Today was quite possibly in the running for Best Day Ever. We headed over the Richmond Bridge to Berkeley to check out the family concert by Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, part of the 2008 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, a biennial festival of early music. We ended up getting to Hertz Hall in the nick of time, and were pleasantly surprised at will call to find that we got great seats: third row center stage. The performances were wonderful--full of toe tapping rhythms and performed on unusual instruments like shawms, dulcians, crumhorns, and sackbuts.

Trevor overall behaved great, and really enjoyed the experience. Events like this are always tricky with five-year-olds. He got a little squirmy during the last third of the concert, but it was ok, as there were plenty of other kids there squirming. Actually, the kids were better behaved than many of the adults, especially the two doofuses whose cell phones went off, and the annoying elderly couple next to us who chatted during the performance. Anyhow, the whole thing ended with a rousing dance number, featuring audience participation, and a couple of rocking tunes featuring bagpipes and percussion. It moved along at a good clip, with witty explanations of each instrument by the performers, and ended when it should have, since little kids are only good for about an hour of this kind of thing.

Cal being my alma mater, we took a turn around the campus afterwards, with the reward for all our walking being a visit to the dinosaurs at the paleontology museum. The paleontology museum is located in the Life Sciences building. It's a research collection that's closed to the public, but there's a small public display near the library that includes some dinosaur skulls, a pterodactyl, and the life-size cast of the Mother of All Dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus Rex. T Rex was suitably impressive, and even the fact that it was a cast didn't lessen its impact on the wee ones.

This was all followed up with ice cream bars at Sproul Plaza. We thought about checking out the steam train and the Little Farm at Tilden Park, but there's a fine line that divides the Best Day Ever and overstimulation and its eventual accompanying meltdowns. We did take a spin out to Tilden (I hadn't been there since way back in my undergrad days) to familiarize ourselves with the area for a return trip. It was totally packed, owing to the fact that the weather was perfect. We'll take a trip out there in the near future, and possibly have a new Best Day Ever.