Day 2: El Cerrito

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I waved goodbye to the Greens this morning and got various buses/the BART train over the bay to Berkeley where I met up with Izzie Brown, a masters rower. Over breakfast we chatted about Title IX and what she's seen of it in her rowing/coaching career. After a little bit of touristy shopping (can't help myself, but they are running socks so maybe I'll come back to the UK slim after all) I then got back on the BART and headed up to El Cerrito del Norte to meet my next hosts: Steve Schaffran and Ellen Braithwaite. They live in a lovely old wooden-framed house which they are proud to tell me straddles an earthquake fault line...

In the afternoon we drove over to Mount Tamalpais on the other side of the bay and hiked to the top. Amazing view of the whole bay area, seeing fog roll in from the sea and over Golden Gate Bridge, and the sierra mountains in the distance. We then drove to Muir Woods, a nature reserve of giant redwood forest set up by naturalist John Muir.

We also stopped off at the Marin Rowing Centre, a brand new boathouse used primarily by juniors. A knock-on effect of Title IX is that pushy parents really encourage their daughters to take up rowing to increase their chances of getting into ivy league universities, with or without scholarships.

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Photos

Mount T
Me and Ellen - see the bay in the background

Muir Woods
Giant redwood tree

Marin Rowing Centre
With the most ridiculous number of brand new sculls

Marin rowing centre
...and more ergs than the whole of Oxford University