Meg's Epic Week Part 10: Oakland, Oakland, Take Us In

After Maayan's late arrival on Wednesday night, and at least a few hours of excited chattering and posting the "She's here!!!" picture on Facebook, we finally got some sleep--but not much. I woke up on Thursday with only about three-and-a-half usable hours of sleep, but I was too excited to care much.

We had a leisurely start to the day--I drank tea and checked Facebook while Maayan got ready, and vice versa, and then I took her on the short-but-sweet tour of Stockton. We stopped at the little market near my house for snacks, the ATM, and drove the "scenic route" of Pacific Avenue's Miracle Mile into downtown, before finally catching the freeway and heading towards Oakland.

I diligently printed out directions to the venue weeks ago and put them in my special folder designated for all things Epic Week. Turns out, however, that the signs along 880 in Oakland are not at all helpful, and we ended up lost more than once.

(That's the charm in going anywhere with me, though.)

Blue Raspberry Slurpee? Check. Duck? Check. Let's go.

Headed South on I-5. Or East on 205/580. Actually, yes, this is east.

Maayan took a bunch of pics with my camera while we drove.

No reason for taking this one... : P

Oracle Arena, Oakland...just before we got lost.

I actually had to stop the car and take this sign pic. Jesse Quin is a member
of Keane, you see.

"We should NOT be in a tunnel!! Why are we in a tunnel?!" --Meg

Back in the tunnel, heading back in the right direction after leaving Oakland
for the nearby town of Alameda.

"Is this where we are supposed to be?!"

1. I did not know that Oakland has its own China Town.
2. Great signs!!!

Finally, we found this stinkin' street we'd been looking for.

We knew things were good when we found Middle Harbor Rd.

Trucks, trucks and MORE TRUCKS.

View of San Francisco

Here's the thing about the venue--it's in the middle of the very busy, very bustling Port of Oakland. All of the major shipping that comes in and out of the San Francisco Bay goes to Oakland, not San Francisco. So the port is busy. With tons and tons of trucks. I hate trucks--they make me super-nervous driving around them. So it was an adventure.

We found the gig location, then got back on 880--this time with some idea of where we were going--to find the hotel and check in. We had about 10-15 minutes to deposit our belongings in the room before heading back to the venue. Parking opened at 3:00 and we wanted a good spot in the queue.

Oh, yeah. Parking.

We had to park along the side of the many roads in the Port area--in red curb fire lanes, actually--and take shuttles to the venue! At least it was free.

When we joined the queue, we were a little dismayed to find we were nowhere near the front. This caused some angst, especially as people started walking ahead of us looking as though they wanted to sneak in. Oh, hell no! We did cause a few minutes of drama when the venue organizers had us all fill in the gaps and some people from behind us in line tried to move up front. We both spoke up--we'd been there almost 2 hours by then and we wanted good spots!

At first I was a bit embarrassed  by my behavior, but then I thought, well, if I don't stand up for myself, who will?!

Maayan had these shirts made (hers was purple)--it says "Stomp"
15 times and "Hey!" at the bottom. It's an inside joke for M&S fans.

Cali and Izzy hanging out in the queue.

Some pics from around the outside of the venue.

Another view of San Francisco.

Our small camp in the queue, minutes before they moved the line up and
we had to hastily pack up and dash.

The queue ahead of us.

So things got a bit hairy, as far as wondering how close to the stage we'd be able to get. I had a really hard time seeing at the show on Monday night and wanted to be closer for this one. When the gates opened, we had a plan: We'd both get through the bag check and ticket-taking as fast as possible, but whoever got in first would make a beeline for the stage. Armed with cell phones at the ready, we actually made it in at the same time. The crowd had been admonished not to run, and there were security-types everywhere, so we power-walked our way in and found ourselves in the 2nd row of people pressed against the stage--and the ladies in front of us were even shorter than I am. Brilliant!! Maayan said, "Are you happy here?" I laughed and said, "VERY!" We got spots right in front of where Ben Lovett would stand, so we were happy campers.

We would soon find out that the area in which we stood was a lovely "cocoon of kindness and good feeling" (as I would refer to it later) with some really cool people. But for now, we were where we wanted to be, and very ready for the show to start.

And that's for another post. I need to post this and eat some lunch!