How I Spent My Summer Vacation (in werds an pitchers an grand slams)

Hi! We're the Frankensteins.

That's me (Victor) and my son , Jackson (often referred to as "Jr.").

We live in the Phoenix metro area (often referred to as "Blankland" or "Hell"). I felt it was necessary to come see a Giant game where Giant fans are welcome (NOT the case in "Blankland" or "Hell") , so we took an 800 mile drive to San Francisco. (Cos' planes are expensive , but it ended up being just as expensive anyway. More on that later.)

Jackson has a street named after him  , as do many notables.

(Homage paid)

We skirted an entirely different Hell in southern Cal (many thanks to all who contributed route suggestions - piececake!) , bad things happening there.

It made negotiating the road interesting.

It took forever (or twelve hours , take your pick) but we finally arrived.

"What? A TOLL BRIDGE?...RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....."

Lovely bridge.

Lovely town.

It has its ups...

...and downs.

It can really keep you off balance.

At one point downtown I followed a pair of lovelies driving a nice Jag right into a one way street. Nothing unusual except that they were going the wrong way. They escaped quickly -  we held up crosstraffic. I think that in the two days I turned wrong onto one ways three times , but I've never been a quick study. Besides , I was admittedly rubbernecking like crazy...there's a lot to look at!

We took in a couple of ballgames.

Nice park you have here! Made all the more attractive in that it's stuffed with Giant fans!

Good chow.

"Wait...you get a brot - and I have to settle for this?"

Yeah , um , well , you ordered it. I walked around the corner. I wasn't going to pay $5.75 for a regular ol' dog. (although since I was the one with the working wallet I did just that.)

And now...the money shot...

Big Mac got mobbed.

Personally , I failed to see the relativity to African - American heritage of that  , um , dance they opened with...but I understand the rewrite on the "Say Hey" song. I don't agree with the necessity of it , but it's not my issue...although if I listen to the restitutionists they'll tell me that it is.

Zito...what can you say? He stepped up. Here , he's hurlin' while Rohlinger's poopin'.

It's a crappy little camera , but sometimes you get lucky. Find the ball.

Insurmountable? (We know better)

Zito love persevered despite CoLOLrado's finally getting to him. Here's Wilson with the obligatory cardiac teaser.

The next day we decided to see the other bridge , but the lady was a tease herself.

I don't think this compensates for our lost sighting , but really...a bike rack on a Bentley?

On to the game , where more wonders awaited.

Fr' instance , who do you think would be the likely hero here?

Look at these two pics. Note the relative scores - and the number of interested parties on the respective dugout railings.

And in the end...

Well worth the drive.

So we headed for home , tired and happy. And tired.

I did make one last erroneous turn , and it was a while before I was aware of it.

A long while.

"Wait...Klamath City???"

Frantic mapchecking ensued.

"Uh , call your mom , Jack. You won't be in school tomorrow."

You could tell it really bothered him.

In the effort to rid myself of the guilt I drove from the 580/80 interchange to L.A. in four hours.

It wasn't until I'd crossed into Arizona that I was pulled over for doing 84 in a 75...welcome back!

2300 miles total.

Your gas is almost a dollar more/gal than ours...I'll conservatively round  it to $3.

The car averaged 20/gal , so that's about $450 in gas. That little northern excursion probably tacked on an extra $100.

The car itself was $150 (Oh , the story I told Enterprise about all the "In - state driving" I did...)

Lodging/meals was about $170. The first game's fare was one brot/one regular dog/one Garlic fries/two Cokes...

The second game the curve flattened and we had THREE brots/one SUPER dog/Five Cokes - because each Frankenstein thought the other was carrying the FIRST two. But hey , I hadn't seen those cool orange cups...they make great megaphones!

So if not solely from a financial perspective but definitely from a time - intensive perspective...next time we'll fly.

P.S. Ongoing field research CONTINUES to show that the California version of the Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger is preferable to its Arizona version.

As in baseball , burgers.

P.P.S.

I contacted my union representative today and asked him to look into the possibilities for work in the Bay Area.

Neither Jack nor I wanted to leave.