The Coxes, already in California, jumped at the chance to meet them a few days from that time. It so happened that the baseball games were about to end for a while, and the itenary would be loose until the May 7 game in Seattle.

 

Naturally, a Giants game found its way onto the baseball schedule. The best place to stay in San Francisco seemed to be the RV park at Candlestick. A bonus side trip to Napa and Sonoma became a possibility at the same time, and J and D decided to go there first.

 

After a few days in wine country and a few days in the city, the Coxes met Brian, Tanya, and Brian's friend Mark at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Ming's specialized in spicy food, which gave Johnnie the hiccups and brought tears to Brian's eye.

 

After lunch, all five people went to a special place that you can read about (when the time is right) by clicking to the link in this sentence. Brian, Tanya, Mark, Johnnie and Delphine spent about an hour at that location, then walked a few blocks to a coffee shop. There, they plotted a strategy for getting to the Giant's game that evening.

 

Mark had to go back to his house on the other side of San Francisco to pick up something warm to wear that evening. Johnnie, Delphine, Brian and Tanya would take streetcars, trains ... whatever ... to Pac Bell, pick up the tickets, and find a restaurant. When the restaurant was decided, they would call Mark at home and let him know where to find them.

 

On the ride over, Johnnie wanted to talk to the streetcar lunatic. Nearly every cablecar, streetcar, bus and train car in the city contained a lunatic, who talked out loud to anybody or nobody. Some were deranged in a dangerous way, others in an eccentric, non-leathal way. That old man was the safe kind, and he seemed to be an expert of San Francisco's mass transit system. Eventually, the two couples moved to seats up front and left the old man to tell the "pretty young" women to "step down so the door will open." Besides, the old man had already informed Johnnie that the N train back to Pac Bell could be caught at Embarcadero.

 

At the park, Brian asked the man at the Will Call window if he could leave one of the six tickets for Mark's girlfriend, Melanie, who was coming later on. He said OK.

 

Fortified with Nachos, wings and beer, the quartet waited at Max's across from the park until Mark arrived. Then Mark and Brian strapped on their backpacks and everybody crossed the street.

 

Pictures first - always! - and Johnnie and Delphine caught Willy Mayes at his Say Hey finest. The statue greeted visitors at the home plate gate of the park.

 

The irony of what happened next was small, but the inconvenience was not so small. (And, just as we always knew: size matters.) We're talking about the size of backpacks here, so don't jump to any conclusions. Brian's backpack was a little larger than Mark's, so the gang decided they'd probably let Mark keep his and force Brian to part with his. (Security is tight at post-nine-eleven sporting events.)

 

Brian hid his backpack under his coat, a fashion choice reminiscent of a certain French bell ringer, while Mark braved forward with his. To assist Brian, Johnnie walked close behind him as he pushed through the turnstile. The ticket takers stopped Mark cold, making him enter the ballpark from a gate in the outfield. So ironically, Brian of the large hidden pack got by, while Mark of the small visible pack had to leave his pack in a holding area for the game.

 

Johnnie and Delphine immediately split off to take their inside ballpark pictures. Fortified with more food and drink, the gang finally met again in the high nosebleed section above third base.

 

Unfortunately, it was not to be a night in which Barry Bonds splashed the bay with a deep home run. The Prince of Pac Bell did land a couple of singles, though, and the Good Guys won. Trailing for much of the game, The Giants pulled even, then enjoyed a free ride into the lead with a couple of back-to-back walks.

 

By that time, Mark's girlfriend Melanie had joined the rest of the group. On a crisp night at the end of April, it was a spectacular night of baseball for three couples in San Francisco.

 

When J and D left the city, they went to British Colombia for a few days, then back to Seattle to see a baseball game. When Brian and Tanya left town, they ... well, click here to find out.