15/05/10

(on the 17th)

Another day another bowl of precious Lucky Charms. Good day it was too :) We started by going to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz, apparently one of the last proper beachfront amusement parks in America. It has one of the world's oldest wooden rolercoasters, which was great. I like the old wooden coasters, there is something so pure that is lost in the new complicated steel coasters. Unfortunately we only got to ride it once as it broke with us sitting as the next passengers :( They had added an extra train so that more people could ride it but they sent it through empty for the first run, and as it had no weight it got stuck.

After the rides we headed up to Stanford University where I took a guided tour round the campus. Stanford is amazing. I thought Caltech has a plush campus, Stanford is a bit like Caltech on the style of some of the buildings but is on a much grander scale. The main quad is like nothing I have ever seen. It is a bit like how I imagine the Oxbridge quads but huge and with a Spanish theme. To give an idea of scale, the centre of the quad is easily big enough for a full sized football pitch but paved with patches of well manicured plants and flowers. On the physics side, the department has 3 Nobel Prize winners, loads of money and a world class linear accelerator that, before CERN, was the most powerful accelerator in the world. A real change form the dire straights that many UK physics departments are in at the moment. In short, I have never been more impressed by any educational institution so Berkeley has a tough job after that.

On the way up towards San Francisco we stopped at Half Moon Bay, home of the infamous surf spot known as Mavericks. I believe Mavericks has the largest surfable waves in mainland USA. Unfortunately the sea was very calm when we were there so we didn't get to see the giant waves or any surfers, but it was good to see the spot. On the beach by Mavericks there is a makeshift memorial to Mark Foo, who was a famous surfer who died surfing those waves. We had a nice dinner at the Half Moon Bay Brewing company restaurant. As the name suggests, they brew their own beer. I had a sample of the 7 beers that they had on the beer menu and they were all great. Tjis is another example of great American beer making. We British are very snobbish when it comes to America and beer, but for no good reason, these guys can make great beer. The food was good also, fresh sea food caught locally with locally brewed beer = heaven.

Eventually we actually got into San Francisco where we were staying with a friend of Bryony. Technically Bryony's friend Charlotte is staying with her friend Jessica and we are now staying there too. :)

Cube out