2011 UCLA Parents Weekend

Gail and I attended the 2011 edition of Parents' Weekend at UCLA, where our daughter is a freshman.

The Flight West on Thursday, October 27^th, 2011

We had a non-stop flight on Southwest from BWI to LAX leaving at about 10:25 am. Despite being the 65th person to board the plane, I got an excellent seat next to the window near the front of the plane on the right side (facing north most of the flight). I took lots of photos, and Flight Aware records the minute-by-minute position of the plane, which makes identifying the ground features easy. The weather cleared once we reached the Rockies, and I got great views of the ground. It had just snowed in Colorado, and the valley near Gardner, Colorado, was covered (far left photo; Marker C). The flight went just south of the Four Corners area. The near left photo shows the Eastern slope of Pastora Peak. The San Juan River runs across the upper right of the photo and is joined by the Mancos River near the top of the photo. Beclabito Dome (Marker D) is the reddish circular feature in the lower left of the photo. It is exposed Entrada Sandstone. Continuing west we passed Walker Creek in a Alcove Canyon (near right photo; Marker E is on the mesa shaped like an arrowhead near the center of the image) leading north toward Mexican Water, AZ. Tyende Creek (far right photo; Marker F) is just to the west.

Just east of the Grand Canyon US 89 tracks a remarkable linear feature (left photo; Marker G) as it heads north toward Bitter Springs, AZ. Cornfield Valley is in the middle of the feature, Echo Cliffs parallel the road to the right, and Cedar Ridge is to the left. The Colorado River canyon cuts across the upper part of the photo, and just beyond that is the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. The Little Colorado River empties into the east end of the Grand Canyon (near left photo; Marker H). The plane passed just south of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and I had a spectacular view of the Canyon looking toward the northwest (far right photo; Marker I).

The flight continued toward the southwest passing well south of Las Vegas. Pisgah Crater (left photo; Marker J) is a volcanic cinder cone just north of the San Bernardino Mountains. Lava may have flowed here as recently as 2,000 years ago. We then flew over Big Bear Lake, and I got a good view of Cajon Pass (near right photo; Marker K) where I-15 enters the LA Basin from the high desert. The visibility was very good, and I had a nice view of downtown LA (far right photo) looking NW toward the San Fernando Valley.

Los Angeles, Thursday, October 27^th, 2011

The flight landed at about 1:05 pm (local time). We rented a car and drove directly to the Courtyard Marriott in Marina del Rey (Marker A). After checking into the room, we drove to UCLA and took Mary shopping at several stores in Santa Monica Place to find a white cocktail dress for her sorority presentation after her on-line order did not deliver. Such dresses are not very popular, and in the end she had to borrow one. At dusk we went to the Santa Monica pier (left photo; Marker I) and ate dinner at Mariasol, a Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier. After dinner we walked a bit on the pier, took Mary back to her dorm (Marker E), returned to the hotel, and went to sleep.

Los Angeles, Friday, October 28^th, 2011

Parents' weekend started Friday morning with a breakfast in Dickson Plaza (left photo shows a small fraction of the tables) in front of Royce Hall (Marker F). Breakfast and the entire weekend were well organized for the approximately 1000 (my guess) parents. We were officially welcomed in the Royce Hall auditorium by Gene Block, the UCLA Chancellor. He bragged about UCLA and said that his plan to compensate for declining support from the state was to admit more out-of-state and international students and attract more gifts from alumni. Afterwards there were several options for attending a presentation by a UCLA faculty member on their research. We chose the lecture by Prof. Andrea Gehz on her work imaging stars in orbit around the black hole at the center of our galaxy. I was already familiar with her work, but she gave a great popular talk. After lunch back at Dickson Plaza, we went shopping for Mary at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Dinner was back at Dickson Plaza.

Los Angeles, Saturday, October 29^th, 2011

Early Saturday morning we drove a bit west to see the actual marina in Marina del Rey, and then drove south to Playa del Rey (Marker B) and walked down to the ocean. I managed to get my feet wet (left photo). The main event Saturday was the football game against Cal in the Rose Bowl (Marker H). Mary's sorority made shirts for the parents (right photos), arranged for transportation on buses to and from the game, had a tailgate party (lower left photo) just south of the Rose Bowl. With all the traffic each trip took about 90 minutes to drive the 30 miles. We sat in a section full of sorority parents and some of their daughters (lower right photo).

The guy behind me kept calling Cal the "University of Northern California" whenever the announcer referred to the "University of California". UCLA has a medicore team this year, but they managed to beat Cal 31 to 14 (intercepting the Cal quarterback 4 times helped a lot).

Los Angeles, Sunday, October 30^th, 2011

The Friday edition of USA Today listed UCLA's Murphy Sculpture Garden (Marker D) as one of 10 great places to see art enhance nature. We decided to give it a look Sunday morning. T.E.U.C.L.A., a large sculpture by Richard Serra that you can walk into (left photo), is nearby outside the Broad Art Center. The main event Sunday was the presentation of pledges at Mary's sorority house (Marker G). It is a large, nicely furnished three-story house just east of campus. Each big sister introduced their little sister to the other members of the sorority and the gathered parents (right photo). Since there were more 50 new pledges at Delta Gamma, it was quite a ceremony. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice brunch at the house.

In the afternoon we toured the nearby Getty Museum, but we saw only a small part of its many exhibits. It is located (Marker C) in the Santa Monica Mountains above West Los Angeles. The site is spectacular (left photo). Later for dinner we took Mary and her friend (right photo) to California Pizza Kitchen in Westwood.