Pablo had been one of his nibs' physics students back in his nibs' academia days -- back at UCSB when his nibs was node 3 on the brand spanking new ARPANET. Those days are decades ago now and Pablo's gone on to his own career and fame (beds of nails, baseball, physics). We keep in touch, have each other over for dinner, exchange e-mail.

Pablo's offer couldn't be beat.

"You free Thursday? Come down to the Brisbane Marina and we'll take the boat out for a look around the Bay and stop in at McCovey Cove for the Giants vs. Rockies game. I'll provide the sausages and beer. You just need to be there on time."



Of course we were late. There's some construction going on King Street near Third and the traffic skinnies down to one lane just as it's backing up for all the folks trying to turn left. The light cycled through again and again as the traffic merged into a single lane and inched through the traffic signal. We finally made it onto 280, took the 101 split and hightailed it down to Brisbane.

Pablo wasn't there when we arrived, five minutes after he'd been planning to leave. Had he really left without us? I was bummed.

We walked around the edge of the Marina to see if we could see his boat out on the Bay and give him an ahoy!

No.

So where the heck was he?

We bumped into another guy who looked like a physicist sort, who was also wandering around looking like he was looking for a lift in a boat. Turns out he was Lew, a retired physics professor at City College and he was, indeed, looking for Pablo. Seems Pablo had sent out an e-mail that morning saying he'd be leaving an hour later than originally planned.

We weren't five minutes late, we were early!

Pablo arrived and the rest of the gang showed up. One of the gang was a guy we knew from Week 11, Stanford Sierra Camp, whom we hadn't seen since we swapped weeks something like seven years ago. Physics nerds. Stanford. Small world.

We set off later than Pablo'd anticipated and wouldn't've been able to get out on the ocean and back in time for the game so instead we took a shortened tour around Treasure Island and Yerba Buena to take an up-close look at the construction of the new Oakland span. Differences of opinions as to whether the new construction is necessary or not. I think it's a good idea and worth the expense, if only they'd keep the costs under control. Others think the whole idea is a complete waste and a boondoggle.



We arrived and set anchor at McCovey Cove in time to hear the Star Spangled Banner. The boat was perfectly positioned. We could peek through the gates and also keep an eye on the scoreboard. We had the game playing on the radio as well. We spent the afternoon eating grilled polish sausages and drinking beer and wine and other libations as we enjoyed the game and wide-ranging talk.

The Giants came from behind in the eighth and won the game so all were happy.

After the game, we weighed anchor and set off on our game-delayed cruise around the Bay -- out under the Golden Gate Bridge, back in to Sausalito, around the Belvedere/Tiburon point, over to Angel Island and Ayala Cove, then back around along the edge of the city, under the Bay Bridge and over to Brisbane.

Pictures (20% of the ~ 350 I shot. Digital. Ain't it wonderful?)

   posted by Sal Towse at  5:00 PM|| |