Salesforce Park

It was a beautiful day in the city. All that sparkling glass and steel was magical, reflecting itself back and forth, distorting and reshaping the skyline. In our aimless wandering around downtown after a dim sum lunch, we stumbled on a wonderful park--five and a half acres of an amazing green oasis high above the busy streets. This New Yorker article gets into the history and detail of this two billion dollar project, which was constructed above the massive new Transit Center and features a half mile loop trail around the perimeter. We were delighted to explore the different environments, and happy to see a hummingbird sampling the flowers with an aerial view of the freeway entrance. It's reminiscent of New York's Highline, minus the ubiquitous water towers.

The influx of new shiny structures was jaw-dropping, and the Extra gives you an idea of what the area looked like in the past, with smaller distinctive buildings lining the streets. I expect those will be gone soon. Those footprints are too valuable to be left as canvasses for murals.

We had planned our play day without looking into the baseball schedule, and found ourselves a bit too close to the stadium for comfort (and for parking) on game day, but we snagged the last spot in an over-priced lot that was close to the museum and restaurant, so it all worked out. We were headed the opposite way from all the orange shirts crowding the sidewalk, and pretty soon we'd left that all behind.