CKSR (Women's Basketball Continues Trip Through Northern California - Day Two Diary Entry)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR DEC. 21, 2014

Women's Basketball Continues Trip Through Northern California

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Day 2 California Trip Diary
(Editor's note: The Calvin women's basketball team is currently in Northern California, preparing for a set of games on the campus of UC-Santa Cruz this coming Monday and Tuesday. Team members are providing daily updates from the trip. The following update was provided late Saturday night.)
By Calvin College Senior Hannah Acre
(Hannah is a native of DeWitt, Michigan. She is a graduate of DeWitt High School.)
Today was a day of tourism! After a restful night we started our day with a full practice this morning at the Chinese Christian school. That was our last practice before our game Monday so we made sure to work hard but we were all very anxious to get into the city! After practice we quickly showered and headed to the ferry that took us from Alameda to Pier 39 in San Francisco. The ride over provided us with a beautiful view of the city, Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Despite the clouds overhead, we took full advantage of all there was to do!
We began with the sea lions gathered at the Fisherman's wharf which were much more entertaining than you would think! While still on Pier 39 we were able to shop around and enjoy the various street performers. A team favorite was a man who crouched on the sidewalk and held branches in front of his face and would jump and yell at people walking by!

There were so many new things to see and experience that we did our best to take it all in!
We then headed to Ghirardelli square for more site seeing and ice cream. The sundaes and ice cream cones were worth the wait! To help burn off the ice cream, we decided to walk up the hills of San Francisco! This was no small task. Some hills felt like you were falling over forward, needless to say we considered this our second workout of the day! We managed to make it up to Lombard street which is known as the curviest street in the city. It is a one way, downhill street made up of tight turns back to back. At the bottom of the street we were able to meet up with all the family members that came to support us in San Francisco!
We continued our walk over to Chinatown. It was very different from what I expected but still interesting to see. There was one main road that had Chinese lanterns all stung across which served as another photo opportunity! After making it through the streets of Chinatown we headed over to Union Square. This area reminded me a lot of downtown Chicago because it is a major shopping center. Of course our first stop was the Nike store! In the main square there was an outdoor skating rink that was similar to Rosa Parks Circle except everyone was ice skating in t shirts instead of winter coats! Being able to just walk around and enjoy the city and the people was a blast! They were playing a Christmas movie on the side of the building and even though there was no snow, we were filled with Christmas spirit and an overall sense of thankfulness to be able to spend time together in a beautiful city with people that we love.
We completed our trek through the city by ending at the Ferry Building. We took the boat ride back to the port for Alameda and headed off to dinner. For dinner we went to a local restaurant called the Red Onion. It was a place recommended we by some of the host families and it did not disappoint!
It was a long day with about six hours of walking around the streets of San Fran but we loved every minute of it! Tomorrow we head to Alcatraz. This trip had already been such a blessing and I look forward to everything else that we have planned!
 Thanks again for all the love and support that made this trip possible!
Go Knights!
Received on Sun Dec 21 22:20:12 2014