We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

Savannah (and most of her friends from school actually) is obsessed with bears.  She can recite the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, often stages full dramatic scenes around escaping from a bear/camping with a bear/etc, and just generally loves bears.  This is a convenient obsession for me because, as luck would have it, I work/go to school at a university whose mascot is...a BEAR!  There are, according to a very convenient walking map I found online, 27 statues/other art pieces of bears all around campus.  Today, Savannah and I set off to find a few of them...

We took BART to Berkeley, which was, in and of itself, an exciting adventure.

We found a bear pretty early on in our "hunt."

And a mysterious paw print that Savannah investigated up close.

We found a log in a redwood glade to stop for a quick snack.

And a picture :)

Up the stairs to Sather Tower, which Savannah calls her castle (any castle is, of course, "hers").

She was very excited to go up to the top, and I was happy that we had a clear day and would be able to see lots of things from the top.  Unfortunately, I didn't keep in mind that the bells in the campanile chime the hour....and we got to the top at 10:58am....which led to a lot of this...

But it was a lovely view...or at least what I got to see of it for the 3 minutes we managed to stay at the top.  Savannah did NOT like the bells....but she recovered quickly once we got back down...and she found another bear!

We had lunch at the Golden Bear (of course) and then took a break for some sketching...

Then, I heard about a fun exhibit that I thought Sav would love.  It was a departure from our bear hunt, but one that was much enjoyed.

After staring at the T-Rex for a bit, she turned to me and said "Mommy, these are so beautiful!"

We enjoyed walking back towards the BART, but had to make one small stop before we headed back to Fremont...

Chocolate ice cream with sprinkles :)

We both had a great day, and it was nice to see Berkeley's campus through Savannah's eyes.  Too often I forget to enjoy the beauty of the campus--I enjoyed slowing down today and having fun.

Lots of love,

Ashley