California 2025 Trip--Day One

We flew out to visit family and see sights in California. Our trip started in San Francisco. My wife wanted to go back to some of her old grad school haunts, so our first stop (after dropping luggage at the hotel) was The Cheese Board in Berkeley. She used to stop by to get fresh breads, pastries, and other delights, on her way to classes. I only took a picture of the sign...we did buy a bunch of treats but concentrated on eating them rather than documenting them.

The sign of deliciousness

Then, we went to Indian Rock Park nearby to eat the treats and enjoy the view from a rocky outcropping in the middle of a neighborhood.

The rock, with steps carved in!

View of San Francisco from the top

View of houses (mostly roofs)

Hanging out on top

Walking back down

Everybody going

I guess I should get going

Our next stop was the campus of UC Berkeley. We were in one of the central plazas when some llamas started approaching us. We were surprised.

Famous Sather Gate upstaged by animals

They didn't approach us, they passed us

The gate was a little disappointing to me because they clearly do not know how Roman numerals work. That's a bit embarrassing for an institution of higher learning.

I guess the carver was paid by the letter

We saw a bunch of other popular campus haunts, like the library (which was closed on a summer Saturday), a famous seal (if you step on it, you can't get a 4.0 grade average), and the bell tower (where they do know how Roman numerals work). 

Library

Seal your doom here

Bell tower or clock tower?

We wandered through the neighborhood around Berkeley too. We bought a pineapple green tea from a little shop and saw some strange architecture.

Thirst quencher!

Builder changed his mind half way up?

We revisited the fun slide at Codornices Park not too far from the campus. The concrete slide (with cardboard to smooth out the ride) is still a lot of fun for the kids.

Hill slide

Picking up speed

Climbing like a pro

Down the fireman pole!

Having flown cross-country in the morning, we were pretty beat by then and headed back for a little dinner at our hotel room before going to bed as late as we could, given the time difference.