Wednesday, July 27, 2011

University of California, Berkeley

Since Joe didn't have any work to do this weekend we ventured out Sunday too. This time we took a trip outside the city. This is our first time to leave San Francisco since moving here. We took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to Berkeley and back.

We walked north of the campus up a hill to where we heard we could get a great view of the bay and of the Golden Gate Bridge. At the top of the hill was a really neat area. There were multiple tennis courts, a baseball field, a good sized park and a rose garden.

We had lunch in the rose garden and enjoyed the view and the opportunity to rest our legs.

We joined a student led tour of the campus at 1:00. The tour was informational with little tidbits of the campus or school in general. The girl that led the tour talked about Cal's rivalry with Stanford and the different quirks the school had during homecoming week or rivalry week.

The campanile was under construction so unfortunately we couldn't go to the top. Joe's next to "Pappy" who was the football coach from 1947-1957. I guess that was the decade they had a great team. According to our tour guide... they're not so great now.

The football stadium is also under construction so we did not get close at all. The Cal football games will be played at AT&T Park this year which is actually good for us because it's only about 5 blocks away from our apartment as opposed to a 30 minute BART ride. The stadium is being renovated because it's directly on a fault line and the work they're doing on it now will help prevent a collapse if an earthquake were to hit during a game.

The tour didn't include the sports arena or fields so after checking out the football field we walked by the baseball field, the tennis courts and the track. The tennis courts were open so we got to walked in and check it out. I guess Cal was pretty good at tennis back in the 80's.

That was the end of our adventure to Berkeley. We rode the BART back to the city where it seemed much cooler between the buildings where there was no sun. Joe and I both got a little burnt from the weekend. How do we live in California and not own any sunscreen?

No comments: