My husband and I attended the Giants parade. I actually dislike parades. But this was the best parade I have ever attended! Giants fans cheering, calling out to their favorite baseball players, clapping their hands, blowing their plastic horns that cost $5, waving their homemade signs and wearing their Giants colors. One sign I remember said ‘I called in sick…. SHHHHH…. Go Giants!’
The fans were in their best behavior. From where we were standing, I didn’t see any looting, fighting, etc. Everyone just had an awesome time. Plus the weather was very good for November. I am glad we got to be part of this historic moment.
We left our house before 7am and boy it was heavy traffic even in carpool lane. We parked our car at my husband’s workplace and took the free shuttle to BART then from BART to downtown SF. In SF, we got off at Montgomery. Then we looked for a nice spot to view the parade. We did get a very good spot. Our spot was next to the barricade that was put up on Market Street.
The parade started at 11am at the Transamerica Pyramid. Since we were waiting at Market Street, we didn’t see the Giants team until 11:30am. We got to see Cody Ross, Brian Wilson, Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum and other Giants players. During the parade, confetti in color black, orange and white were coming down from top of the buildings on Market Street. Others like BoA, Giants office staff and investment firms gave out Giants signs. So I was able to get a sign that said ‘Authentic Giants Fan.’ Some people gave out candies and T-shirts to lucky fans.
After the parade, we went to the Chinese Consulate in SF to turn in our Visa application for China. Since the parade was in downtown, the muni bus took a while to get to us because of the huge crowd. Once we got to the Chinese Embassy, our time their was actually pretty quick. We went through security, took a number and when our number was called, we went to the window and simply turned in our applications. Our pick up date is Nov 8.