perfect storm

I just got home about an hour ago after watching the Rockets beat the Warriors in a surprisingly entertaining game. It was even meaningful, at least for the Rockets, since they were fighting to keep the third seed going into the playoffs.

The game was scheduled for 7:30pm, so we left San Mateo around 6:00pm. We got to the Hesperian exit around 6:30pm, so we thought we had plenty of time to stop at Panera for some sandwiches. We were back on our way in about 20 minutes. Then, about three exits before the Coliseum, the traffic became insanely bad. Only then did we realize that the A's were playing their home season opener, also at the Coliseum.

We finally arrived at the BART station (where we normally park) around 7:20pm, having gone 3 miles in 30 minutes, spent ten minutes looking for free parking, and decided to give up and pay for parking. When we got to the paid parking lot, we were turned back by the parking attendants; they were already full. By the time we found parking (in the surrounding semi-sketchy neighborhood) and got to our seats, it was nearly 8:00pm, and almost the end of the first quarter.

The after-game experience was pretty crazy too. The game ended quite early; just after 10pm. Unfortunately this meant that the end of the basketball game coincided with the end of the baseball game. We spent the next 45 minutes slogging through pedestrian traffic over the foot bridge and into the BART station. Luckily, once we got out of the station, things were mostly back to normal. (I was really happy not to have been one of those hordes of people standing on the platform, waiting for the BART.)