Pier 39

I had dinner booked for 7pm at the Chart House, which is right at the end of Pier 39.  After the long delay getting back to the hotel after the game, I didn't have long to get ready to go out again, but fortunately, a streetcar was due just when I needed it and although it takes half an hour to get there, it does drop you off at Pier 39.

After worrying that I might not make it in time, I was 30 minutes early, so I was able to wander around the pier and take some photos of the seals settling in for the night, as the sun went down.

I do not understand how restaurants can accept reservations and then, when I turn up on time, tell me I'm going to have to wait 15 minutes for my table to be ready.  It didn't really seem all that busy, either.

However, I had a fabulous table, right in the corner of the restaurant, so I could see out all across the bay from the Golden Gate Bridge in the West, to Alcatraz Island, which sits in the middle of the bay, and also further east across to Tiburon.

Dinner seemed to take a very long time, as I didn't leave to well after 9pm in the end, for a 2-course meal!  As the sun went down, I had plenty of time to take some pictures - the lights from inside the restaurant reflecting in the window here, as the sky turns dark blue.

On the up side, Chart House is also owned by Landry's - so my loyalty card could accrue more points, and even better, I got another $9 off a dessert, just like at McCormick & Kuleto's earlier in the week.

After dinner, I didn't hurry back.  I decided to catch the bus along to the cable car terminal.   Whilst I was waiting a man ran past and shortly afterwards a police officer ran past asking where the first man went - he found him in the bushes by the car park and then 4 police cars turned up - it was just like the Sweeney, really - they zoomed along the road, sirens wailing and screeched to a halt, in the middle of the road, blocking the road, and the drivers jumped out to go and help the officer who had detained the man.

In the end, they unblocked the road and the bus was able to get through and I went along to Hyde St to wait for the cable car to come past, for one final ride of my holiday.  It duly arrived, with Ignacio driving it, and a lot of Italian tourists were on-board.  The drivers don't ring the bell so much in the late evenings, but the noise generated by the people and the driver were just as loud.  They were all very friendly - the driver asked my name and where I came from.  I've never known a driver to be so animated.  It was a really fun trip back.


So now I'm trying to work out how to pack everything into my bags, given that I have so much more than I came with, primarily thanks to the Star Wars giveaway today!

Colorado Rockies @ San Francisco Giants (game 3)

The final day of my holiday, and the final game was the final game of this 3 game series between the Rockies and Giants.

Today was Star Wars Day, and I've picked up by special gift item, which is a Madison Bumgarner (dressed as Han Solo) and Greedo model, from their confrontation in the bar in Star Wars.  I've also got a new cap, with a rotating Millennium Falcon on the front.  I had to go right to the top of the stadium and right to the left-field corner to pick it up, so I took a photo whilst I was there.

For this game, I was in the front row of section 210, which is in the nicely shade during day games and, thankfully, with an unobstructed view.

Having shut the Rockies out for the first two games, San Francisco were looking for a rare sweep of a series.  The Rockies managed to score some runs today - 3 of them in the 2nd inning, and sadly, that was enough, as the Giants managed a single run in a couple of innings, and although the winning runs made it onto base in the 9th inning, Hundley was ruled to have swung at a pitch and struck out to end the game.

So, in the end, I saw the Giants play 8 times in total during this trip, and they won only 2 of them, but both of them were exciting shut-outs.

I said goodbye to my favourite usher, Angelique, whom I met first last year - and wished her a happy Christmas and to see her next year.

There was huge congestion on the metro on the way back, and it took 30-40 minutes to get back when it should take only 10, but I made it back in plenty of time to drop off all my new goodies and get ready to go out to dinner for the final time.

Colorado Rockies @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

A 6.05pm start time for a Saturday game meant that we played more of the game in daylight than under floodlights.

My seat was quite a way around the 3rd base side, in the second row, which is annoying because the railings around the TV camera area blocked my view - this picture is taken with the camera held up high.

It was very windy - the clouds were racing past, and so I was glad that I'd got a polo shirt on underneath my Giants top.

I also bought a #40 hat, with the white text reading "MAD BUM", referring to our starting pitcher today, Madison Bumgarner.  He's been one of the premier pitchers in the league in the past few years, but isn't having such a good time this year.

Last time I saw him pitch, in Milwaukee, he hit Ryan Braun which led to the Brewers' bench clearing, multiple ejections, and finally, unfortunately, a grand slam that cost us the game.


Not so this time.  He pitched 6 strong innings, giving up no runs at all, whilst he hit a double in his first at-bat and scored the first run - which ended up being the winning run, as in combination with an inning each from Tony Watson, Mark Melancon and Will Smith (not the actor ...), the Giants managed to shut out the Rockies for the second game in a row.

Whenever we win, a black flag is raised on the right-field foul pole, with a big red heart on it and SF written in the middle.

Pacific Ocean

This is my last free daytime, as tomorrow's game is at 1.05pm and will thus consume the whole day.  Therefore, I took the L-Taraval metro out to the beach.  It was one of the new Muni Metro trains, with all the seating along the sides of the carriages.  They still have a transformation once you pass West Portal station - they convert into buses, with the steps reconfigured automatically so that you can board from ground level instead of needing a platform. 

When I walked over to the beach, I found a rare piece of road furniture: a roundabout!  With a sign explaining how it works, no less.

The sand is very soft when you get on the beach - you tend to just sink into it quite deeply, which makes it quite hard to walk anywhere quickly.  This is the state of the beach up near the Great Highway (the road along the coast).

The beach gets a bit firmer closer to the water, where the high tide reaches, with all the associated seaweed and junk that's floated ashore from the sea.

As I neared the water's edge, I saw the little birds running around, with their legs all ablur.

There were quite a few shells and there seemed to be a lot of jellyfish too - some of them even looked to be still alive, going by the way they were flinching.

I brought my new backpack with me, a "cheap" one that I picked up at a discount, as I don't think I'll be able to fit everything into my usual two bags for the flight home.

I was able to put my shoes in there whilst I took out and put on my hat & coat, as it was quite chilly in the strong breeze.

I had a very quick paddle in the Pacific Ocean for a few seconds when a larger wave came in, and then went back onto the sand, again avoiding all the jellyfish!

I walked up 4 blocks worth of the beach, from Taraval to Pacheco (in this district, they seem to be named alphabetically) before returning to the path by the Great Highway, where I found some benches where I could dry off, using the towel I'd also brought with me, and put everything back on again ready for the journey back to the hotel to get ready for tonight's game.

Colorado Rockies @ San Francisco Giants (game 1)

I'd visited the Dugout Store at AT&T Park to buy my tickets for the three game series against the Rockies, as it's much cheaper to buy them in person at the park - no "convenience fees" or "order fees" adding tens of dollars to the prices - I saved around $100 in total!

Today, the Giants had Chris Stratton starting, who I saw pitch against Milwaukee without much luck last week.  The Rockies had swept the Giants in their series at Coors Field a week or so ago, so it appeared the chance of us breaking our historic losing streak appeared bleak.

After the off day on Thursday, it was time to go down for a 7.05pm start, and the game proceeded at great speed.

The game got off to a good start, with several hits in the 2nd inning, Austin Slater driving in 2 runs with a single - 2 runs that were to prove to be the only runs of the entire game.

Bruce Bochy had had his closer warming up during the 8th inning, but Stratton received a huge cheer when he came out to pitch the 9th inning.

He received even more cheers when he recorded the final out, without having suffered any mishap or base runners.

The game had lasted just over 2 and a quarter hours in total, admittedly helped by there not being a bottom of the 9th.

So this finishes the losing streak at 11 in an extraordinary way: a 2-hit complete game shutout.

Fisherman's Wharf and Jack London Square

With no game today, I visited Fisherman's Wharf early in the day including for lunch.

I went on one of the historic streetcars to get there, which takes around 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic.  It can be quite packed, particularly during the daytime, but it's probably the second nicest way to get from Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf (the best way is on the cable car, but the queues for the cable car are also very long during the day, and you might have to wait half an hour or more; the least preferred way is on the 30 or 45 bus, although it's probably the quickest)

There are lots of windsurfers out on the bay and sailing boats too.  There's not been much fog whilst I've been here, so it's been possible to see across the bag to Sausilto and Tiburon to the North and to Oakland in the East.

The weather has been remarkably kind for me, not just now but over my entire holiday.  Even since I left Washington DC a week ago, it's barely stopped raining there and in Philalpdehia with lots of disruption to the games there.

After wandering about for the afternoon, I took BART over to Oakland to where I would normally travel if I was staying at the Marriott in Oakland.  I was able to get the free Broadway Shuttle down to Jack London Square, where I had dinner at Kincaid's.

I was able to wander around the harbour area for half an hour as I'd left plenty of time to get there.

There are lots of boats in the marina here.


Kincaid's is actually partially over the water which helps it have great views over the bay and the rivers leading inland from Oakland, and you often get spectacular sunsets over the marina here.  You see the boats coming back from a day out.

After the sun had gone down, the crescent moon came up, together with Venus and Jupiter.

By the time I'd finished, it was dark and I got back to my hotel around 10pm.

Atlanta Braves @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

The final game of this series was a day game that started at 12.45pm.  There weren't all that many people there when the game began, perhaps because it was such an early start to allow Atlanta to get home, but given the way that the Giants' season is going, the place never filled up.

I moved seat so that I wasn't squashed up with other people on my row - the new seat I moved to was in a row of 16 seats, and only two people from that row turned up for the game, despite the whole section being otherwise "sold out".

San Francisco managed to load the bases multiple times during this game with fewer than 2 outs, but never managed to get a run home.

The Giants did get a run early on to lead 1-0, but Atlanta tied it up and then in the 9th inning, they got a stroke of luck as Flowers was called safe at 1st base and the call was so close, replay wouldn't overrule it. 

That loss makes 11 in a row, which is the longest losing streak in over 60 years - since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958.

After the game, I had dinner at McCormick & Kulteo's up at Ghirardelli Square.  I receive an annual birthday gift of $25 credit towards dinner at the Landry's chain, of which M&K's is a member, so I always make sure I stop off at one during my holiday.  I did not realise that I also had a free dessert as part of another promotion, so my whole dinner for the night only came to $40 including the tip!

Atlanta Braves @ San Francisco Giants (game 1)

I could have probably made it to Monday's game after arriving in San Francisco, but I'd have missed the first hour of the game, and I was quite tired after two flights and having had to get up so early (like getting up at 4am Pacific Time!)

Therefore this was my first game of this trip to San Francisco. 

Andrew Suarez did OK, but gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, and the Braves added on a 4th run.

Meanwhile, Mike Foltynewicz, who was pitching for Atlanta, didn't give up a run until he had reached 100 pitches and there were two outs in the bottom of the 9th.  So the Braves won the game 4-1 and continued the Giants' losing streak to 10 games. 

Milwaukee to San Francisco

I had to get up early this morning for the journey to San Francisco.  My train was due to leave at 8.05am, and I knew that I wanted to be in the queue by 7.45am so I'd have a better chance of getting a double seat to myself.

Fortunately, breakfast was served quickly and checkout was just a matter of handing the key cards back to the receptionist.  The Milwaukee Multi-Modal Station is only a 10-minute walk away from the hotel, so I got there in plenty of time and got in line, and I did get a good seat near the front of the train, although the conductor announced that we were expecting to fill right up with more people at the airport just down the line, and indeed, somebody say next to me for the rest of the journey to Chicago.  I think that people fly to Milwaukee and then take the train to Chicago to save money.

Talking of saving money, I split my flight for this jouney to go via Portland, Oregon.  It's quite a long flight, 3hr30, then a 1hr30 flight down to San Francisco.  As we neared Portland on this flight, I was looking up which gate we were going to arrive at and the departure gate for the San Francisco flight - and found they were the same!  We landed at Portand, I said goodbye to the cabin crew, got off the plane, sat down at the gate, went to board and the lady at the gate noted "weren't you just on the Chicago flight?", got on the plane again, said hello again to the same cabin crew, and sat down in the seat next to the one I'd just been in before.  This is the first time I've ever been to Oregon - but my experience of it was limited to the area around gate E4.


The flight to San Francisco was much quicker, so we didn't get any food, but we did get the drinks service.  Fortunately, my hotel in San Francisco is within easy walking distance of Powell station on both BART and Muni Metro - all the stations along Market Street are dual Muni Metro-BART stations.

My very expensive room is on the 32nd floor - however, it wasn't all that much more expensive than anywhere else I could find in San Francisco, so I thought I'd have the nice place that was easy to get to, not just for the metro and BART, but also for the cable cars.


My room has a balcony.  I can see all the way to the bay in the East.  With such great views to the East - I can even see AT&T Park in the distance, but it's easier to see it at night when the signs are lit up.

I went down to breakfast in the morning and asked for a table for 1.  The lady, in her broken English, explained that it was a buffet and it cost $39, plus tax, plus gratuity!  Since that would come to over $50, I told her to stuff it.  I told her that I could buy a good three course dinner for $50.

It turns out the hotel has a second little bistro in the lobby that serves breakfasts - so I've had a bowl of oatmeal for a more reasonable $8, plus a coffee.

San Francisco Giants @ Milwaukee Brewers (game 3)

This was a day game, and was the most action-packed of the three games.

Again, the Giants managed to eke out a small lead, and then everything kicked off in the 6th inning when Madison Bumgarner hit Ryan Braun with a pitch, which Braun wasn't very happy about.

As they shouted at each other, the Milwaukee bench emptied, and there was a prolonged nose-to-nose shouting match between the home plate umpire, Tom Hallion, and the Mailwaukee Brewers' manager, Craig Counsell.

As expected, this resulted in an ejection for Counsell, and with further shouting from the dugout, ejections for another pitcher and the emergency catcher.

Unfortunately, the hit-by-pitch had loaded the bases and then Jonathan Schoop hit a grand slam to jump Milwaukee into the lead and they never relinquished that lead.


The German heritage that exists in the region is evident in the onfield race: a group of sausages race around the warning track.  Today it was a relay race, seemingly involving a small version of each sausage as well.

Still, the game ended with another loss, which is the second series sweep in a row for San Francisco.  They return home to start a 3 game series with Atlanta tomorrow.  I'll be heading to San Francisco too, but won't get there in time for the game.

My bus ticket had 50 minutes left on it when I boarded the bus back to downtown, so that saved me $3 over paying for each journey individually.

San Francisco Giants @ Milwaukee Brewers (game 2)

The middle game of this series was much like the first game - Milwaukee jumped out to a lead and then San Francisco attempted to come back but fell just short.  There were chances with men on base in the late innings, and a lot of regulars were being rested until they all come on to pinch hit in the 8th inning, but Milwaukee hung on for a 4-3 victory.

This game started at 6.05pm, so with tomorrow's game due to start at just after 1pm, I've bought a 24-houe bus ticket for $5, as it should get me there and back for tomorrow's game as well just before the 24 hours is up!

Milwaukee Lake Front

I went for lunch today at Mader's, a German restaurant.  There's a lot of oak panelling and stained glass windows, and all the staff were wearing traditional Bavarian dress, as that's the stereotypical view of Germany, I suppose.

I had a salad, a burger, a cake and a coffee and it came to under $30, which I thought was great value.

After lunch, I decided to walk along to the lake front to see how it's changed in the years since I last visited.  It was further than I remembered!
On the way, I found there were a lot of kites being flown next to the lake - all sorts of different designs.
 
I walked further down the lake front to the park area that I'd visited on my previous visit to Milwaukee when it had just been laid out and planted.

There are certainly a lot more people using the area nowadays and the wild prairie areas that had just been sown before are now properly bedded in.


There were also at least 3 post-ceremony wedding groups around, having all their photographs taken in the park.

Most pedestrians stopped and gave them a moment to do the photographs - the cyclists didn't.

Everything has grown so much, that it all looks a lot better nowadays.



The  amazing building shown in the last picture here is a military commemoration centre, although it was closed when I was there for wedding ceremonies.

San Francisco Giants @ Milwaukee Brewers (game 1)

I have another new smartcard!  This one is for the Milwaukee County Transit System.  It cost me $2, and it saves me money per ride.  It is easy to get to Miller Park, as there is a special "Brewers Line" bus service that goes through the centre of town and heads out West to the stadium.  It doesn't take very long to get there, even with all the construction going on on Wisconsin Avenue.

My seat was in the back row (7) of section 335 from where I had a great view of the game.  I was sitting next to Eric and Patty, season ticket holders, and we chatted through the game about our favourite stadiums.

The club level here is easy to access and is well laid out.  There are lots of food and drink locations, and plenty of chairs inside, with a huge number of large TVs for people to carry on watching the action whilst they move about.

It was lovely to be at a game where it wasn't hot.  The temperature was around 17C/63F throughout the game, although Eric told me that Milwaukee had experienced a month of very high temperatures, which had only just ended.

 Ryan Braun hit an early 2-run home run off Derek Holland to put Milwaukee in front, but San Francisco got them back one at a time, leaving the game poised at 2-2 into the late innings.  Unfortunately, Hunter Strickland came in and gave up 2 more runs to the Brewers giving them a 4-2 lead which the Giants were never able to match.

Milwaukee Riverwalk

There are lots of waterways in Milwaukee, but the main river flowing through the centre of town has footpaths along both sides - this area of downtown is called the River Walk district.

I'd been up for lunch along Old World 3rd Street, not knowing about the river walk.  There is an awful lot of construction going on - roads, pavements, new buildings - and the road and pavement surfaces are very uneven.

On my way back, I followed the path, crossing the river from time to time.  There are lots of low bridges and plenty of tall boats wanting to navigate the river, so all of the bridges have to open.  Some, like in the first picture just have a rectangular section that is raised straight upwards.  Others are bascule bridges, like Tower Bridge, which pivot open.

It is not unusual to be hearing the alarm from one or more bridges that is preparing to open, as the bridges are fairly close together and often the next one will start opening as the previous one finishes opening.


All along the route, there are special sculptures that have been installed.  Some are more impressive than others. 

There are quite a lot of bronzes of ducks and families of ducks.

The "Dream with the Fishes for Aurora" is installed on the wall of the building.  It has fish, bubbles, buoys, waves and seaweed, which at sunset is lit up, so unfortunately I've not seen it illuminated.

"What are we to make of this, apart from a bonfire?"

Some sculptures are of real people, such as  Jacques Marquette, a key figure in the history of Milwaukee.  Some are of fictional figures, such as the Bronze Fonz, from Happy Days.


And then there are some that are just tangles of metal with weird names.

This one that looks like a falling-down shed.

"This is art.  Art with a capital F." as the Punt & Dennis sketch describes.

Washington to Milwaukee

Today I travelled from Washington to Milwaukee.  Since I had all my luggage with me, I went a slightly different way on the metro to the trip planner's suggested route, going one station further on the Green Line to Archives to change to the Yellow Line that runs the opposite way but branches back off to the airport - this station has an island platform, so it's much easier to change than going up and down escalators that would have been needed at L'Enfant Plaza station.

I've never been to Ronald Reagan National airport before - it's much smaller than the (now) main airport Dulles.  I went in, straight through and was at the gate 10 minutes after getting off the metro.  We were warned the flight down from Chicago had been bumpy, so it might be bumpy on the way back too, but it was OK.  We left early and arrived in Chicago on time.  I made my way on the Blue Line down to Clinton and walked up to Union Station ready for my train.  The train was packed, almost everybody was going to Milwaukee rather than any of the 4 intermediate stations.

I had an excellent steak for dinner at Mo's A Place For Steaks.

St Louis Cardinals @ Washington Nationals (2)

Today, I went to Foggy Bottom and had dinner at CIRCA.  I had meant to go there the night before, but left it too late to get a reservation that was early enough for me to eat and then get back to my hotel to go to the game.  It was worth going for.  Since they are in the theatre district, they are used to not hanging around with service, as they know people have somewhere to be.  I got back to my hotel about 15 minutes before first pitch - the stadium is about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.


For this second game in Washington, I had a slightly cheaper ticket up on the club level - where there is an air-conditioned indoors.  I was able to come indoors for a half inning to cool down from time to time, which made the world of difference from yesterday.  I was supposed to be in the last seat in the row (K13), but seeing as there were only two other people in the row at the far end, I moved along to get a slightly better view.  Towards the end of the game, the usher suggested I just sit on the foldable chair in the wheelchair row instead of going all the way back to my seat.


Like last night, St Louis got off to a fast start with a crooked number on the scoreboard before Washington had even had a bat.  However, despite all the hits and all the scoring, this game was much quicker than yesterday's, and much closer.  Last night, the tying run came to the plate for Washington - tonight, the winning run was on base when the final out was recorded.  These losses are coming at a bad time for Washington as they are falling behind in the division and in the wild card race.

I had thought that the most dangerous non-playing thing on a baseball field was the Phillie Phanatic charging around on his ATV at break-neck speed, but I may have been wrong about that, as I've now seen the Washington Nationals' bullpen cart in action.

 It's supposed to give pitchers coming into the game a lift from their bullpen to the plate to save them the walk.  None of them use it - they all walk/jog/run run straight past it.  Regardless of this, the cart makes its way around the track and back to its gate in centre, at quite high speed - with security guards, police officers, and players having to jump out of the way.  I'm amazed he's not run anybody over yet.

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

Today, I spent a few hours at the Air & Space Museum, which is situated on the National Mall.  The various Smithsonian buildings are ideal for very hot days, as they are kept beautifully cool.

It's been a good number of years since I last visited the Air & Space museum, and they change the exhibitions every now and again, so there's always new things to see.  I only got through around a quarter of it.

I touched a piece of the Moon. 


They also have some of the bits of the Hubble Space Telescope that have been brought back to Earth, such as the COSTAR module that was used originally to correct the flaw in the mirror. 

When it launched the shield was solid - but all the black marks you can see are the holes where space debris has gone through the shield.

They don't have the any of the space shuttles here in Washington - it's at the sister museum a few miles away in Virginia.
 

They have test versions of some things, some of which are scale models and others which are full size.  They have a full-size Skylab in the central exhibition hall.

I didn't have time to go to any of the theatre presentations or to the planetarium - I would do that next time, to have a break from wandering around each exhibition.

Some of the exhibitions are clearly aimed at younger audiences, particularly the one that describes how flight works, but the majority are suitable for anybody.

St Louis Cardinals @ Washington Nationals (game 1)

Today was really hot in Washington, with the temperature up in the 30s, but with humidity high as well, it "felt like" the 40s according to the Weather Channel.  There was a brief thunderstorm at 4pm, which didn't help - it just meant it was raining when I went out for dinner, so I wore my coat - although it dried in about a minute once I was in the metro station.

I bought two bottles of water at the ballpark this evening, and finished both of them off during the course of the 4 HOUR 11 minute long 9-inning game.

As the Cardinals established a 4-0 lead in the 2nd, the scoreboard display encouraged everybody to Make Noise!  There was no response from the crowd.  However, half an hour later, the place came to life as Washington responded with a 4-spot of their own to tie the game.  St Louis immediately scored 3 in the next, which put the crowd back to sleep again, until the top of the 9th, when Yadier Molina hit a grand slam to put St Louis ahead 11-5.  This was cheered by most of the remaining crowd, because most of the Washington fans had given up and gone home by that time.  The stadium was mostly empty by the time the final out was recorded, and those who were there were mostly St Louis fans, which was a shame, because Washington actually managed to score 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th and then bring the tying run to the plate ... but he grounded out to end the game.

It was a relief to get back to the hotel and finally into the cool.

Philadelphia to Washington

Last night, whilst I was having dinner at Bank & Bourbon, when an informal band of drummers set up on the street corner together with a small dance troupe and entertained everybody for a few minutes.  Apparently, this group just wander about the city center (although locals refer to it as Center City!) on summer evenings, doing this.  They were quite good - and then they moved on.

The hotel was really good - proper breakfasts, and just two blocks away from the metro.  It's an awful lot cleaner than when I visited last time and the service back to City Hall after the ballgame is very efficient.  I have a new smartcard for my collection: a Septa Key card.

Today is a travel day, moving southwest to Washington DC, by train.

My train left at 12.34pm and will take just under two hours to get to Washington today.  Whilst waiting for it to arrive, a train arrived on the adjacent track that was heading to Miami in Florida.  It was due to arrive there at 5pm.  Tomorrow!

It's a scenic ride through Pennsylvania, then Delaware, Maryland and finally into the District of Columbia.  From time to time, the railway passes along the coast and next to large lakes - being a national holiday today and warm and sunny weather, there are lots of people out on the water enjoying the end of their summer break.

Chicago Cubs @ Philadelphia Phillies

The first game of my trip was a hot one, as the temperature was in the high 80s for this afternoon's game between the Cubs and Phillies and Citizens Bank Park in south Philadelpha, and as the game progressed, it just kept getting hotter until it was in the mid 90s (35C)

I saw Jon Lester start for Chicago against Aaron Nola for Philadelphia.  The tone was set when the Phillies' lead-off man was thrown out at third base trying to stretch a double into a triple, and the Cubs were getting triples and home runs and singles.

In fact, before the consolation run in the bottom of the 9th, the Cubs had 8 runs on 9 hits, whilst the Phillies had 0 runs on 9 hits, including having the bases loaded at one point.

The Phillie Phanatic was up to his usual tricks today - trying to get a reaction from one of the on-field security guards between innings.  He put a necklace on him, nothing.  He put a crown on his head, nothing.  He kissed him, nothing.  And then he sped off on his ATV at break-neck speed.