This past weekend, I made a trip out to the Bay Area for a little bit of work, and a little bit of vacation. For those that are not aware, I live in Washington, D.C., so trips out to the Bay Area are not exactly frequent. I was out there for the Falcons and Colts games last year, but I'm hoping to get out a little more frequently this year.

Part of my trip involved a visit down to Santa Clara. I scheduled the trip in part because I shot some video with their "49ers Studios" crew. They are putting together a lot of video content down there for 49ers.com. If you watch NFL Network, you might recall their various Top 10 shows. They do Top 10 quarterbacks, top 10 running backs and so many more. 49ers Studios is using that idea, except they are focusing exclusively on our favorite team. They had me in to shoot some video for some of that production. They'll start airing later this summer as training camp gets going, so I'll make sure and drop in some links.

I also managed to schedule a tour of Levi's Stadium. I got to check out much of the stadium, which means I also got some photos from different areas. Above, you can see a gallery of some of the pictures I took. I got a fairly comprehensive tour of the stadium, although there were a few areas I could not get pictures. I've included brief captions for the photos. Just scroll over the photo, and it will explain what you are looking at. Big thanks to the 49ers for setting this up.

The stadium itself is getting closer and closer to completion. The grass is not yet installed, but it sounds like that will be happening sometime soon. The stadium itself will open on August 2, with an MLS match between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders. The 49ers will host their two home preseason games, hosting the Denver Broncos the week of August 14-18, and hosting the San Diego Chargers on August 24. Their next home game will be Week 2. That means the team basically has a month of a sort of soft opening to get ready for the kickoff of the regular season. Considering there is a good chance they open Levi's on Sunday Night Football, they'll want to make sure things are as close to perfect as possible.