July 9: we tool around Berkeley--more parking woes

We began our day at the Optometry School. It turned out to be a very fun tour, but it almost never happened. You may be aware that I am not the most patient person. I could not find ANY parking!! Finally, I called the optometry school and negotiated the phone maze (why can't phones have human people at the other end?) which told me to go to the gate and tell the man there why I was there. I did and he told me where to go to park off-campus. (After we retrieved the car, I found two other lots at half the price I paid for our parking but I was just glad to find ANY place to put the car!) Matt and I found the optometry clinic and went up to the front desk. I told the nice lady what I was here for and I was expecting her to retrieve an idle 3rd year clinician who could just show me around. But NO, we had to go thru student services. Argh.

However, THAT turned out great. Matt was quite impressed to have the young lady, Tammy, come over to me and recognize my name! Ha! Finally got one on the boy! The reason she knew me was that we had emailed a few years ago and I had done a write-up of what my life was like both before and after optometry school. We then ran into the guy who put the write-up on the web and HE recognized the name. I was loving it and Matt was astonished! It was quite comical.

Tammy, Arianna and their other cohort were great tour guides, taking us wherever my feeble mind thought I would want to go. It was a great tour! Matt was impressed because they gave him a goodie bag with all kinds of Cal Optometry paraphenalia including gummy BEARS!

The next funny thing that happened was that when we passed Dean Levi's lab, who should emerge, but the Dean himself. I had never met him, but he always has come across as rather personable. He was a delight to meet and was gracious with his time.

Me and Dr. Meredith Morgan's bust. He was one of the early pioneers in the field of optometry. I got to hear one of his overvue lectures in my first year. I will always remember him questioning the class and asking us which, of all the equipment we had just purchased would benefit us most in clinic once we graduated and were working with our own patients. We all guessed all kinds of clinical instrumentation. But he told us that none of that would matter as much as something we already had, but might not know how to use very much: our ears! I think of that often when a patient will be surprised when I make a diagnosis straightaway and I can tell them: you TOLD me what it was, but YOU didn't know you did!

Ears and some clinical training. Smart guy, that Meredith Morgan.

This is the new spectacles dispensary. Wow. Pretty amazing.

The reception area of the new Fong Optometry Library. This is just a gorgeous facility!

I LOVED this sculpture at the checkout desk in the Optometry School Library.

This is all new since we were there.

After the Optometry School and Clinics tour, we continued to explore the rest of the campus.

Matt was wondering why we even bothered to go all the way to Muir Woods when we had this lovely and peaceful grove of coastal redwoods right here on the campus!

We like it BIG: a pelican sculpture on the UCB campus.

Don't you wonder what the story is behind that??

The Sather Gate: the gateway on the north side of campus to Sproul Plaza, home of Mario Savio's Free Speech Movement in the 60s (long before MY time here!)

I used to love to come and study here in the reading room of the Doe Grad School Library.

It has always reminded me of what I suppose Harvard must be like. Once I was studying when the epicenter of a small magnitude earthquake was right below me. THAT was exciting!

We were hungry and there were lots of places I still wanted to walk by/through on campus. I had only ever been in Moffitt Library a couple of times and don't recall this little eatery. It very well might have been there when I was there, but I just don't know for sure. In any case, it was a great place for lunch! While waiting for our sandwiches to appear, I was looking around the inside seating area and was surprised to note that 75% of the laptops were Macs!

We were tooling around the lower campus...I rarely (never?) went there when I was in optometry school. So, as Matt and I were looking around, I kept seeing things that were certainly there in the 80s, yet I had never "seen" or noticed. This was a relief from the Zoology Building. There really was art all around campus. And, nooks and crannies to read/study.

We peeked into the baseball fields. They were NICE!

Karen had told me about taking the elevator up to the top of the Campanile. We couldn't even get anywhere close as it was being refurbed. We did hear the chimes play at noon. Beautiful.

Does it seem to you that this trip is either knitting or food? Hmm....there may be something to that, along with a bit of walking around (and, today, trying to find parking). With not a less than three times around the block, we finally did find Article Pract and one of us was not disappointed. I bought another skein of greys and creams to use for that hat I promised Matt.

I could so easily have this be my favorite LYS (that is knitterese for Local Yarn Shop).

This place, Betty's on Telegraph in Oakland just down from Article Pract, was too funny. When we walked by, there was a long line waiting to get in. Evidently, this is a place, Betty's, that makes fresh pastries with fresh fruits. Look again: those are old ironing boards set up on the sidewalk that Betty's uses for tables!

Next stop: more parking adventures. I just HAD to go back to Body Time for a refill on some Lavender Tea Tree deoderant spray. Yipes. I wanted to take some photos and asked if that would be ok. Well, it was THREE phone calls before I could get a begrudging OK on the photos. Honestly, it was almost too much trouble, but I love the lineups of bottles and potions.

I hope you do too.

I had several things on my shopping list at Body Time. I found a parking spot within a quarter mile of the shop on College Avenue--score!

We passed a bunch of Peet's Coffee locations today. However, I was like a pilgrim in search of her shrine and only the original Peet's location on Vine Street in Berkeley would do for me. I had my first cuppa Peet's here and this was where I would have a cappucino today!

We only had to circle the block once and turn around once before finding a spot to park the car.
So far, no parking tickets and we want to keep it that way. One is enough!

And, my parallel parking is much improved over just one week ago!

Now there are tables with more room for the lines of coffee afficianados.

This Peet's is roomier than it was back in the 80s. It's obviously been remodeled, but that wonderful coffee roasting aroma is still thick in the air and the essence of it's charm!
We passed on the pastries but they did look great.

I just TOOK photos in Peets. I was afraid to ask them if it was ok!

Matt has his Mocha from Peets and we rest for a moment on the Northside of Berkeley to ponder our last few hours of vacation. We both have enjoyed ourselves while missing our other guys. After two days of parking craziness, I'm more than ready to head home.

Our bags are mostly all packed.

Josie, Kiisa and Diabla will be more than happy to see us....we hope..