Berkeley, CA: October 2019 - Homecoming

Columbus Day weekend. No PTO required.

A ninety-minute flight from San Diego to Sacramento, friends who picked me up from the airport, and a homecoming game at Cal. I hadn't been to a game in years. My friends suggested I come up and finally see the new stadium and I said yes without thinking too hard about it. That was the whole decision.

I went to Cal. When I was there, Cal football was genuinely good — the PAC-10 was something, the players went on to the NFL, I cared in the way you care about something when you are twenty and it is yours. I got season tickets when I moved to San Diego in 2006 just to stay connected to it. Then life moved on the way it does and years went by without a game.

The flight was ninety minutes. We shared a seat, which at fourteen months old and on a short flight is fine. There was a window to look out of, there were cuddles, there was the banana teether because of course there was another tooth coming in. We made it.

My friend picked me up at Sacramento airport, which depending on where in the Bay you're staying can be significantly faster than SFO. We went straight to GV Cellars in Fairfield for wine tasting. It reminded me of how Sonoma used to feel before it got big and expensive. Small, mom and pop, no showiness. You could talk about the wine. You could bring a toddler and run him through the vines while you tasted, which is exactly what we did before she had to go pick her son up from daycare. My kind of vineyard.

Game day we parked farther from campus and pushed the strollers toward the stadium through the fraternity row we used to own in our twenties. We hit the tailgate BBQs at every old stomping ground and felt approximately a hundred years old while simultaneously feeling exactly like ourselves. The kids were head to toe in blue and gold and played cornhole and ate snacks and had no idea what any of it meant yet.

We checked the strollers at the gate and I wore him in the Ergo into the stadium. We found a less crowded section and set up shop with snacks and enough room to move around. The moms had wine. The boys had sippy cups. We took turns with the kids, played trucks on the bleachers, watched portions of the game. I genuinely do not remember if we won or lost.

But I felt like I was winning.

The next morning we went to the park and then it was time to go home. Two days, no PTO, no car seat to haul, no stroller to gate-check. Friends who had everything we needed already at their house.

Not every trip has to be a production. Sometimes it's a long weekend, a short flight, and people you haven't seen in too long. Game days look a little different with a toddler in an Ergo and a diaper bag under the seat, but they are still game days. You are still there. You still belong to the place.

Changing diapers on the bleachers counts.

Notes: Columbus Day weekend is a free long weekend most people ignore. Sacramento airport for the East Bay, check your drive time before defaulting to SFO. Friends with kids who have gear means you don't have to bring everything. GV Cellars in Fairfield if you want wine the way wine used to be. Check the strollers at the gate, wear the carrier inside.