The restaurant itself is a beautiful Arts & Crafts, Green & Green influenced space, with open kitchens being the main focal point. The atmosphere upstairs in the cafe for lunch was casual, which was nice since we didn't have any nice clothes on this trip. We were worried that Elsa would make a scene, but she was fine, although the fear of what she might do, and a delicate balancing act in a leather booster seat (no high chairs), left Christi a little less focused on the food than we both would have liked, but we have the rest of our lives to return for a romantic dinner.
The meal was simple yet fantastic. The highlights were a fried goat cheese salad, cucumber and beets with marjoram, polenta with wild mushrooms and mint, and pork shoulder with peppers and stewed onions. We had chocolate pave with vanilla ice cream and an apricot tart with caramel mousse for desert. It was awesome. I highly recommend flying across the entire country just for dinner there. Just make sure to make reservations first.
Before lunch we explored about 1/1000 of the campus of UC Berekley, which seems really pretty. Christi and I decided that we would be fine with Elsa going to college there so that we could visit. It would be a cool town to go to school in. After lunch we returned to the hotel for Elsa's nap, and then post nap explored Solano Avenue, which is supposed to be some cool one-mile strip of restaurants and cool shops. It's all sole-proprietor places, but to be honest I think Downtown Decatur is a lot cooler. We did eat dinner there, though, at a cool little burger place that would serve Christi a burger on lettuce, which was nice. That is the second burger place to swap the bun for lettuce out here... something we need as an option back home. I think I need to talk to Farmburger.
This evening was spent sorting through our stuff, repacking and cleaning out the VW in preparation for returning it tomorrow. We got a FedEx box to ship some stuff back, and plan to drop it off tomorrow on our way out of Berkeley. I think we are going to try to hit our eighth and final national park tomorrow, the Presidio of San Francisco. Then it's on south of the city to return the camper and take a taxi to an airport hotel where we will spend the final night of the trip. It certainly feels like it is winding down now. I think we are ready to come home in some ways, but even after three weeks we still feel like we wish we had been able to spend more time in a few places, namely Yosemite. Hopefully there will be another trip for that in the future. Next time we will have an idea of what to expect, and that will really help. For now, though, it's time to finish packing the bags.
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