Happy Halloween 2013

It is All Hallows Eve. Just wanted to leave with some images that I have taken photos of for Halloween:

Old San Francisco Giants Media Guides

1977 Giants Media Guide

I was in the "nerd" store the other day and I saw a bunch of Giants Media Guides from the late 70's, early 80's. Anyway, the guy said a buck apiece and so I bought them. I am a sucker for this kind of baseball stuff and if it is at great price, even better:

People forget that the 1984 All-Star Game was at the Stick

Silver Anniversary Year-1982

1980

1978-That is HOFer Willie McCovey as the big man on the cover

1974-That is Bobby Bonds (Barry's dad) in the upper left hand corner

My favorite cover-from the strike year of 1981

There was a rouge one but I bought it anyway:

1988 World Series Media Guide

Halloween By Southwest

I was at the Oakland Airport yesterday (10-27-13) and they had some pretty cool stuff up for Halloween: around the different gates:

Some Interesting Hot Sauces and Salsas

I was in the Houston (Hobby) Airport and was looking around one of the stores and I saw these interesting products. I did not buy any but I wish they were sold at stores in the Bay Area:

Sometimes airport stores can be interesting.

My Visit to Cracker Barrel

This is going to violate almost every rule I have. When I was in Charlotte (actually stayed in Concord), there was a Cracker Barrel across the street. I am not from the South and discovered Cracker Barrel about four years ago, when I visited Savannah,Ga and loved it. I know it is a chain (this violates a major rule of mine in this space which is never to highlight chain restaurants,but I who cares) but since there is none on the West Coast (St. George, UT is the closest and I have been to that one) I decided to show it off to my friends in the Pacific Time Zone.

Cracker Barrel is both a store (OK, giant gift shop) and a restaurant. The prices are low and the food is good:

Part of the outside. You can play checkers and you can buy the rocking chairs to take home

Loved this water pump outside

Inside the store part. They sell a lot stuff for tourists 

Old time soda

The ceiling I though it was cool

Loved this fireplace in the joint

Inside the restaurant

They have this peg game at every table. The goal is to jump the pegs with the empty space and only leave one peg. I have never won

I thought this was cool on the walls

Dinner: The Cracker Barrel Sampler: Meat Loaf, Ham, Chicken dumplings, carrots and beans. It was yummy

I wish that we had a Cracker Barrel here on the West Coast. I would be there once a week at least.

Some Houses I Like

I was walking around the area around the Forest Hill Muni Light Rail Station in San Francisco and saw a bunch of houses and decided to take pictures of them. I thought they were unique and interesting and lot funkier than the cookie-cutter ones you see in the suburbs:

The Bank of America 500

Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Bank of America 500 from Charlotte Motor Speedway was too cool to see in person. Getting good pics was hard because of people standing up and the cars going about 190 miles per hour in front of me. Mostly what I got was when they pitted:

Getting ready for the start

The blurs are cars going at 190 miles per hour

Jeff Burton's car getting some service

Ricky Stenhouse getting some service

Danica Patrick getting some service

Kasey Kahne on the backstretch

Kurt Busch on pit row

Jimmie Johnson getting fueled up

There were no crashes and only four cautions (two for debris) and Brad Keselowski won it:

The "Blue Decue" wins and gets the flag

What a great time was had at the The Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway