Boy, does that sum up our lives in the big picture, and summer in the smaller one!
 
Here we are in August, the lush, eighth month of the year, when the corn is high, the sun is warm and the impending back-to-everything of September is still a glorious 31 days away. We wait all year for these sweet and succulent months, fantasizing about how we’ll spend them. For Rob and me, August is a month of adventure. And it began yesterday with my arrival at San Francisco International airport.
 

  
We’ve been to the City by the Bay but I’ve not flown in here before. My flight to San Francisco was smooth and uneventful – just how I like them. I sat next to a guy who didn’t do anything but grunt when I pointed out things like the wildfires below. Oh, well. To each his own.
 

 
We’ve checked into our hotel in Berkeley (outside Oakland and San Francisco) and are ready for our adventures to begin. Today, we’ll see the Blue Jays play the Oakland A’s, and then tomorrow it’s the ELO concert.
 
Funnily enough, I thought that this pleasure trip might be peppered with a little work: a voice audition we submitted last week had in its notes that a potential narrator for some US commercials would have to have one of two technical connections that we do not have and would therefore be rendered ineligible, OR be in San Francisco this week to go into the studio!
 
Well, we crossed our fingers and sent the audition, but over 100 other applicants had done the same. Ah well, it was fun to think that this trip might have an added, unexpected monetary component! Nothing like helping to pay for a trip while you’re on it!
 
My United flight had an interesting ending: I got to see another plane landing on a parallel runway. 
 

 
The weather in San Francisco and Oakland is pleasant and cool; I landed to about 17C and sunshine and the forecast is calling for more of the same during our time here. Last time we were here you could barely see the Golden Gate Bridge, arguably the most famous structure in the city. They say that the best time to see it is in September when the fog rolls out and we’ll have to take their word for it; for now, we’re happy just to see blue skies. Here’s our view as we headed into downtown San Francisco.
 

 
Traffic at 4pm was slow (just as we expected) but we enjoyed just sitting with the top down even if we were in congestion. We got to our Holiday Inn at around 5 pm and I wasn’t up for too much excitement, but that’s okay – we had nothing booked until tomorrow.
 

 
In the meantime, I was glad to get here in a calm state of mind and be greeted by my “chauffeur.” I hope you can read the little sign he made up so I could have a laugh when I stepped off the escalator!
 

 
Rob had a smooth trip down over three days, despite having to make a few detours from his planned route and ash on the car yesterday morning due to California fires. Inconvenience doesn’t matter much in the big scheme of things. Have a great day and I’ll be back with you here tomorrow with pics from what we hope will be a great day at the ballpark! Take care.