day 7 in SF. i took a walk around the SBC Park area today – for those who don’t know, SBC Park is the new stadium that the SF Giants play in, the one that Barry Bonds slams homeruns out of from time to time. anyways, one thing i noticed about the area was that everything, not only the beautiful brick-walled stadium, but all the surrounding businesses and office buildings, were new. i walked into a starbucks because i had to use the bathroom and never saw anything as clean as this one. unfortunately, it was so new that it hadn’t installed the wireless t-mobile service yet. i took a walk around SBC Park and took pictures of the park, including its throw-back designs on the ticket booths and food stands. built right by the bay, the combination of cool bay breeze, beautiful glistening water and clean sidewalk pavements made the park a marvelous sight/site. my favorite moment was walking down the lone fishing pier all the way to the end and sitting at the round stone bench while looking at the birds sitting on a concrete ledge that was built as a sort of fence for all the boats docked at the pier. i guess these words don’t do justice to the scenery, but they’ll have to do for now until i get a nice photo essay working later on.

one thing that i noticed was the lack of people in the area. i saw a few joggers here and there and some people passing by in cars, but the overall area, because it wasn’t a game day, seemed dead. the restaurants were empty while valet attendants sat bored by their podiums. i walked into a Happy Donuts shop that was completely empty except one old man who ordered a chocolate chip muffin. i ordered a half dozen of those mini-glazed dots for 75 cents. i’m in a brand new borders bookstore using their internet cafe (they do the t-mobile thing, too) and the store is huge and beautiful but there is hardly a body around here. the people are only too eager to help here, but the lack of bodies probably makes their day boring. i’m sure business will pick up as more people know about the area and more residences set up around here, but for the moment, the entire area is just too new and probably too much ahead of the demand to do well. but for a straying tourist like myself, it’s been a quiet, clean and enjoyable stroll.