California university tour ~ July 1 to July 9, 2007

day 1: July 1, 2007

After getting up at 230 am EDT and taking a 530 am EDT flight from Newark to Oakland via Houston, we arrived in Oakland at 11am PDT. Everything arrived but Sasha's luggage.

From the airport we went to Berkeley for lunch at Fat Apple's and then to Richmond where we met José Emerim who hosted us at 641 Amador Street.

In the afternoon, we went to San Francisco, visiting Pier 39, the beach, and Golden Gate Bridge.

For dinner, we went to Juan's Place, a small Mexican in Berkeley.

day 2: July 2, 2007

The day began with coffee at Starbucks and a tour of UC Berkeley in the morning.

At UC Berkeley, we toured the campus but did not have an admission's session. We visited Sather Tower, the main library, the engineering library, where we found Mauricio's Ph.D. thesis, and the computer science building. The day was very clear and we could see the Golden Gate Bridge from campus.

We had lunch at Larry Blake's on Telegraph Avenue and the boys bought Cal sweatshirts at the bookstore.

We got home to find Sasha's luggage on the front steps. It had been left there by Continental Airlines.

We completed the day with a ride on the Berkeley Hills, the movie Sicko, and dinner at a Japanese on Solano in Albany.

day 3: July 3, 2007

After waking up before 6 am, we left Amador Street at 6:40 am and, thanks to the little traffic due to 4^th of July, arrived at Stanford in about one hour.

After breakfast at Peet's Coffee and Tea at Stanford, we went on a one-hour guided walking tour of Stanford.

After the walking tour, we attended a one-hour seminar by an undergraduate admission's officer.

Alec and Adam stopped at the Stanford Bookstore before leaving and bought some souvenir's. At around noon we left Stanford on our way to Los Angeles. The distance between Stanford and LA is about 400 miles.

Instead of taking the fastest route (route 101), we decided to take the scenic route. We first went to Monterrey to take to famous 17 mile drive.

Then, we took route 1 along the beautiful California coast.

At around 4 pm, we stopped for lunch at Nepenthe, just south of Big Sur. By 5 pm we were on our way to LA, with about 300 miles to go.

We stopped for a stretching break at around 8 pm and continued non-stop from there to our hotel in LA. We arrived at the hotel at 10:30pm.

day 4: July 4, 2007

We began the day taking it easy and waking up after 9 am. By noon we were in Westwood to have breakfast and a quick walk around UCLA. Since today is a holiday the university was empty.

After breakfast, we rode around LA and visited Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, and Pepperdine University, which was also very empty. From the business school we had a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.

The kids caught up on their sleep in the car.

After coming back to the hotel and resting for a couple of hours, we went out for pizza in Westwood at the California Pizza Kitchen.

We got back to the hotel by 10 pm.

day 5: July 5, 2007

We left the hotel at 7:40 am and arrived at UCLA in time for breakfast at the student union. Our guided tour of the campus began at 10:15 am and lasted two hours.

The temperature was much cooler than on the previous day even though it was quite sunny.

We all admired UCLA's sculpture garden.

A tradition at UCLA is that entering freshmen touch the water at the inverted fountain and then only touch it again after they graduate.

After the tour, we walked to Westwood and had lunch at a deli.

From there, we left for Santa Barbara.

After arriving in Santa Barbara, we rested a bit at the hotel. Sasha went to the pool for some sun while Alec and Adam went for a swim.

Mauricio stayed in the room catching up on email.

We wanted to go out for sushi but when we arrived at Arigato Sushi on State Street in Santa Barbara at 8 pm, there was a 40 minute wait, so we decided to look for another restaurant. We found a nice Italian restaurant called Aldo's.

By 11 pm we were back to the hotel ready to sleep after a long day. Tomorrow the tour of UC Santa Barbara starts at 11 am with an admission's presentation.

day 6: July 6, 2007

We left the hotel at 10 am and went to UC Santa Barbara where we attended a freshman admission's session at 11 am.

At 12:15 pm we took a one-hour walking tour of the UCSB campus.

After the tour, we had lunch and left for San Diego.

The drive from Santa Barbara to San Diego (230 miles) on a Friday afternoon took about 5h30m.

After a couple of hours of relaxation at the hotel, we went out for dinner at the Sushi restaurant Taka on Fifth Avenue.

We walked to and from the restaurant,

day 7: July 7, 2007

We got up early and got to the UCSD campus by 10 am, in time for brunch at Subway.

Our campus tour started at 11 am and lasted over an hour. We are starting to get tired of so many campus visits.

After the tour, we went to La Jolla Village for ice cream at Cold Stone. This was our lunch,

From Cold Stone we went to the hotel for about 30 minutes and then head out to the San Diego Zoo. It is a very different kind of zoo.

After returning to the hotel from the zoo, we made reservations at a Brazilian Rodízio steakhouse called Rei do Gado on Fourth Street.

We got back to the hotel before 10 pm, Tomorrow we need to wake up early for the 8+ hour drive to the Bay Area.

day 8: July 8, 2007

Aftter getting up at 5 a.m. and printing our Continental Airline boarding passes at the hotel lobby we left our San Diego hotel at 6:50 a.m. on our way to the Bay Area. The distance, according to our navigation system, was 506 miles.

We took I-5, which is a big straight highway and in about 8 hours we arrived at Amador Street in Richmond. We stopped three times during the trip.

We rested from 3 to 7 pm, watched the Argentine-Peru Copa America match on TV, and checked email and Berkeley restaurants.

At 7 p.m., Mauricio's friend Mark Vulkacic came by and the five of us went out for dinner at the Japanese restaurant Kirala in Berkeley.

By 10 p.m., we were all in bed for the 5 hour sleep before leaving for the Oakland airport on Monday.

day 9: July 0, 2007

We got up at 3 a.m. and by 3:45 were on our way to the airport with a brief stop for gas on San Pablo Avenue in Richmond.

Our flight to Newark was via Houston. It left Oakland on time at 6:01 a.m.

After two three and a half hour legs, we arrived in Newark at around 6 p.m. Adam's mom (Linda) was there to pick us up.