charismatic megafauna since 1985

Bay Area

Arlen’s friend Dan goes to Berkeley for Russian Lit and lives in Oakland; he became our home base for three nights. Our first day there we took the bus into campus and walked around a little bit. One of the programs I’ve looked at, the School of Information, is at Berkeley. The campus is nice enough, but I think it’s too many people for my taste, both on campus and in town.

We met up with Harry around noon-thirty and wandered into town. He recently drove across the country from Northampton, but he moved to Berkeley instead of ending up back where he started. Lunch was a cute little Ethiopian place along Telegraph. Our first experience with Ethiopian food was back in DC, when Tess, Arlen and I stumbled upon while walking in Adams Morgan. Since then, we eat it pretty much every chance we get; it might be my favorite (or 2nd favorite) kind of ethnic food.

The rest of the day we spent walking back to Dan’s house. It was probably a 2.5 mile walk, but it wasn’t hilly and walking down the main street is a pretty simple way to check out a town. We made dinner with Dan (pasta, pesto, veggies, garlic bread) and then Tess and Arlen went to SFO to pick up Gaea. I’d have tagged along, but pretty much the whole day I had a headache and it had only gotten worse with dinner Instead, I stayed home and rested my eyes.

Day 2 in the Bay Area was spent in San Francisco proper. We drove into the Mission to pick up Zoe, and from there wandered around the city trying to find the Golden Gate Bridge. The inset map of SF on our California map didn’t really have enough of the roads to direct us, so we ended up using Tess’ great sense of direction to wander over there. We passed by a lot of interesting buildings (the old Spanish mission in the Mission sticks out, since T & I were the only ones paying attention when we passed it), and ended up getting there after a half-hour or so.

When we got across the bridge to the viewing area, the fog was rolling in really thick from the Pacific. All we could really see was the tops of the towers which hold up the suspension cables. Even then, it’s obvious what a big bridge it is. There’s also a memorial in honor of the sailors who pass by that bridge when leaving on their ships. It’s a sailor with a bridge coat on, collar up against the cold, with his bag beside him. He’s looking out into the distance to the foot of the bridge; getting one last look at land before he’s off into the wide Pacific.

We tried to get up to the top of Mt. Tamalpias, but the last part of the road to the top was closed on September 23rd. Instead, we walked about 10 minutes over to a nice view of the Bay. Most of the fog had cleared and we could see all the way into the city. People took pictures and then we were on our way.

Our plan for the evening was to go to a show at a place called the Boom Boom Room to see the Tornado Riders play. The lead singer/cellist for TR used to be the cello player for Crooked Still, a band that the ladies really like. We parked the car at a garage close to the club and wandered around the city.

It was about lunch time when we left the car, so we went off in search of some eats. After walking past it once, we went to a little deli, staffed only by this one cute older lady. When we left, Arlen left her coat and she ran out after Arlen; when Arlen was no where to be found, she put the coat behind the counter, waiting for when Arlen would return to get it.

Later in the day we walked over to Golden Gate Park, a rough equivalent to Central Park in NYC. Stuff we saw:

• kids at soccer practice
• men doing rugby drills
• someone having a campfire
• a Police (Peace?) officer telling said person not to have a campfire
• playground, with a sign saying “All adults must be accompanied by a child”
• lots of other people, too

The show was pretty good. The opening was this guy on a piano and a female accompanist. His first song was fun, but all the other songs sounded the same as that first one. Tornado Rider was a different vibe, but had the same issue. Their first song was one that the singer had written for Crooked Still (Tess’ favorite song on that album), but all the other ones sounded similar. Even with that, it’s incredible to watch someone bounce around the stage playing a cello. He’s got a guitar strap on it so he can play it standing up or even moving around. I imagine it takes a lot of energy to move that heavy thing around for a couple hours.