Berkeley Hills

Back in 2018, I planned a day in Berkeley. I realized that there was too much to do in 1 day. So I decided to make a separate day in 2019 to visit sights in the hills above Berkeley. And here it is!

Claremont Hotel & Spa

My friend Kevin joined me for the day. He had previously joined me at the Randall Museum in 2018. He was also part of the group that joined me for a tour of the Haas-Lilienthal House at Christmastime in 2017.

The first stop of the day was the Claremont Hotel & Spa, where we had breakfast with my friend John. John had previously joined me at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2017 and the Oakland Museum of California in 2018.

Claremont Hotel & Spa is actually located mostly in Oakland. A very small portion of it is located in Berkeley. In 2014, it became a Fairmont property. As some of you know, I have an attachment to the Fairmont brand.

University of California Botanical Garden

After breakfast, Kevin and I said goodbye to John, took a short bus ride over to the main campus at University of California, Berkeley, then headed further up into the hills. It was actually a fun little hike because for part of the way, Google Maps had us heading on trails in the woods. Usually you expect Google Maps to keep you to the streets.

Not quite sure what this pretty peeper from South Africa is.

The pleasant hike took us to University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. You can guess by the name that the garden is part of UC Berkeley. (What you can’t tell by the name is that it too is located in Oakland–the most northerly part of the East Bay’s biggest city.)

View across the garden to San Francisco Bay, just barely visible in the clouds.

Matilija poppies, native to Southern California and Baja California in Mexico.

This Serpentine manzanita, native to the central California coast, has quite the interesting trunk.

The thorny Madagascar palm is not a palm at all. (But it is native to Madagascar.)

Lawrence Hall of Science

After taking in the natural beauty of the University of California Botanical Garden, we headed further uphill. Kevin was in much better shape than I was, so he had to wait for me as I huffed and puffed my way up the hill. Eventually we reached the Lawrence Hall of Science, yet another component of University of California, Berkeley.

Kids love Pheena, a life-sized model of a teenage fin whale, the 2nd largest specifies of whale.

Triceratops and friend in the *Dinosaurs in Motion* exhibit.

During our visit, the Lawrence Hall of Science had an odd temporary exhibit going on called Dinosaurs in Motion. It was made up of metal kinetic dinosaurs created by artist John Payne. John was a trained metalsmith who was fascinated by dinosaurs.

This kinetic sculpture of an American crow seemed to show the relationship between dinosaurs and birds.

View of the San Francisco Bay from Lawrence Hall of Science’s hilltop perch.

Boba Fett is an inland bearded dragon, which is native to Australia. She was 2 years old at the time of our visit.

Einstein, an albino axolotl. Her age is unknown. Axolotls are native to the Mexico City area but are almost extinct in the wild.

Cosmo, the Sinaloan milk snake. He was believed to be at least 22 years old at the time of our visit. His type are native to western Mexico.

Sorry, I didn’t get the stats on this beautiful creature.

Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round

We had some transportation difficulties in Berkeley in the afternoon due to construction. This delayed our arrival at the day’s final destination–Tilden Regional Park on the crest of the Berkeley Hills. So we had to make a return visit to the Berkeley Hills to take in what we missed out on. What we didn’t miss out on was the delightful Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round.

The Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round was built in 1911 and is one of the oldest operating carousels in the U.S. It has been rotating on top of the Berkeley Hills since 1949. The animals are hand-carved poplar.