Walker and Bill’s tours today were back to back and about 50 miles apart. The first was UC Berkeley. Since they were not quite sure how long it would take to get there from their hotel, Walker cleverly suggested they wait to have breakfast in Berkeley if they arrived on time.
His plan paid off and they chose this lovely French restaurant, called La Note. Walker ordered Les Oeuf Lucas: two eggs lightly scrambled with goat cheese and chives and served with roasted tomatoes and crusty toast.
As they walked through the city, Bill reminisced that trash in the streets and these kinds of signs in stores made him long for Brooklyn.
On campus they spotted the California Golden Bear by Douglas Van Howd. It has become known as the Cal Bear and is presented as gifts to the graduating seniors on the football team.
Notable Berkeley tour details include the fact that sports are very important, they are aware of space constraints and use their stadium for meeting space, it is hard to transfer into engineering if one does not start in engineering, the bell tower is staffed by people and one can take bell ringing classes, and it’s a big commuter campus. They also refer to a neighboring school as the red menace across the bay.
As soon as the Berkeley tour ended, they dashed off to Santa Clara University.
With luck on their side, they arrived early for their tours and wandered around the visitor center.
Santa Clara is a beautiful campus. One can see the shadow from the church bell tower above. They learned that the mission had been rebuilt six times.
Beach volleyball courts behind the housing and the stadium in the background.
Walker and Bill took the general tour and then an engineering specific tour. Tour highlights included the fact that SCU is in the heart of the Silicon Valley, a very high number of graduates go to work for Apple, it’s a consistent temperature year round, students built a self-contained home on campus, and the university received a substantial gift allowing them to built a new STEM facility.
When they wrapped up, it was time for dinner at Reposado Restaurant in Palo Alto.
Clockwise from top left: chips and salsa; fresh guacamole with cilantro, lime juice, shallots, tomato, serrano chile, queso añejo and freshly made tortilla chips; grilled roasted eggplant steak, hazelnut crust, basmati rice, poblano caponata, charred habanero tahini & tomato oregano sauce, and enchiladas filled with grilled mixed vegetables, panela cheese, guajillo salsa and spiced braised potatoes, served with cilantro mint cabbage slaw
The food looked so appetizing that eventually I had to say, “uncle” to the photos they were sending. It was a wonderful dinner to end the touring weekend.
Tomorrow they head home!
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