Friday, June 12, I flew out from Houston to Sacramento to attend my daughter’s graduation at the University of California at Davis. Shortly after arriving at my motel in Woodland, my daughter called and asked if I had arrived. We met up at her apartment on campus.
After she introduced me to her roommates and showed me her room, we headed for downtown Davis. First order of business was lunch at Burgers and Brew. From there, we spent the next five hours on a walking tour of the downtown area and the campus.
With most cities today, downtowns are a throwback to a bygone era. With their crumbling brick facades, boarded-up windows, and smattering of antique shops, attorney's offices, and banks, such places leave you wondering what they were like when “downtown” was the focal point of the community. Downtown Davis, however, is in fact the focal point for this community: dynamic, vibrant, with hundreds of people milling about on foot and lingering in its shops, art galleries, and coffee houses. With its tree-lined streets, its ambiance is what many shopping malls try to achieve but never quite get right.
While walking along with my daughter, I couldn’t help noticing all the bicycles whirring by. On the sidewalks, more bikes were parked in racks than there were cars parked on the street. Davis is sometimes referred to as the “Bicycle Capital of the United States.” The streets have designated bike lanes, and even a few of the traffic lights are bicycle friendly. The first light to change green will show a bicycle symbol. People on bicycles get to go first. Then the light changes green for the cars.
We visited a couple of art galleries, and then walked onto the campus that abuts the community. After walking quite a distance, I mentioned to my daughter that the area seemed much bigger than I thought. “Biggest campus in the UC system,” she said. I later learned that the campus is spread over 5,300 acres.
The highlight of my campus tour was the UC Davis Arboretum. As we stood on the knoll looking at the green hillside nudging downward to the pond, I could see why my daughter saved this particular place for last. Both a park and a garden, replete with several varieties of trees, plants, flowers, and wildlife, the Arboretum has several pathways to take for an easy stroll. And if you want to sit a spell to indulge in quiet contemplation, you have your choice of benches placed underneath the boughs of the trees, in the flower gardens, and along the edge of the pond.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
I had much of the same thoughts as my son graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory in May.
Time marches on, doesn't it?
2 - klondikekitty
Nice nostalgic article, Mr. Cunningham, but the thing that struck me the most was the descriptive passages of the town of Davis and the college campus which gave the impression you had never been there before . . . Your daughter has been a student at this college for the last four years, and you never visited her ONCE during the entire time??
3 - S L Cunningham
Yes, it does. Congratulations on your son's graduation.