Circled in red is the day pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in Arizona. Today, we ventured over to Scottsdale Stadium to see the Giants 2007 hurlers in their tune-up sessions. Of course, our #1 mission was to see Barry Zito. As this clip shows, we were not disappointed. The position players reports next week--we'll be back (as well as to other Major League camps in the area).

Warm weather means music outside, and here’s a dude playing the fiddle on the corner of Market and Ellis in San Francisco.

We were fortunate enough to attend opening night in March, 1992 of the then-redone Scottsdale Stadium. It was one of the smaller HOK projects, but the stadium looked cool as we watched the Giants play the A’s. Today, 13 years later, we toured Scottsdale Stadium as a new facelift had been completed.

The Giants made noises about leaving Scottsdale as a Spring Training facility and heading out to some new Arizona spot such as Goodyear. Scottsdale responded by upgrading the stadium and surrounding practice facilities. Did the city do a good job? Judge for yourself.

We ended our vacation (more like what the Brits would call a mini-break) with a trip to the Marin County Farmer’s Market. It is, hands down, the best farmers market in the country. The Sunday one is huge and has been written up in all major newspapers and food magazines. We never missed a Sunday at the market when we lived in Marin County and went quite a few Thursdays as well.

I think, under new rules, everything at the Marin market must be organic. It all looked great, and it gave us a twinge of sadness for our old stomping grounds. But then again, we sure didn’t miss the traffic.

This December, in San Francisco, you will find tucked between the Ferry Plaza and the Hyatt is the Kristi Yamaguchi Skating Rink. There were some people skating, but it wasn’t nearly as alive and happening as the public rinks in New York City. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s about 60 degrees here in California and about 6 degrees in New York; I suppose skating is more fun when it’s freezing outside.

 

 

We fully intended to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, but time and weather were not on our side. Instead, here’s a clip from the passenger’s seat going across The Bridge (for me, the 1000^th-plus time) as I talk about the near-tragedy that befell my new car in 1999 as I crossed the bridge.

You can't let the raindrops wreck your day if you're in San Francisco for a few days. Here's a short clip of the action down at one of the city's great magnets for tourism-- Fisherman's Wharf.

 

Asqew is a great place for a quick lunch or dinner. On Steiner in the Marina, the restaurant features grilled entrees on skewers (hence the name) with side orders of starch such as potatoes or rice. Simple fare, but voted one of The City’s best healthy food places as well as a great spot for folks on a budget.

 

**** (4 Stars)

 

 

As a Giants fan, please forgive my long and rambling homage to the beautiful home of the SF Giants. I tour the outside of the park (Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T?) and make a few stops along the way at the statues of Willie Mays and Juan Marichal and even the Acme Chophouse. I then make my way along McCovey Cove and then try and poke my camera inside the right field fence to get a glimpse of the field (which is now set up for the Emerald Bowl).

 

As my wife said, “This is the earliest I’ve ever gotten to a game.” Yeah, like four months before the gates open.

 

Editor’s note: I incorrectly state in the video that Juan Marichal was #17 in his playing days. He was #27.

No trip to San Francisco is complete for my family without a trip to Isobune—aka “the boat sushi” restaurant. Located smack in the middle of Japantown, on Post Street, Isobune is the first conveyor belt sushi restaurant in the U.S. The wait for a table can run as much as a few hours; today, we only had to wait 20 minutes.

 

The sushi comes around on colored plates, each one with a different color border. Each color represents a price per plate. We have spent more than $100 at Isobune, but today we got away for about half that. But then again, it was only lunch.

 

 

This week marked the 13^th annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy show in San Francisco. For us, it was our second consecutive show. If last year was a 10 (Brad Zimmerman is hilarious as was Judy Gold and Page Hurwitz), this year was a 7.5. I personally thought Gregg Roggell was a riot, but I’d give Betsy Salkind about a 2 or 3 and Wendy Liebman, who alternates between funny and foolish, about a 7.

 

Here’s a clip of folks filing out of the 5 p.m. dinner show (a seven course meal) before our 8:30 p.m. cocktail show (remember how I said I don’t like Chinese food).

So, every wonder what Jews do on Christmas? Well, this year is a bit unusual given that Hanukkah starts tonight, but it’s such a trivial holiday, we tend to downplay it.

 

As the Borscht Belt comedians say, most Jews go to Chinese restaurants on Christmas; given my distaste for most Chinese food, we instead went to one of our favorite Vietnamese places in San Francisco (where we came for a few days of R&R) called PPQ.