Taylor Swift at Levi's Stadium, Great Escape Room and some good eats - August 14-15, 2015

I've always liked Taylor Swift; when I saw an email from American Express advertising that a Friday concert date was added at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA due to Saturday's show selling out, I scheduled the ticket pre-sale on my calendar.  When the time came, I tried to buy a large amount at once, but with high demand and the Ticketmaster website overloaded, I ended up with five separate pairs of tickets, not all of them next to each other but at least two pairs in the same section, and also making sure that they were "Club" level padded seats since the price was the same as non-padded ones.  I hadn't asked anyone yet to go with me, but I was confident that I could resell extra tickets since this show also sold out.

In the end, five girls were able to join me.  I was able to sell the remaining four tickets within a day after listing them on Ticketmaster.

I made the event a weekend trip with an overnight stay at the Santa Clara Marriott (within walking distance of the stadium) and an excursion to the Real Escape Game in San Jose on Saturday coupled with lunch and shopping.  I had recently signed up for the Marriott Rewards credit card (no annual fee for the first year), at the time offering 80,000 bonus points after qualified spend, which I redeemed for two rooms on Friday night.  I was surprised to find reward nights still available, especially when the closer Hyatt and Hilton hotels were booked full, even for paid stays.  Eventually the Marriott did sell out too.

Friday after lunch, we (me, Melissa, Karen, Sandy) drove to Santa Clara, thinking we'd have time to check into the Marriott before picking up my cousin Sheri from the Santa Clara Caltrain station later in the afternoon. The sixth, my friend Tiffany, was local so was going to meet us at the hotel.  There was a lot more traffic than expected, so we headed straight to the train station since there was space in the car.  At the same time, Sheri sent a text saying that she missed her original train and would be arriving instead at the Sunnyvale station, so we changed GPS destination en route.  When we arrived, there was a long queue of cars trying to exit the station parking lot; I joined the procession hoping that Sheri's train would arrive while we were in line, which it did.  Reminder to myself next time leaving the station, to make a left to go east on Evelyn Avenue instead of west towards Mathilda as we were stuck for almost 20 minutes trying to go three blocks onto Central Expressway due to the train passing through and short green light intervals. :(

Arriving at the Santa Clara Marriott, there were a couple of employees manning the entrance to the parking lot.  They were selling "event parking" tickets; I told them we were checking in, so we were directed to park in a certain area.  You could tell that many of the hotel guests were there for the concert as they were talking about it in conversation as well as a number of them wearing Taylor Swift items.

Check-in was quick as there was a dedicated line for elite Marriott Rewards members.  At the counter, there were bowls of Taylor Swift's favorite candy, Swedish Fish, free for the taking.  Tiffany arrived just as we were checking in, perfect timing!

Our rooms were close to each other, in one of the wings on the ground floor with hardly any noise considering the number of concert attendees here.  The room was standard size with the usual shower/tub combo.

queen beds

coffee/tea maker with complimentary bottled water

Thann toiletries

After freshening up, we walked about half an hour to Levi's Stadium.  It wasn't hard to find since all we had to do was follow the masses on the sidewalk.  This was my first time visiting the stadium.  There were many security checkpoints set up at the entrance so the lines weren't too long.  You could only bring a purse the size of a small clutch; other belongings had to be in clear plastic bags.  When we walked through the stadium parking lot, there were employees handing out clear plastic bags in case you needed one.  Water bottles were allowed.

following the crowd to the stadium

the girls

Before heading to our seats, we braved long lines to buy souvenirs and grab dinner at the concession stands.  The food offerings were the usual stadium fare (fried food, hot dogs, BBQ) but if you looked hard enough, you could find steamed pork buns and seafood.  I must say that the pork buns were actually decent, as long as you told the server to not put the sauce and slaw on them.

"Intel Plaza"

the other girls sitting on the opposite side

me and Tiffany on this side

view from our seats

A white bracelet was taped to each seat.  This allowed the concert-goers to participate in the concert as it lit up in synchronized fashion to the beat of Taylor's music.
 

tip: save the little plastic tab to keep the battery alive afterwards

The first two acts were Shawn Mendes ("Stitches") and Vance Joy ("Riptide").

25-second clip of "Riptide": (click here if you cannot see the preview below)


As the sun set, Taylor took the stage.  It was a great concert!

25-second vid of the opening song "Welcome to New York": (click here if you cannot see the preview below)


26-second clip of "Blank Space": (click here if you cannot see the preview below)


See the bracelet in action, changing from white to blue to green (can also do red and purple) (16-second clip, click here if you cannot see the preview below):


During some of the songs, it was interesting to see all the floor seat bracelets be a different color than the bracelets in the stands, running on different frequencies.

See all the bracelets in the stadium synchronized during "Trouble" (12 seconds, click here if you cannot see the preview below):


Taylor's surprise guest of the night was Fifth Harmony, singing "Worth It" (11-second clip, click here if you cannot see the preview below):


Everyone was waiting for this song..."Shake It Off"! (25-second vid, click here if you cannot see the preview below):


After the concert, it was so crowded that we agreed to meet back at the hotel since our party was separated.  (thank goodness for mobile phones)  We sat in the lobby for a bit discussing the night's events, then turned in.

Saturday morning, we checked out (only thing on the bill were parking charges; thanks Marriott Rewards points!) and drove to the Real Escape Room in San Jose, a few miles away.  The premise was to escape out of a locked room within one hour by solving puzzles using clues found within.  I had heard about it when my cousin Gwen posted on Facebook about doing a company teambuilder at the San Francisco escape room.  When the trip was first planned, all 11 spaces were available for the 10am slot, but by the time I got commitments from the girls, only 5 tickets were left, but fortunately that was all we needed.  Who were the other six?  We'd find out soon enough.

waiting for the other 6 to show

Before the game started, all 11 of us introduced ourselves since we were going to work as a team.  The other six people were guys who knew each other from working in high-tech.  I was the first of the girls to speak; I said that we had attended the Taylor Swift concert last night, which probably scared the guys, thus I quickly added that I worked in high-tech. :)  Due to the nature of the game, I can't talk about what we did or what it was like, since it'd spoil the experience for others.  We were so close to solving the puzzle before the buzzer sounded (the time remaining was announced every 10 minutes).  Everyone had a lot of fun and would do it again (a second room had opened in San Jose, a third room opened in San Francisco, and a massive one will be held at AT&T Park in late January 2016 - not sure how that one would work with 2000 people!).  I can stress these couple of tips (since they've already been mentioned on Yelp), that it's good to have a mixed group of people, *everything* in the room has a purpose, and it doesn't hurt to search an area over and over again for missed clues, even if someone else had already looked.

we didn't escape in time

After our loss, we comforted ourselves with some good tasting BBQ nearby at Smoking Pig.

huge smokers outside

girls havin' BBQ

fatty brisket is the bomb

peanut butter pie...yum!

After lunch, we dropped Sheri at the Caltrain station, then headed over to Valley Fair for some shopping and a tasty treat.

a new friend

shaved ice with adzuki beans

Then we headed home, stopping by Revel in Danville for a light dinner as we were still stuffed from lunch.

menu	had to get a mule

cute tea pot

bread with sea salt butter

tomato soup

shrimp and grits

mussels

beignets with orange blossom honey

What is next on the travel agenda?  Two back-to-back short Pacific Coastal cruises...stay tuned!

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