Today was the best day ever on any 3-Day, hands down. Not only was the weather cooperative, but the route was fun and varied, the scenery was interesting, and I had an INCREDIBLE lunchtime surprise. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First things first.
We woke up at 5:00 this morning, and after getting ready, we headed over to breakfast at about 5:30. As usual, the menu was extensive!
I opted for scambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a small banana nut muffin. I mixed coffee and cocoa for a deliciously warm mocha, much appreciated on this chilly morning.
After a trip to the tent to pick up my backpack, we were ready to hit the road, leaving camp at 6:30.
Leaving camp behind, we walked along the south side of Treasure Island, and as the sky brightened, we had views of downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.
We arrived at the ferry just before 7:00, as the sky was beautifully tinted by the approaching sunrise. Just look at those gorgeous colors! How often do you get an actual sunrise over San Francisco Bay?!?
After we boarded the ferry but before we pulled away from Treasure Island's dock, another walker took this picture of me at sunrise.
From Treasure Island, we traveled eastward across the Bay, arriving in Berkeley just before 8:00.
From the marina, we headed east and walked along a paved route with the Bay to our right side. Here and there, we once again saw the pink signs that are always so inspiring and fun to read, such as this one.
After crossing a pedestrian bridge over Route 80, we began seeing many reflections of community support, including at a store along Fourth Street, an upscale shopping district in Berkeley.
Shortly after 8:30, Bonnie and I arrived at the morning's first pit stop, located in Berkeley's Cedar Rose Park. After a quick visit with the crew, a trip to the porta-potties, and restocking our water bottles, we hit the road again.
From the park, we went in a southeasterly direction, soon finding ourselves along the Ohlone Greenway, a pedestrian and bicycle path that runs from Berkeley to Richmond. The Greenway is named for the Ohlone tribe which originally lived in this area. The sign in the picture above, although missing a letter, refers to Codornices Creek, a two-mile long stream which runs out of the Berkeley Hills, through Berkeley, and ultimately into the Bay. The creek forms the boundary between Berkeley and Albany, a town to Berkeley's southeast and located in Alameda County.
Continuing on, after a couple of miles, we turned onto Solano Avenue, a section of the 3-Day route I had been anticipating for quite sometime. Why? Because my friend, Sonia, lives right on Solano Avenue. How cool is that? As soon as we got onto her street, I stepped off of the route for a moment to send her a text message. As it happens, there was no way I would have overlooked her home, because guess what? She put a gigantic sign for me in her front window!
This put a huge smile on my face. Sonia waved to us from the window and then ran downstairs and across the street so that we could pose for a quick picture before Bonnie and I continued on. Thank you so much, Sonia, for your support!
About 1.5 miles after visiting with Sonia, we arrived at Pit Stop Two, 6.7 miles into our walk. This pit stop was located at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley. When this school first opened, in the early 1900s, it was named for President James A. Garfield. Shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, the name of the school was changed to honor him.
As it was yesterday, the theme of Pit Stop Two today was Double Dee Diner. And this pit stop had something I'd never seen before at a 3-Day pit stop: SINKS! What a concept!
Leaving the middle school behind, we saw more signs of community support in Berkeley, such as this balloon along Shattuck Avenue, which, in case you're wondering, was named for Francis K. Shattuck, a prominent civic leader in Berkeley during the nineteenth century. As it happens, Shattuck is a distant cousin of mine, as we're both related to Increase Mather. Pretty nifty, huh? I wasn't sure I'd be able to work my love of genealogy into my 3-Day blog, but there you go!
Do you see the white tent in the picture above? At first, I thought it was a community supporter. As we walked by, I realized it was a woman selling various forms of pink jewelry (at what appeared to be exorbitant prices), and I found this pretty annoying. She was somewhat pushy and showed up several more times today along the route. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything from her.
Shortly after we turned onto Vine Street, we passed by a bakery called Love at First Bite, and guess what? The owners of the store were standing in front of their shop, passing out delicious sugar cookies. What a thoughtful treat!
The amazing police officers who volunteer their time for the 3-Day are essential; we could not do the walk without them. Not only do they protect us from oncoming traffic, they cheer for us and give us high fives, and many of them really get into the spirit of the event, as this San Jose police officer did in Berkeley this morning. Check out his helmet decoration!
Just before 9:00 this morning, we arrived at the entrance to the campus of UC Berkeley. Many of my friends went to school here, and it was great to have the chance to see the campus.
Berkeley opened in 1869 as the first full-curriculum public university in California and was named after Irish philosopher George Berkeley, and not surprisingly, the town is also named for him. As we wound our way through the campus, we came upon this sign, which I love.
Continuing on, we soon approached Sather Tower, which opened in 1914 and is one of the more recognizable landmarks on the campus. Apparently, at 307 feet, it's the third-tallest bell and clock tower in the world (right behind the 328-foot tall Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower at the University of Birmingham [which I haven't seen] and the 323-foot tall Campanile di San Marco in Venice [which I have seen], in case you were wondering).
Just beyond Sather Tower, we arrived at our first cheering station of the day. We were on the early side, and as we walked toward the area, lots of cheerers raced to get there ahead of us.
From the cheering station, we walked uphill and then crossed this pretty bridge over Strawberry Creek, which eventually runs into San Francisco Bay.
Parts of the campus were decorated with yellow ribbons, in honor of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow.
We walked through an area full of sorority houses, and there were no signs of life (late night partying on Friday, perhaps?), but just as we were about to leave the campus, we passed by this group of sorority sisters who had come out to cheer us on. Thanks, ladies!
Shortly after exiting Berkeley's campus, we arrived at Pit Stop Three, once again displaying a Candy-Land theme.
Before we got back on the road, I asked Bonnie to take this picture of the sign on my back. You can't quite see all of the names, but I'm sure you get the idea!
We spent some time today walking the streets of Piedmont, a small town completely surrounded by Oakland. Oakland's population is more than 35 times that of Piedmont, which has an area of just over 1.5 miles. During the Roaring Twenties, Piedmont was known as the "City of Millionaires," because it had more millionaires per square mile than any other city in the United States. As we walked southbound along Oakland Avenue in Piedmont, we were greeted by these three supporters, who handed us each a delicious frozen strawberry lemonade heart. What a treat!
Just over 12.5 miles into our walk today, we arrived at Grab & Go A, located at the Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, a school of about 350 students.
This is Lloyd, one of the members of the Grab & Go A Crew. He has crewed on several of the West Coast 3-Days.
As I've mentioned before, there are (generally) no snacks at Grab & Gos, just water, Gatorade, and porta-potties. So it was a very nice surprise to discover lots and lots and lots of cupcakes at this particular Grab & Go! They were baked for us by three supporters dressed, appropriately enough, as cheerleaders. What a great way to show their support!
There was a beautiful rose bush growing outside the school, and I took this picture before leaving Grab & Go A.
Shortly after our stop at the Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, we crossed from Piedmont back into Oakland. Here is a picture of Bonnie on the border of the two cities.
Soon, we approached our lunch stop, located about 15 miles into today's walk at Lake Merritt.
Lake Merritt is a tidal lagoon, located east of downtown Oakland. Surrounded by parkland, this area is the nation's first wildlife refuge, designated as such in 1870. The lake was named after Dr. Samuel Merritt, a former mayor of Oakland who owned property at the edge of the lake.
After admiring the view at the water's edge, Bonnie and I began awalking up the hill toward our lunch stop.
I turned to Bonnie to say something (I don't remember what), and a movement behind me caught my attention. I turned, and you'll never believe it. It was my Robbie!!
Best. Surprise. Ever. Robbie flew all the way across the country to surprise me at today's lunch stop!! He had been waiting at Lake Merritt for an hour or so, having driven there from the airport. Bonnie took the above picture about three minutes after I first saw him, and as you can see, my mouth was still wide open with surprise. No words can express how touched I was that he flew so far to spend just 45 minutes with me at lunch. I didn't feel my blisters for the rest of the day--I guess that's what walking on air does to you!
Bonnie and I got our lunch, and we sat with Robbie and chatted for a while. I was so excited and surprised that I really wasn't very hungry!
All too soon, it was time to part ways with Robbie, and Bonnie and I continued on our way, circling around the other side of Lake Merritt. From this perspective, it reminds me a bit of Lake Lucerne.
After we walked almost all the way around the lake, our route took us into downtown Oakland. We passed by a few cheerers along the way, including one who had put up this sign.
Shortly before reaching mile 17, we walked by this building, which was the headquarters of the Oakland Tribune from 1924 until 2007.
This building is known as Tribune Tower, and not only is a symbol of the newspaper but is also a well-known symbol of Oakland itself. Today, the building houses offices and condominiums. Just beyond Tribune Tower, we arrived at our second cheering station of the day, located in the center of Oakland on Clay Street.
Thanking our cheerers for their encouragement, we walked onward through Oakland and passed by this sign, which made me laugh.
Eighteen and a half miles into today's walk, we arrived at Jack London Square, where we were greeted by cheering members of the crew.
The square, located along Oakland's waterfront, is a popular attraction filled with stores, restaurants, hotels, and even an Amtrak Station. We were happy to arrive here today because it was where we met the ferry to transport us back to Treasure Island. But first, we walked by this statue of Jack London, for whom the square is named.
The inscription at the base of the statue displays a quote by London, "I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall use my time." London spent much of his childhood along the water right here and completed elementary school in Oakland.
Bonnie and I boarded the ferry at about 2:00 this afternoon, and before we pulled away from the Oakland Marina, she took this picture of me with the California Republic flag behind me. And then, it was time to bid farewell to Oakland.
The ferry pulled out of Oakland rather slowly, so we had a lot of time to look at the port. The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast to build terminals for container ships and is now the fifth busiest container port in the US. Originally, at low tide, the depth here was only two feet! When Oakland was incorporated as a town in 1852, dredging began, and in 1874, the channel was deepened to turn the area into a deep water port.
As we left Oakland, from the ferry, we had great views of both the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco.
If you look very closely at the photo above, you will notice that the Golden Gate Bridge is partially visible, through the fog, behind the Bay Bridge. Pretty cool! As we ferried westward across the Bay, the water got choppier and choppier, so after taking this picture, I retreated to the lower, inside cabin for the rest of the ride to Treasure Island.
We arrived back at Treasure Island at about 2:30 and walked along the west side of the island, where we had a pretty view of the Bay.
The 3-Day sign crew had been hard at work, laying out our route from the ferry drop-off back to camp. Every surface is fair game for a route arrow, even some sort of scaffolding attached to a palm tree!
Along this part of the walk, there was a sharp plant at the base of the palm trees which kept scratching my legs. I hadn't seen it before, but Bonnie had and told me that it was agave. And here is a picture of it!
The pain of the agave was significantly lessened by the appearance on our route of these wonderful cheerers. And they were handing out mini-eclairs!
We got to camp at about 3:00, where were were warmly welcomed by the crew, and then we posed for our 40 Miles picture. We did it! Just 20 more miles to go!!
After posing for the picture above, our next stop was our tent. Today was a very windy day, and we were worried that our tent might have collapsed. Fortunately, our luggage had weighted the tent down, and it was right where we'd left it early this morning. And also fortunately, we didn't have to worry about any cyclones carrying our tents off to the Land of Oz. Phew!
After taking showers and changing into warmer clothes, Bonnie and I headed over to 3-Day Main Street, where she iced her toes, which were quite sore. I can't imagine why! And I had some hot chocolate to perk me up, as I was feeling pretty sleepy. Again, I can't imagine why! It's not like we walked a long distance today . . .oh wait, we did!
Just before 5:30 this afternoon, we moseyed over to the dining tent to get our dinner. Yum!
Dinner (especially the carrot cake) was delicious, and after relaxing at the table for a while, Bonnie and I went, for the second night in a row, to the massage tent. What a treat! After ten minutes of having my back and legs massaged, I felt ready to walk twenty more miles. Almost ready, anyway . . .but I think a night of sleep beforehand is a good idea!
I had some time to spare before the last walkers arrived, and in an effort to keep my recently-massaged muscles warm and not sore, I wandered around camp for a while. I found the sign that we had contributed to just yesterday (which feels like MUCH longer ago) before the Opening Ceremony, and after some careful searching, I found my two stickers in the midst of dozens of others.
Next, I spent some time at the Remembrance Tents. There is a tent for each of the 2011 walks, with the tent for the current walk housed inside the big tent in the middle. The tent is designed as a place to quietly remember those lost to breast cancer, and there are journals where you can write anything you want. You can also write the names of those lost to the disease on the tent.
By the time I headed back toward 3-Day Main Street, sunset was approaching, and the fog was beginning to roll in, partially obstructing the view of downtown San Francisco.
At 7:15, the last walkers safely returned to camp, and we all gathered around the flagpole to celebrate that we are now one more day closer to a cure for breast cancer.
We enjoyed a great 45 minutes of entertainment in the dining tent, including a 3-Day game show à la "Family Feud," which was lots of fun to watch.
And now, it's time for lights out (you may notice that our tent "chandelier" is actually a flashlight!) and bed. Good night, moon!
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