Berkeley Hills for a Night

We made it out of the hot and smoky for the HOT valley and eventually to the chill Bay Area. Sam and Aurrie live in Berkeley with some friends (who's uncle's family owns the house). It was nice, and we all agreed that none of us could ever afford the place:

It was designed by an architect of some note that Corrie had heard of, but we can't remember now. It's also more or less falling apart, as no one is quite motivated to foot the bill to fix it up. But the view from the front door...are you kidding me:

That's San Francisco just across the bay visible whenever it's clear enough. 

They also live very close to two of the cool hiking rocks in the Berkeley Hills, Indian Rock and Contra Costa Rock. We wakied them both and hiked them both before leaving for San Jose.

I came out of the house early in AM to get something from our car and noticed someone crossing the street jogging. It looked like she appeared from nowhere and then kept going into a driveway. I walked down the street two houses away to see a paved footpath heading up to Indian Rock and down all the way to Solano Ave, the main drag on this side of Berkeley. It was amazing.

Footpath down to Solano Ave

We said farewell to our friends and went on down the road to San Jose to other friends, Donny and Anna, and had some barbecue beef ribs. As always, time with our people is so much fun and helps nourish us as we try to navigate new variants and the like.