![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beth_leonardReading the reports, it appears I got really lucky yesterday at the Paul McCartney concert. I went with Jon and my parents.
I had spent 3 hours researching public transportation options, deciding to take the bullet CalTrain from Mountain View to SF, then back 2 stops on a slower train to the stick. The trick was going to be getting home -- the last train left at 12:07am, and with the concert scheduled to end at 11:30, I wasn't sure we'd be able to make it. I had a backup plan of taking the 1:35 bus to SFO, arriving at 2am, and renting a car from an all-night rental agency, and driving home if we missed the train. I actually had dreams/nightmares about the rental car employees breaking into song as we rented a car.
Luckily, we didn't need any of those plans. Due to some fortunate circumstances with respect to babysitting, we were able to leave our house early enough to risk driving, about 4:15pm, and we drove straight there 280N->380->101N. There was a minor backup getting into the parking lot, but not much of a delay at all. We parked in an excellent spot at 5:15 (right by the exit gate with our nose pointed out) and walked to the stadium, where we waited 20 minutes or so for them to open the gates. There were no parking attendants inside the lot telling us where to park.
We found our seats, then spent an hour in line to buy milkshakes and food, and waited (and waited, and waited...) for the concert to begin. The scheduled start was 8:00; at 8:10 a video teaser began playing. We made friends with the usher for our row. The video started looping at 8:40pm, and Sir Paul took the stage at about 9 o'clock. About a third of the seats near us were still not yet filled at that point.
Paul sang straight for a little over 2 hours. It was impressive and cute to watch my parents rocking out to old hits. Candlestick is as cold as I remembered from my youth, even though it was in the '80's and low '90's at my house that day.
As a kid though, people didn't smoke at baseball games. There were several people smoking cigarettes and other things near us, and that was annoying, especially for Jon. The usher said he couldn't do much about it, but he did offer to reseat the worst offender to a closer seat, which at least got him farther from us.
The main concert ended at 11:10pm and the encores began. The house lights stayed out or at 25%, so we just kept clapping until he came out again. This continued until 11:40 when the house lights went on to 50%. I wasn't sure if there would be another encore, so we stayed a little longer than strictly necessary. At that point people were all panicking that other people would beat them out of the parking lot, so everyone stopped clapping and turned and rushed for the exits. I would have stayed to clap more if I thought it would help, but it was clear the tide had turned. Both BART and Cal Train had made announcements that the would not hold the last trains, nor run later ones than normal, so I could understand the desire to leave at 11:40pm.
It was wall-to-wall bodies leaving the stadium, but once we crossed the main outer aisle to the ramp down, foot traffic moved quickly. We walked as fast as my father's legs would carry him to the car on the other side of the stadium, and booked it out of the lot. My fight-or-flight instincts had kicked in at that point, and I drove off before my mom had finished closing the car door. We left our parking place before there was a backup in our lane, and when our lane merged into the main out-lane, the first car that could have let us in did so.
I stayed to the left in the wrong-way lanes that are open for special events, and ended up taking 101 N to 280 S because that was less crowded than trying to merge to the right and take 101 S directly.
We arrived home at 1:01 AM, the exact time I'd originally booked the babysitter for.
The news covered tales of people stuck for over 3 hours getting there and just as long getting home, so I consider myself very lucky for this final Candlestick farewell concert. It was actually thrilling for me, just how lucky our parking situation was.
It was very nostalgic, because my family used to go to games at the Stick when my dad didn't have customers to take. His company had season tickets in the front row right behind 1st base, and the seats I snagged for this concert were basically exactly 7 rows behind where we used to sit as a family as a kid. These seats were listed as "limited view" but they were excellent. There was an open sound tower in the field of view, but that was all.
I was really impressed at the color balance with the tele-images of Paul McCartney. It was spot-on between the live and television images, and I know that is very difficult to do.
--Beth
I had spent 3 hours researching public transportation options, deciding to take the bullet CalTrain from Mountain View to SF, then back 2 stops on a slower train to the stick. The trick was going to be getting home -- the last train left at 12:07am, and with the concert scheduled to end at 11:30, I wasn't sure we'd be able to make it. I had a backup plan of taking the 1:35 bus to SFO, arriving at 2am, and renting a car from an all-night rental agency, and driving home if we missed the train. I actually had dreams/nightmares about the rental car employees breaking into song as we rented a car.
Luckily, we didn't need any of those plans. Due to some fortunate circumstances with respect to babysitting, we were able to leave our house early enough to risk driving, about 4:15pm, and we drove straight there 280N->380->101N. There was a minor backup getting into the parking lot, but not much of a delay at all. We parked in an excellent spot at 5:15 (right by the exit gate with our nose pointed out) and walked to the stadium, where we waited 20 minutes or so for them to open the gates. There were no parking attendants inside the lot telling us where to park.
We found our seats, then spent an hour in line to buy milkshakes and food, and waited (and waited, and waited...) for the concert to begin. The scheduled start was 8:00; at 8:10 a video teaser began playing. We made friends with the usher for our row. The video started looping at 8:40pm, and Sir Paul took the stage at about 9 o'clock. About a third of the seats near us were still not yet filled at that point.
Paul sang straight for a little over 2 hours. It was impressive and cute to watch my parents rocking out to old hits. Candlestick is as cold as I remembered from my youth, even though it was in the '80's and low '90's at my house that day.
As a kid though, people didn't smoke at baseball games. There were several people smoking cigarettes and other things near us, and that was annoying, especially for Jon. The usher said he couldn't do much about it, but he did offer to reseat the worst offender to a closer seat, which at least got him farther from us.
The main concert ended at 11:10pm and the encores began. The house lights stayed out or at 25%, so we just kept clapping until he came out again. This continued until 11:40 when the house lights went on to 50%. I wasn't sure if there would be another encore, so we stayed a little longer than strictly necessary. At that point people were all panicking that other people would beat them out of the parking lot, so everyone stopped clapping and turned and rushed for the exits. I would have stayed to clap more if I thought it would help, but it was clear the tide had turned. Both BART and Cal Train had made announcements that the would not hold the last trains, nor run later ones than normal, so I could understand the desire to leave at 11:40pm.
It was wall-to-wall bodies leaving the stadium, but once we crossed the main outer aisle to the ramp down, foot traffic moved quickly. We walked as fast as my father's legs would carry him to the car on the other side of the stadium, and booked it out of the lot. My fight-or-flight instincts had kicked in at that point, and I drove off before my mom had finished closing the car door. We left our parking place before there was a backup in our lane, and when our lane merged into the main out-lane, the first car that could have let us in did so.
I stayed to the left in the wrong-way lanes that are open for special events, and ended up taking 101 N to 280 S because that was less crowded than trying to merge to the right and take 101 S directly.
We arrived home at 1:01 AM, the exact time I'd originally booked the babysitter for.
The news covered tales of people stuck for over 3 hours getting there and just as long getting home, so I consider myself very lucky for this final Candlestick farewell concert. It was actually thrilling for me, just how lucky our parking situation was.
It was very nostalgic, because my family used to go to games at the Stick when my dad didn't have customers to take. His company had season tickets in the front row right behind 1st base, and the seats I snagged for this concert were basically exactly 7 rows behind where we used to sit as a family as a kid. These seats were listed as "limited view" but they were excellent. There was an open sound tower in the field of view, but that was all.
I was really impressed at the color balance with the tele-images of Paul McCartney. It was spot-on between the live and television images, and I know that is very difficult to do.
--Beth
Tags:
