Over the past weekend I had a staycation in the Silicon Valley. Saw Stanford for the first time (not the focus of the trip) and the field at Santa Clara U again because that' was near my hotel Hotels.com is pretty useful.

Sunken Diamond is not easy to take a good picture of from outside. Although you can see the field quite well from behind the outfield wall all the darn trees and the morning sun really wreaked havoc with any efforts to take a good photo with a phone. There's probably a trick to fix that but I'm not interested in knowing anymore about smartphones. Anyway, it wasn't that special.

I saw a game in Santa Clara in 2018, but it turns out you can get better photos of the field from outside Schott Stadium than from inside. There is a path running between the outfield fence and the apartment complex behind it and you get a great view that way. I noticed this when walking down the Alameda to a restaurant instead of taking the side street that goes to the park.

Also got a look at Buck Shaw Stadium where baseball (and football) were played. The only place to see in is a service entrance in the back.

Visiting these places during COVID-19 is something else. Stanford has signs up indicating where members of the public are welcome + saw some families with small children walking about but very few students. That was a relief.

Santa Clara has a sign up indicating that due to COVID-19 students and faculty only are allowed and members of the public may only pass through. Umm...isn't that how it usually is ? No need for any townie to do more than pass through because the sports facilities all face El Camino Real. It's funny how they act like the townies are the dangerous ones. A more accurate sign would be, "Enter at your own risk. Campus contains asymptomatic COVID-19 super-spreaders". Glad for those restaurants on the Alameda..no need to pass through. But darned if the Safeway and the Wicked Chicken weren't full of super-spreaders in makeshift Halloween costumes. Should've just gone to Taco Bell. And there was a young woman who insisted on standing right next to my table so she could take a smartphone photo of the video game in the corner instead of just going there and practicing social distancing.. And so if this should be my last post she killed me with her COVID-19. On the bright side it would mean no more Old Navy ads. If you're afraid of death the promise of no more of those will bring you peace.

Oh, and I included a photo of the Santa Clara ticket booth to show that all seating is now general admission. It's funny because of that time that snooty woman put her crap on my seat and had a hissy fit when I sat nearby waiting for her to leave. Seating was assigned then. The ticket salespeople asked you exactly what seat you wanted when you paid for a box seat. The ushers must have gotten tired of intervening in disputes between out-of-town visitors and the privileged regulars accustomed to sitting wherever. It would be really funny if that woman were the reason why they changed it. Could've been.

Kirk's Steakburgers near Stanford has some pretty neat artwork. Really good burger too. In front of my seat was a program for a bball doubleheader. Stanford vs USC and the USC fresh team vs Cal State Fullerton's full tesm.








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