Cal Day 2019

This past weekend we spent a day at UC Berkeley for the annual Cal Day event.

Cal Day is the university's open day, but it's not only for prospective students like you might think. While there is plenty on hand for students planning on attending Cal, it's also a day filled with fun activities for the whole the family. At Cal Day you'll find spirit rallies, musical performances, campus tours, booths from every club you could possibly imagine (and lots you would never imagine existed!), hands on science experiments, campus police displays, animals to pet, sporting events and so much more. In fact, there's so much on offer at Cal Day that's it's impossible to even see half of it.

Cal Day 2017

Last Saturday the girls and I spent the day at UC Berkeley's annual open day, Cal Day.

Cal Day is one of our favorite local events each year and as always the girls had a ton of fun. While the main purpose of the event is to showcase the university to potential students, there are always plenty of family friendly activities for the local community to take part in too.

Just like the campus, the event is huge and there's no way you can see everything. I always make sure to plan in advance and work out which activities the kids will like best. We tend to stick to the area around the Valley Life Sciences where there are all sorts of fun science related activities for the kids. The performances in Sproul Plaza are always high on our list too. This year was no different.

Cal Day 2015

This Saturday was Cal Day, UC Berkeley's annual open day.

We spent a good part of the day enjoying the sunshine, watching dance performances and a pep rally, pretending to drive police vehicles, trying our hand at playing instruments, meeting animals, and getting creative with a little tinkering. As always, it was super busy and there was so much going on that it was impossible to see the whole campus, so we stuck to the things that the girls had enjoyed in previous years.

A Berkeley Staycation

With ten and a half weeks of Summer vacation to fill each year I'm always on the lookout for ideas to keep the kids occupied. With San Francisco so close (I can literally see the city out my lounge room windows) we tend to find ourselves crossing the Bay on a regular basis to explore the city.

The kids and I absolutely love San Francisco and enjoy spending time there but sometimes it's nice to stay a little closer to home. This got me thinking about all of the fun things that we can do right here in Berkeley. Our little city is full to the brim with a wide variety of fun activities and adventures for the kids.

So instead of hopping on BART and heading across (or rather, under) the bay to San Francisco, let's spend a little time here exploring our own backyard with a Berkeley staycation.

To make it feel more like a vacation, I've come up with a five day itinerary for the kids and I. Each day is filled with fun activities in one particular area of Berkeley. As we don't have a car I've tried to keep the activities relatively close to each other. Most things are within fairly easy walking distance (or bus distance) of Downtown Berkeley.

Day 1: Gourmet Ghetto, Live Oak Park & Indian Rock Park

Yes, you read that correctly. Berkeley has a neighborhood called the Gourmet Ghetto! I've always found this name a little odd, but as you can probably guess it's a neighborhood filled with fine cuisine. One of California's most famous restaurants, Alice Water's Chez Panisse, is located here along with many other well known establishments including Cheeseboard and the first ever Peet's Coffee. Chez Panisse may be a little out of our family's dining league but Cheeseboard fits us perfectly. In fact, because it's right around the corner from Ava's school we go there almost every day!

Start the day with a late breakfast or brunch at one of the Gourmet Ghetto's many cafes. We quite like Saul's Delicatessen. Then head to Cheeseboard to stock up on sourdough goodies for lunch. Our favourites are bialys, asiago schticks, zampanos and brioches. And don't forget the cheese!

A day in Berkeley

Another post about my parent's recent visit from Australia. Still a few more to come after this one too...

After spending a few days playing tourist in San Francisco we decided to keep it local and spend a day with my parents in the East Bay.

We started the day with breakfast at Saul's Delicatessen in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. Saul's is one of my favourite places to go for a casual meal, especially breakfast or brunch. Oh, I do love their Malawach Yemeni Pancake. So, so good.

We then stocked up on goodies from the Cheeseboard and headed to Indian Rock. You may remember Indian Rock from my post a few weeks back. It's my new favourite place in Berkeley to go for a walk (or rather, climb!) with the kids. The views from the top are amazing and scrambling over the rocks is loads of fun.

Cal Day 2014

Yesterday we spent the day at university for the annual Cal Open Day. For one day every April the UC Berkeley campus is open to the public with pretty much the entire university experience on display.

The girls and I with Cal mascot, Oski Bear 

Little Squirrel Friends

One of the things that we like about living in Berkeley is the abundance of wildlife that surrounds us. Unlike at home in Australia where the wildlife that surrounded our home was all of the insect and spider variety, the wildlife we come across on a regular basis here is much cuter and friendlier. 

I'm talking about squirrels. Cute and fluffy little squirrels!

So cute and fluffy

A day at university

This past weekend was another busy one for us. The start of the warmer weather marks the start of the non-stop festival season here in the Bay Area. I swear that this time last year we attended a festival of some sort almost every weekend, sometimes even more than one per weekend. Well, this weekend was no exception with festivals to attend on both days.

Let's start with a look at what we did on Saturday...

This Saturday was Cal Day, the annual open day at University of California Berkeley. Back home in Australia university open days are pretty much just the domain of prospective students and their parents. Here, however, the open day is a festival for the whole community. Sure, there are heaps of stands set up to provide prospective students with information and the whole event is like a giant pep rally of school spirit, but there are also lots of fun hands on kid's activities to keep the little ones entertained. And that, of course was the whole reason we were there!

Ava and Lola at Cal