Our trip pictures first and then the trip recap below!!!
Here they come - It's game time!!!
And the Beaver's take control!
Game Over and the fans storm the field!
The disappointed Maryland Mascot doesn't know what to think
The Maryland fans don't know what to think either
San Francisco from our room
We left at noon on Thursday after we worked for half of the day. We were anticipating a long drive to hopefully get us within a couple hours of San Francisco. We started our drive and made it all the way to Grants Pass and that is where our journey slowed down. We filled up the tank with gas and grabbed a quick snack and were on our way again. Soon after leaving Grants Pass is where the snow began. We were prepared for the snow and fully expected to hit the snow at some point in southern Oregon or northern California. We made it to Ashland and began to notice several semi's on the side of the road beginning the chaining up process. It was amazing how many semi's were pulled over. The line went on for several miles. We eventually hit dead traffic and recognized a sign telling us that they would be inspecting chains two miles ahead of us. We knew that we were not required to chain up because we had 4 wheel drive but there were several morons who didn't pay attention and were the ones causing the hold up in the line. They were stopping every car to see if they had chains and if they were not chained they were making them turn around. We sat in this line for over an hour waiting our turn. We finally made it through the line and were able to continue on our way. We had no problems with the snow, besides the fact that you couldn't drive very fast and we spent the next 2 to 3 hours turning our way through the snowy mountains. It was around 8:30 by the time we made it to Redding and we decided to stop there and get a bite at our favorite California destination "In-N-Out"! We had seen several Beaver fans on our journey and we saw several more during dinner. We began to realize that there would be lots of Orange at this game. It was a lot of fun to talk with these people and go to an "away game" where there were so many of us! We wanted to get as close to San Francisco as we could before stopping so we all agreed we would drive until 10:00 and then call it a night. We ended up making it to Willow and that is where we spent our night. We even got a discount on our room!
The next morning we quickly ate and filled up the car and were on our way. The weather was the biggest disappointment of our day. (We later found out that it was a record breaking low weather day for San Francisco - Lucky us) We made it to San Francisco before noon and started our way across the bridges. We quickly discovered that the local drivers are not very nice people. There was a man who was in the wrong lane in front of us and everyone was honking at him and nobody would let him in. Peter took the high rode and let the man in, and the man, in turn paid our toll at the bridge :) We were three hours early for check in but we went ahead and found out our room was already clean and waiting for us. We got a discounted rate for the second day of our journey! We checked in and decided to go down to the Fisherman's Wharf and find some lunch. We rode the trolley system down there and met up with several Beavers along the way and at the wharf. Several "Go Beavers!!!" were heard throughout the city that day :) We did not however see very many Maryland fans. We found another In-N-Out at the wharf and ate and decided to head back to our room and put more layers of clothing on before taking off for the game. After putting on 5 or 6 layers of clothing and grabbing blankets and ponchos we rode the subway down to the Giant's stadium. There was so much Orange down there! We discovered our seats were the first row behind the dugout where Oregon State came out (Did you see us on TV!!!) and Peter's parents quickly texted us a picture of us from their TV - We are celebrities now :) The game was pretty good - I can't complain because we won! It rained the whole second half of the game but it still wasn't as bad as some of the games I've been to. When we finally did make it back to our room we were very happy that we had turned the heat on before leaving for the game!
We slept in on Saturday and checked out of our room and went back down to Fisherman's Wharf after a quick ride down the crookedest rode -Lombard Street. The whole city was pretty well overcast but we still got to experience the honking horns and fishy smells of downtown San Francisco. We stopped at Ghirardelli Square and got some chocolate and also some famous Kara's cupcakes. Peter and I were hungry so we decided to go down to Hard Rock and have some lunch. It was quite a battle to travel down the sidewalks and it was very easy to tell who was from Oregon and who wasn't. Besides the obvious fact that the Oregonians were wearing black and orange, the non-Oregonians were carrying umbrellas that were poking every which way! Now even the non-Oregonians were talking to us. Besides the normal "Go beavs" there were also several "good game" comments! It was actually a lot of fun to have random people talk to you :) From there we drove across the Golden Gate bridge just to say we did it. We definitely couldn't see anything through all of the fog but hey - we did it!!!
That is about all we did. We drove to Redding yesterday and spent the night and made it home faster then going. All the snow we experienced three days ago is now gone and the rodes were thankfully very clear. We had a fun trip and we are glad we went. We were hoping for better weather but we are Oregonians and used to it. Here's hoping for a repeat trip to Cali next year but next year Peter is hoping for a trip to the Rose Bowl! Here's to wishing!
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