Extremely tired, it was tough to wait until a little after midnight west coast time to see my dear Cubbies lose 8-3 against a New York Mets team that was playing as well as any team I’d seen in the playoffs, their young pitchers stifling the young Cubs’ bats that had erupted in the series before against the Cardinals. Good pitching always beats good hitting. Always. And the reality was that the Cubs were actually just a marginal hitting team, relying too much on the long ball, which made for an exciting season, wildcard game and divisional series, but did not provide an answer when the ball was not going out of the park, unable to put it in play otherwise, not working the count and striking out too much.
Despondent while going to bed, I reflected upon the day before dozing off into the land of dreams where the Cubs in my world won it all, pouring tears down my face and the faces of all Cubs fans waiting a lifetime or 107 years for the World Series title. My thoughts quickly migrated to what an amazing day today in fact truly was, and that not even the Cubs losing could change that.
With my buddy Derek and his dog Tucker visiting the Bay Area in our week searching for Zen, we awoke at the crack of dawn to get Taylor and Tucker on the trails behind me in the Marin Headlands, watching the sun rise as we made our way up the trail and back. Taylor and Tucker were in doggy heaven stopping to smell everything while freely walking off-leash, meeting friends along the way. Tucker even tasted some poop, realizing the poop tasted a lot like shit.
After a delicious smoothie and granola, blueberries, honey, yogurt breakfast, we were off to The Palace of Fine Arts, spending the entire morning there walking its grounds before settling down to paint and to draw. For lunch, we drove back onto the Golden Gate Bridge, through quaint little Sausalito’s “downtown”, to Avatars where my friend Ashok who owns the restaurant welcomed us to a delicious Indian meal.
After heading home to take the kids on a walk, by 3 PM, we were back on the road getting on the 1, hugging the coastline for a stunning drive to Point Reyes. By a little after 4 PM, we dead-ended at the Point Reyes Lighthouse for a view of the Pacific Ocean that many envy to see. After a quick visit to Drakes Beach, hanging out with pelicans, seagulls, and a gaggle of little seagull chickies, we settled into the sunset and the roar of the waves of the Pacific, the only people within miles at South Beach, painting till well after sunset. We drove back in the dark, arriving back in Sausalito around 8:30 PM.
Getting carry out at my favourite Pakistani place down the hill from me, where its owner Faisel bagged up hot and delicious chicken jalfrezi, aloo gobi, aloo keema, vegetable biriyani and naan, we were home and started game four of the Cubs/Mets games, hopeful to extend the series and rewrite history the way the 2004 Boston Red Sox did, ending their 86-year-old curse.
It was not meant to be. And despite the loss and the sudden end to their season, the game in no way took away from an epic day for us and an epic season for the Cubbies and their fans. I usually shake my head at the comments from most fans on my teams’ Facebook posts, but I rather enjoyed reading this one that was posted before game four.
“To mAnd ty fellow true (non-bandwagon) Cubs fans, please don’t fall back into that pit of depression if they don’t come back to win this series. There is ZERO shame in losing to this Mets team. Their starting pitching is incredible, and their offense is just good enough. Everyone seems to have gotten caught up in the media hype and the back to the future nonsense. The fact remains that this is an insanely talented yet VERY young team. 97 wins, a wildcard game victory, an NLDS victory (over the Cardinals no less), a rookie of the year, Cy Young candidate and probably the manager of the year is one heck of an awesome season. Not bad for a team that everyone said wasn’t ready, and was predicted to finish around .500. And it’s not even over! So please, stop looking at these two loses as the end of the world! These kids aren’t going anywhere and this team is only going to get better.”
Yesterday was one of the best days I’d ever had, despite the fact the Cubs happened to lose, while winning the hearts of so many.
Now we wait till next season where the young Cubbies will have one more opponent in addition to the teams they play, this one tougher than any they faced this season or will next: Expectations.
Cannot wait!!!!
Go Cubs Go!
Hey Chicago, what do you say?
Go Adventure. Go Travel. Go Live.
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ALWAYS BE EPIC
Secret of My SucCecil 
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