Parks Parks and Parks: Day 12 - Oakland and San Francisco

It was dark when we'd set up camp last night, so we weren't able to appreciate our campsite at Mackerricher State Park until we woke up. Our campsite was situated right by the ocean and there was even a nice little path down to the beach. We took a short drive to Glass Beach, a beach full of sea glass. A quick Google search shows a beautiful and colorful beach full of small glass pebbles of all different colors. Further research would show that most of the glass pebbles have been removed by tourists. We did not do this research prior to visiting Glass Beach, so we were a little disappointed. Nonetheless, it was a nice beach, and we are glad we visited!

We drove further down the coast of California on our way to Oakland for the first of five ballparks in California. It was a bit of a windy drive, but we made it there safe and sound.

The Oakland Athletics defeated the San Diego Padres to win this one 4 - 2. As seems to be the trend with most stadiums, we really liked the Oakland Alameda Coliseum. Our favorite colors are green (Amy) and yellow (Greg), so we really dig the overall look of the A's uniforms and merchandise. We tried to find some classic Philadelphia Athletics merch, but we struck out. For the first few innings, we ate in Shibe Park Tavern, which provides a view of the game from the second level behind home plate.

After the game, we went to Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. We watched an informative video about the role of American women in WWII. Then we drove across the bridge to our hotel in San Francisco. We stayed in the Hotel Pickwick, which was a really nice place for the price. We had a corner room with large windows and tons of natural light. It was a perfect location for tomorrow's trip to AT&T Park to see the Giants.

We were boring this 4th of July. The fireworks over the bay seemed to be more than a popular event, and we didn't want to fight through the crowds. Instead we just had some dinner and a relaxing night. Oh, and ice cream. We went to Ghirardelli, a San Fran must.