Some cool art at Cal Poly
After having looked at UC Berkeley last Sunday, we drove down to San Luis Obispo - or SLO - on the Central Coast to look at Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University) one more time. We had visited the campus before during college trip to Colorado in the winter. At that time the campus was mostly empty since most of the students had left for winter break.
Kaefer wanted to check it out during the semester, and the cousin of one of her friends had offered to give her a private tour.
Kaefer's major at Cal Poly would be architecture. The approach here is very hands-on and practical, it's an accredited program that takes five years.
One of the projects of first year architecture students
While Kaefer went on her private tour, the Geek and I explored SLO.
It has a historic city center with a beautiful mission, founded in 1772.
I liked the bear fountain in front of the mission that represents the Native Americans who lived here (the Chumash) and the grizzlies which used to be abundant in this area.
The mission has three bells of which I don't know whether they're still in use.
What fascinated me most about the Mission was the roof.
It is built of crooked terracotta shingles, some of them being clearly older than others. I took some close-ups - have a look:
Like every mission, this one had some lovely nooks and corner.
And right across from the Mission I discovered this porch of a restaurant with those colorful sunshades and a lovely terracotta roof as well.
Downtown SLO is lively with lots of local businesses, restaurants, tons of trash bins (no one has any reason here to throw trash on the street as there is a trash bin every few yards). Beautiful trees are lining the streets and give good shade on hot and sunny days. Lots of traffic as well, but it is easy to get around as a pedestrian.
I liked this special kind of "meters" - here you can donate money for the homeless. I thought the idea was pretty nifty. I don't know whether they collect much money here, but since I saw a few of them I guess that they have some success with them. Maybe this is something my city should try.
So - will Kaefer go to Cal Poly? She definitely liked it. But does she like it enough to actually commit to it?
