000, 55 home runs have been hit on the fly into McCovey Cove, just beyond the right field perimeter of the stadium. Barry Bonds amazingly hit 35 of the first 45 “splash hits.”
With the Bay Area being such a technological hotbed, it is no surprise that in 2004 AT&T Park became the first professional sports venue to provide universal WiFi to fans in all concourses and seating areas. Just make sure that you wipe off the oil from the Gilroy Garlic Fries before you pick your electronics back up. The Giants Digital Dugout is an application that allows fans in the park to view replays, find food in the stadium, and track the game in ways no in-stadium fans have ever been able to before.
After the game head north to Chinatown, the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and the oldest one in North America. Chinatown is one of the top attractions in San Francisco, and offers a variety of attractions, as well as incredible culture and history. It is densely populated and seemingly packed and crowded, but just walking through the streets and alleys you can feel the history of a city that welcomed its first Chinese immigrants in 1848. The designs of the Bank of Canton – formerly the Chinese telephone exchange – building and the Sing Chong Building are worth checking out.
For dinner, head to Rocco’s Café, located in SOMA (South of Market Area) on Folsom Street. Rocco’s serves up great pasta dishes, such as the linguini with white clam sauce, and local favorites like Chef Don Dial’s chicken marsala or grilled homemade polenta. SOMA also offers an eclectic mix of electronic music or hip-hop clubs, as well as chiller, artsy lounges. If you are looking for more of the rock bar scene, Mission district is where you should head.
Saturday
- Dottie’s True Blue Café
- Lombard Street
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Fisherman’s Wharf
- Ghirardelli Square
- Alcatraz
- Palo Alto
- HP Pavilion
There is only one place you should consider going for breakfast on Saturday morning in San Francisco, and that is Dottie’s True Blue Café. Take a look at this video segment from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and you too will find yourself craving their cornbread with jalapeno jelly and their incredible and creative omelet combinations. Be mindful that there are no reservations and there may be a bit of a wait as the line begins to form down Jones Street.
After breakfast, make your way north up Leavenworth Street (one street over from Jones) until you reach Lombard Street. The intersection of Lombard and Leavenworth is where the well-known portion of Lombard, the “crookedest” street in the world, lets out. The downhill curves of Lombard’s one-way road attract millions of tourists a year, both at the top of the hill and the bottom. Check out both of those views, as well as the mansions and floral arrangements that line the street, and take some memorable photos.
You are now in sight of the San Francisco Bay, which means that the towering Golden Gate Bridge is nearby. The Bridge crosses the Golden Gate Strait (for which the Bridge is named) and connects San Francisco with Marin County to the north. It opened to pedestrians and traffic in late May of 1937 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Bridge is open for bikers and those interested in walking the 1.7 miles from end to end. You can also go to one of the viewing spots at the base of the bridge or the visitor’s center for information and gifts.
From the bridge, make your way to Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco’s waterfront community. The Aquarium of the Bay and Pier 39 are the main attractions, and the famous cable cars are accessible at the Wharf for a scenic ride. There is a wide variety of great seafood as you walk along The Embarcadero, particularly their famous Dungeness crab. For a wider variety of menu options, try the Fog City Diner, topped off with a stop at Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop in Ghirardelli Square.
Across the Bay from Fisherman’s Wharf is Alcatraz, at one time a Civil War fortress before becoming an infamous federal prison until 1963. Alcatraz is only accessible via a ferry operated by Alcatraz Cruises that departs from Pier 33, a bit southeast of the Wharf. Tours are approximately two and a half hours, so if you intend to go to The Rock you will have to plan accordingly.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
In contrast to the home opener on Friday for the Giants, the San Jose Sharks will be playing the regular season finale at HP Pavilion on Saturday. The Sharks host the Phoenix Coyotes at 7:30 PM local time, and may be playing with a playoff spot on the line. The Pavilion opened in 1993, giving San Jose a headline entertainment and sports venue, and making more attractive for events and concerts. Pollstar, the leading concert industry trade magazine, has twice nominated HP Pavilion as “Arena of the Year” (in 2005 and 2007).
Getting from San Francisco to San Jose is easy by taking CalTrain; it is a one-hour ride on the express train or about an hour and a half on the local. You can make a stop in Palo Alto, a bit more than halfway between the two cities, to check out the picturesque Stanford campus. There are also a number of top-notch places to grab a bite before the finishing the trip to San Jose in the Town & Country Shopping Center, or on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto.
Sunday
- Zazie
- Haight-Ashbury
- AT&T Park
- Mission District
- Oracle Arena
Saturday was most certainly an action-packed day, but there will be no slouching on Sunday. Start off the final day of the weekend at Zazie, a brunch spot in Cole Valley just south of Haight-Ashbury. Haight-Ashbury was at the center of the hippie culture in the 1960s, most well known for the “summer of love” that brought hippies and young students to the area in 1967. The area gained national acclaim because of the proximity of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane, whose members lived a short distance from the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Streets.
After you snap out of your haze from walking along that area, head back to AT&T Park for the 1:05 PM start of the final game of the weekend home set between the Giants and Cardinals. Check out some of the parts of the park that you may have missed on Friday, and be sure to get a look at the Willie Mays statue in the plaza outside the front gates.
Between the end of the Giants game and making your way to Oakland for the Golden State Warriors game, check out the nearby Mission District, and make a stop at Taqueria La Cumbre, which claims to have been the first place to serve the “mission-style” burrito. Make sure to get the carne asada and revel in the history of this burrito haven.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
For the final stop on your Bay Area Sports Power Weekend, take the BART train about 20 minutes from 16th Street Mission to Coliseum/Oakland Airport for just a few bucks. You will find yourself looking at both Oracle Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors, and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home of both the Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders. Oracle Arena has been home to the Warriors since 1966, and after undergoing a large-scale renovation in 1996 it has seated over 19,500 fans, which are considered to be among the best fans in the NBA. It is the oldest facility still in use by the NBA, and welcomes the nearby rival Sacramento Kings for the second-to-last home game of the 2010-11 season at 6 PM local time.
There are certainly worse ways to spend a weekend than seeing two Giants games, a Sharks game and a Warriors game, all while eating some great food and taking in the sights and attractions of the Bay Area. These action packed days will certainly drain your battery a bit, but you will sleep on the redeye home.
When you get back home, you will realize that it was all worth it.
