Oakland and Berkeley

Me and Savannah outside the Blondies Pizza - Two blondies! This blog post backtracks one day but here are some photos from our first day arriving in the Bay Area. We went straight to Bittersweet Cafe where I completely forgot to take a photo! I met with a friend of mine, Steve Newton who works with NCSE in Oakland. I had rented a car for a week so Paige drove Lu & Wylder and I drove up with Sam & Savannah and the strangest thing happened throughout the trip that I didn't really even realize until today when Paige pointed it out. So whenever we would go anywhere on our separate ways, we would arrive at places literally within MINUTES. It was actually pretty bizarre the more that I think about it! At any rate the first such coincidence happened when we arrived within a few minutes of one another at Bittersweet. Everyone was hungry so after getting a spicy hot chocolate I said bye to Steve and we headed to Telegraph Avenue in Oakland just next to the UC Berkeley campus. Paige and her kids have a tradition of visiting Blondie's Pizza for dinner so we went there despite a recommendation from Steve for another place. I think the kids wanted to stick to tradition.
Us inside Blondies. I got the Tom-Art pizza - aka Tomato-Artichoke. It was thin crust, New York style, and delicious! Afterwards we walked down Telegraph Ave a bit where there are always street jewelers and musicians. This is a thrift shop where I shopped with Zofia and my niece Kira once a few years back (here's a link to my blog post with the pics). A shot of a really nice street vendor named Daniel who made jewelry out of those glass beads. I got one and an infinity bracelet. I also got an evil eye necklace from a local artisan named Twiggy but he didn't want his photo taken. Next we headed to check out the campus. Once again Paige was our wonderful trusty guide! She showed us the library, where protests used to take place and several other parts of campus.
Sather Gate marks one end of campus. UC Berkeley - aka "Cal" - was the first UC school. I always wanted to go there or UCLA when I was younger. Sather Tower aka the Campanile. Next we stopped in Doe Library where we were greeted by none other than Mark Twain. Only we thought he was Albert Einstein until we figured out that he wasn't. At any rate, the bronze statue got a lot of attention and even hugs. And Lu got some hugs too! Lu, me, and Savannah with Mark. Doesn't this look just like a library scene from some movie or movies? I'm sure it must be in some... Next we visited the life sciences building which has a giant T. Rex skeleton. And also a Pterodactyl. A random announcement board outside the Free Speech Cafe.
After exploring the campus we headed to San Francisco via the Bay Bridge!