elbearo2

Cal fans tend to be very mellow as we are used to having up and down swings in the football program and the only steady presence is the Cal Marching Band who work hard whether the team is awful or great. We saw several of your fans at the Courtyard in Emeryville and wished them well as they were leaving for home early this morning. My wife and I may well come down when Cal plays you at home in a couple of years as we have good friends who lived in Dallas and are now in Harrison, Arkansas and may plan out some kind of vacation that includes the game and a visit to their town. Any tips on Harrison, Ark. and the area? I am sure there are no ANTIFA down there as I am sure you also saw none in Berkeley. We may be liberal for the most part, but we usually don’t force it upon anyone in Northern California. Last year the Ole Miss folks started leaving the game in the 3rd quarter and someone said that it was because they were afraid of being accosted in the streets if they had stayed until the end of the game. The only people who would accost them would be the hot dog vendors (great dogs by the way) who work the street right outside of the stadium. Good luck to you guys the rest of the season! Hope to see you all in 2022 or whatever year we are scheduled to play again!

Correction: Game Time is 1:15 p.m. so the Cal Band should be at the Student Union/Sproul Plaza around 11:45 a.m. They usually form up 1.5 hours before kickoff. If you take BART to Berkeley the walk will start in downtown Berkeley, about a block west of campus.

If you on campus early, stop by the Student Union around Noon when the Cal Band comes out. They will perform for about 15 minutes before marching up the stadium. Across the street is Bancroft Clothing where you can find all kinds of Cal stuff and the prices are lower than the officially branded things in the Student Store. There are lots of dinner choices in Berkeley so you might use yelp.com as a search tool for starters. We like the Townhouse Bar and Grill in Emeryville, about ten minutes south of Berkeley near Oakland. We are in Section I and will be in the shade all day. If you are situated on the east side of the stadium, be prepared for the sun from start to finish and bring your sunscreen and cap or hat. They also recently installed security screeners before you enter the stadium so be ready for some delay as your bags, clear ones only, are searched and you must go through the scanner. We were not prepared for this at the first game, so we were surprised at the time ti took to enter the stadium. Remember that the California Memorial Stadium is located on a hill above the main campus so be prepared to walk about a half-mile or further from where you parked your car. Bring your walking shoes, cap and enough H2O and you will find the stroll through campus a very pleasant one! In any event, enjoy the day and it will be an usually warm one in Berkeley and surroundings.

The Graduate is about two blocks south of the campus and about the same distance to the stadium. My parking space is in a university lot a block away so I know it is a very central location. If you get there about 1.5 hours before kickoff, stop by the student union and you will see and hear the Cal Band perform on the Sproul Hall steps before marching up to the stadium. The campus is located on a slight uphill up to the stadium so bring your walking shoes. Saturday looks beautiful, as it usually is in the Bay Area and it may be in the high 70s, which is warm for this time of the year. We drive from Sacramento, like thousands of others, as we are about 80 miles away to the east so it is mostly a nice 1.5 to 2.0 hour trip one-way. The only really scruffy area around campus is at People's Park so make sure you don't park there. Enjoy your stay in the Bay Area.