USA Holiday 3, October 18 (The Gold Rush)

I had until 5:20pm to get to a football game in San Francisco, which sounded like plenty of time.

11:30 Leave Seattle
1:35 Arrive San Francisco
1:45 Call hotel for shuttle pickup
2:30 Shuttle arrives at airport
2:50 Shuttle arrives at hotel
3:20 Train leaves, next one would not have been until 4:20
3:30 Train arrives at station
3:50 Followed crowd to get to the stadium

So made it with a little time to spare in the end. The guy working at the front desk of the hotel was also going to the game and offered to give us a lift, but he wasn't leaving until after 4pm so I didn't take him up on his offer. Like usual there was no signs to help getting from the train station to the stadium, so you just have to follow the crowd through the streets, through a business park full of tailgaters, and then up a hill to reach Candlestick Park.

Walking to Candlestick.

As a side note, they are building a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers in the couple of years. The catch, it is 70km from San Francisco, in Santa Clara. I don't understand how the fans could be happy with that.

As another side note, this was the third hotel in a row where I was given room 215, seems like a pretty unlikely coincidence.

After a week and a half in Vancouver and Seattle, it was good to finally have a sunny day. Except the side of the stadium I was on was directly facing into the sun. There is a big hill that blocks out some of the sun, but it wasn't until about the second quarter that some shade relief came through. Attending a late afternoon game is quite a strange experience, you start in blistering hot sun and end three and a half hours later, well into the evening and a whole lot cooler.

Candlestick Park.

Baking in the sun before the game.

Seat view.

The game was very low scoring and neither team played particularly great. I also had an idiot sitting next to me that stood up on just about every play of the game. Something I still don't really understand at these games is why people are so keen to hand out high fives to strangers. If a particularly important play happens: a touchdown, a long pass or a key defensive play, people are up and about looking for fellow high fivers. The 49ers held on to win 13-6.

The first half.

The second half.