berkeley weekend getaway | a photo smörgåsbord

you will see in this post, yes … i am a hippie. my brother and i traversed up to berkeley to see Phish perform two (amazing) concerts. but this is not just about that. this is very much about berkeley, my overall and genuine love for northern california and a few tips even for anyone who lives up there or visits. there is even a little bit of concert photography mixed in and some amazing people watching shots from the shows, as well as some general tomfoolery involving my brother and i … you might call it ballyhoo, if you are so inclined. let’s get started… or … take off:

we stayed at our friends’ house (they were actually down in so cal for the time, ironically) during our weekend and their place is just brilliant. (thanks again, toby and sonja!)

not too long after we set our bags down, we headed out to see some of their neighborhood. so, you can maybe read in the shot right below the full story of this “artist/collector”, but he basically has created these intricate sculptures on his property from things that he has found washed up on the shores of local beaches.

from litter to nature… a natural segue, right?

we got a few things together and headed to downtown berkeley for some food and general wandering.

excuse the grain on these two phish show photos… they were shot with my point-and-shoot… but i still like them.

after the phish show that night, we went to a late night performance downtown. jennifer hartswick (who plays/sings in trey anastasio’s solo project band) was going to be guesting with a band named moksha from las vegas.

the next day, we got a little bit of a late start for breakfast and decided to have lunch instead. we stopped at this place that we had heard good things about, but what people said could not even touch how amazing these burgers were. and there were so many options on the menu. the choice was difficult, but we both left super full and super happy. if you are ever in berkeley, make a point to get to Barney’s. trust me.

get into it, brother. don’t be scared!  :)

as we walked back towards our friends’ place, we saw a few racks of sunglasses outside a little shop and decided to try some on before making a purchase. well, my brother ended up being the model for a very impromptu sunglass product shoot. and he was good at it!!!  ;)

onto pre-show fun and people watching. no show pictures coming… just stuff before it.

for those who may not know, the upraised finger as people walk up and down the sidewalk is to indicate they need a ticket. the grateful dead did a song called “i need a miracle” some years back, and the term kind of stuck with the hippie crowd as saying: “i need my miracle ticket” or some form of that. so now you know… and you thought you wouldn’t learn anything today… pshaw!

the next morning, before we left to come back home to so cal, we went out again for breakfast. i had to pull the car over really quick to take a shot of these old “street signs” that i do not know the history of (sorry… wasn’t it enough that i taught you the story of the miracle tickets?), but these are just so cool to me. this is good history. well, visually, at least… since i do not know the actual history.

and who would have known? we scored again with where we ate. the breakfast was nothing short of phenomenal at this little place in north berkeley called the sunny side cafe.. another place for you to bookmark if you like making your tastebuds do a little happy dance.

overall, yet another amazing time in northern california. i need to live up there. if you know me, you know how much i firmly believe that. some day, nor cal… some day we will be co-habitants. until then, i will return soon   :)