Endeavoring to see The Endeavour

 

 

 

Squint and you'll see it: The space shuttle Endeavour during its Bay Area fly-over this morning, mounted on the back of a 747, with a fighter plane trailing behind it.

This was the scene at just past 10 o'clock, as viewed from the parking lot at the Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley hills, with the UC campus in the distance and beyond that the bay and San Francisco.

I had with me two cynics: Jerry and Claudia, who intermittently moaned about a wild goose chase, a fool's errand,  and a possible waste of time.  We'd collected Claudia at 9:15, and zoomed up into the Berkeley Hills to my friend Suzanne's house to get a view.  Alas, we couldn't work a key to get out on her deck (she was at work), and the view didn't look promising.

Poor viewing from Suzanne's house because we couldn't get inside to her deck

We wound our way on back roads through the Berkeley Hills, hoping the shuttle wouldn't pass overhead before we got SOMEWHERE open.

"There it is!" I exclaimed at one point during our drive,  only to realize I was pointing at the Sutro Tower.  Claudia claimed multiple vapor trails were evidence that it had come and gone.  Jerry drove on gamely.

I expected huge crowds at the Lawrence Hall of Science, and there were quite a few people, including the media.

But we could park, walk down the hill to a viewing spot, and sit on hill near the parking lot,  looking out over the bay.  We waited about half an hour, heard that the shuttle had been delayed leaving Sacramento, and then suddenly, a tiny speck approached in the sky to the southwest.

 A man shouted, "Here it is!"  I couldn't believe it.

But as it got closer, I did.  There it was, flying quite low. People cheered.  We got a good look. And then it disappeared behind some eucalyptus trees and that was it.  We were left picking stickers and bark chips out of our socks.   Mission accomplished.