Virginia was excited about UC Berkeley's 150th Anniversary Celebration. As an alumni, she got to march with her class into Haas Pavilion. As with all parades, this one started with a whole bunch of waiting, talking, and picture taking. It was great fun to see her do interviews because people loved her rally committee hat and scarf.

We got class pictures taken among other things. Then we marched in and sat down by class. While we were waiting for the show to begin the woman on the right told me about the time back during the Gray Davis administration when she had realized that power is a finite resource.

  

The national anthem was delivered by a woman with an opera style trained voice. Very well done.

  

     

Dana talked about learning the self discipline to compete for and get seven Olympic medals right here at U. C. Berkeley. She said the strength training and coaching had made a huge difference in what she was able to accomplish.

     

One of the speakers that came and went too quickly to be photographed by Virginia (She took all of these pictures except a selfie or two.) was University of California President Janet Napolitano, whose empire started with Berkeley.

     

These guys provided comic relief after the meaningful speeches.

     

Randy reminded us that entire rows had been added to the periodic table of the elements by work done at U. C. Berkeley and by her graduates among others.

        

Many times Oskie joined us in giving the speakers applause for their well thought out and brief remarks.

     

The Chancellor traced the history of the school all the way from the founding "Organic Act" to today and even ten years or so into the future. Berkeley was the first State University in California, and is now a very major institution with 40,000 students.

  

The operatic singer came back and sang about achieving "The Impossible Dream". Further proof they expect a lot from their graduates.

Then the Berkeley Band led us in singing "Happy Birthday, Berkeley". After it was over we had cupcakes with blue and gold (yellow) icing.

     

Then Virginia mixed with some old friends that she'd known from the campus.

I showed Virginia what I call "the free speech zone", this circle with its curious inscription before we headed out.