Since Nicole took Dylan to see her family last weekend, it was my turn to take him to see my family this weekend. Dylan and I planned to take the last flight from Chicago to San Francisco last night. By taking the last flight, my plan was for Dylan to sleep all the way on the plane. However, when I arrived at the airport our flight was delayed for 90 minutes. A delay with a baby is not fun since I would have to entertain him that entire time.

As I was checking in, I remembered that there were flights also going to both San Jose and Oakland at the exact same time. I asked if I could switch to the San Jose flight and they said yes!! I love Southwest. The woman made the switch and we were back “on time.” And, as I had hoped, Dylan slept all the way to San Jose.

My plan for the weekend was to attend the SAP Open at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Since it is my 35th birthday today, I chose to attend the Friday afternoon session rather than the Friday evening session since I could then celebrate my birthday with my parents, brother and his girlfriend.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
There were no scalpers for the afternoon session so my Dad and I paid $25 each from the box office for tickets.

Most tennis tournaments clear out the crowd between the afternoon and evening sessions – making you buy two tickets. However, the SAP Open does not do this. For the weekday sessions you can watch an entire day of tennis (both the afternoon and evening sessions) for the price of one. The tournament schedules too many matches for the afternoon session in order to clear out the arena before the evening session. Thus, if you are in the arena by the time the fans enter for the evening session you can watch the evening session for free – just be sure to give up your seat if someone asks you to.

SAP Open Quarterfinals
We were there for the SAP Open Quarterfinals. What we did not realize before we showed up was that they played a doubles match before starting any of the singles matches. Always check the schedule of play before heading to a tennis tournament.

In the doubles match, Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram defeated Eric Butorac and Jean-Julian Rojer in straight sets 7-6(8) and 6-3. Probably the only person who likes watching doubles is my Dad who explained that it is fun to watch since that is what most of the tennis population plays.

After that we finally made it to the singles matches where every player won in straight sets. Since we did not plan to attend the evening session, we left in time to get home to celebrate my birthday.