Blogs from California, United States, North America - page 4

Could this be my final Pac 12 football game? Could the famous Bill Walton phrase, "Conference of Champions" cease to exist? Will the epic battles against USC and UCLA come to an end? Saturday, I am in Berkeley for our Pac 12 game against the Oregon State Beavers, one of the last two schools left in the old Pac 12. I don't think it will be the same when we play North Carolina State, or Wake Forest in the future. I fondly remember attending several Big Games. And the Greatest Play in the history of college football (the 5 lateral, trombone player TD run). And I loved watching the UCLA Bruins basketball teams with Coach Wooden, and his many star players, like Walton, Jabbar, Marques, Lucius, Goodrich, and Wilkes. Yes, the big University money grab is ... read more

I wrote last week about the city, San Francisco, that many of us fell in love with during the 60s. Today, everything is much different, challenging, dangerous, filthy, politically divided, and in many areas, a quagmire. First some facts (from A Piece of Travel) to back me up: The rising cost of living and lack of new housing developments has led to an increase in the number of unhoused people on San Francisco’s streets. url=https://original.newsbreak.com/@b-rose-1684746/3040385423763-san-francisco-s-homeless-crisis-reaches-unprecedented-levels-in-may-2023-prompting-urgent-actionRampant drug use among the unhoused population is commonly blamed for the uptick in city-wide property damage and petty theft. As of 2022, San Francisco has the third-highest rate of homelessness in the nation, after Oakland and Los Angeles. According to the url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s... read more

I started visiting San Francisco as a teenager in the Sixties. Our high school honor society rewarded us with a three-day weekend in the late winter/early spring. We took the yellow school bus to the City, often stopping at places like Cal, Stanford, IBM, and the Ford assembly plant. But the highlight was always the City itself. We stayed in an old hotel (Golden State Hotel) on Powell and Ellis Streets, near the cable car turntable, Woolworth's, and the famous John's Grill. I still recall sharing the bathroom with an adjoining room. I doubt anything like that exists any longer. But we enjoyed being on our own, away from our small town, and determined to act like sophisticated kids in the big City. The memories are too numerous to mention, but I will relay some of ... read more

I remember the days when Fisherman's Wharf was perhaps the biggest attraction in San Francisco, along with the Golden Gate Bridge. As kids, we got to stop here for dinner, on the way home from a Giants game on a day trip from the Valley. As high school honor students, we enjoyed a three day weekend in San Francisco, with a Wharf visit always on the rather loose itinerary. But today, this is the story from the Chron: The view east from Al Scoma Way distills the allure and afflictions of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf into one vivid tableau. Directly in front of you is the wharf’s inner lagoon, where small fishing boats sway in the water. Behind them are stocky buildings that, for generations, housed such multilevel family-owned restaurants as Alioto’s and Tarantino’s — both ... read more

There are 30 MLB teams, each of them having their own ballpark. Each ballpark is unique in its own way and holds a special place in its fans' hearts. However, url=https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffox5sandiego.com%2Fsports%2Fpadres%2Fpetco-park-named-best-mlb-ballpark-by-usa-today%2F%3Futm_campaign%3Dsocialflow%26utm_source%3Dt.co%26utm_medium%3Dreferral&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70ce352b32cf42e972a508db31460877%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638157949087169175%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=IK0n5%2BziCXlz2sEnMRZRAQEycfWSrqQ9cAa8p92ft0s%3D&reserved=0according to USA Today, none are better than your San Diego Padres' own Petco Park. A long time and dear friend attended the dedication of the stadium (Petco), and got to meet Teddy Ballgame himself, Ted Williams, a... read more