Saket Vora

Despite getting only 4 hours of sleep, I woke up at 6am today and got ready. I met up with Lei (equally tired) and we took a drive around the bay. We drove 280 north to San Francisco, far more scenic than 101. As we drove up, we saw a dense river of fog hug the bottom of the valley, a rather startling sight for those unaccustomed to it. Crossing the bridge, we ended up getting lost among small neighborhoods and towns, ultimately driving north towards Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods. Our tiredness combined with the uneasy contract we have with Mornings made the twisty turns less than enjoyable. Still, the view from Mt. Tamalpais was spectacular, seeing the entire Bay and the San Francisco peninsula with its mass of skyscrapers. On our right was the expanse of the Pacific. Continuing our drive, we arrived at Muir Woods. I had visited here on the road trip, but Lei wanted to see a real forest and it is a nice hike. We took a 3 mile trail and looked at a redwood that fell on October 7th. Muir Woods feels ancient, yet change occurs daily.

After a snack we headed towards San Rafael and then the 580 bridge towards Berkeley. I noticed quite a number of Indian restaurants and stores while driving down their University Avenue towards campus. We parked outside and walked through the central and northern parts of campus. Most of Berkeley is at the foot of the hills, but some buildings and are definitely up on the mountain. The campus is much smaller than Stanford, in the shape of a trapezoid. Walking at a casual pace, we went from the west end to east end in 10-15 minutes. In total area, it’s about 40-50% smaller than NC State’s central campus. The buildings are not uniform, in either style (ie, Univ of Maryland) or materials (ie, NCSU). Many buildings feature (and forgive my lack of architectural terms) what I call ‘California style neo-classicism’. There are neo-classical elements I would not be surprised to see on buildings in Washington D.C., but with a spanish-style terra cotta tiled roof. Other buildings are very distinct, like the emerald green tilework of the CS building. The library is white marble lined with high ceilinged gorgeous reading rooms flooded with natural light. You know, some people say Berkeley’s campus can look pretty ghetto, but I didn’t see any areas like that. I did not visit the southern part though. The town of Berkeley is what you’d expect of a undergrad-heavy state college. The two main streets are full of restaurants (heavy leaning towards Asian and south Asian), cafes, and stores. It certainly has a more low-key aura than the tree-lined University Avenue by Stanford. All the university buses looked unnecessarily old, and Lei and I poked fun at the hippie implications all around us. A whole store dedicated to indoor agriculture lighting? Why would anyone, near Berkeley, want to grow plants inside? I did grab some coffee at a small coffee shop and later Lei and I grabbed a slice of pizza from a hole-in-the-wall pizza place. Both turned out to be good.

After Berkeley we headed home. The early start and lack of sleep took a heavier toll than we thought it would.

So where are the pictures you might ask? Sad news: my Canon S2 IS is dead. I bought this camera in July 2005, before going to Europe. The camera produced approximately 50 GB of content since then. I turned it on this morning with a fresh charge of batteries to find the screen black. The menu is shown but no images appear on the screen. I can view old pcitures without a problem, but I’m not getting any pictures from the sensor. I’ve looked at some forums and this has happened to others. I can pay Canon around $125 to fix it. I wish I could have lasted another year, but it did have a good run. Oh well.

Any suggestions for a replacement? Thanks.