grandpease grandpease the vault may 2009 An afternoon at THE park Posted Wednesday, May 27, 2009  It’s a popular debate among baseball enthusiasts: Which park is best? For my money (and on Monday that was just $9 per ticket) there is no equal to San Francisco’s AT&T Park. Sure there are stadiums with more history, and there’s no stadium I’d rather be at than the one in which the Detroit Tigers are playing at on any given day -- especially if it’s Comerica Park -- but there is no better natural setting than AT&T’s perch on San Francisco Bay just beyond the shadows of the Bay Bridge. And you can’t beat a day like Monday, with white sails coming in and out of focus across the sun-soaked panorama, the Giants actually scoring runs and the added pageantry of a country celebrating it’s military. To top it off, we did it right. Kelley and Chris -- affectionately the Rooks -- directed us to a “Wrigleyesque” pregame at 21st Amendment, a microbrewery just up the street from the park. With plastic cups in hand we prepared properly.       Afterward, we marched up, over and across the city to the Italian neighborhood of North Beach where we tucked into the Green and Grant (which happened to have a special on absinthe ... hmmm) before a quality meal at a neighborhood joint.    Good times. -cmg Spring miscellany Posted Thursday, May 14, 2009 The wallet can only handle so many once-in-a-lifetime adventures in a short span, and with the economy ready to shred what is left of our beloved newspaper industry, we’ve been laying low. Which is not to say we haven’t been having fun. We’re testing local taquerias and burger joints, taking advantage of happy hour specials, playing rock band, watching hockey and heading to the ocean for kite flying or views of the city. Tiff saw her cousin get married in San Diego and has been working on her mom’s website. I’ve been trying to learn Spanish. We’re gearing up for my brother’s wedding at the end of the month and looking forward to a summer (of employment that hopefully includes many comfortable days) by the pool. A hodgepodge of lost photos from the past month and a half:  Flying our kite at Half Moon Bay       Lunch at Half Moon Bay   Flowers at the Brit A cat, her mice and an octopus  Almost three years after newspaper giant Knight Ridder fell apart, a 
sign of its former status still towers over downtown San Jose.  Ashley eats a tree  Heather hangs loose...  ... and we hang out around the bridge.    Listening to the sea organ. Still waiting to hear something...  -cmg