Pacific Beach – Still Rockin’

Each year thousands of spring breakers head south to Pacific Beach, San Diego for a week of dirty debauchery. You never know what kind of trouble you’re going to get into. Getting caught skinny dipping, losing all of your belongings at a club and being arrested for public intoxication are all real possibilities. One thing is for certain, you’ll have one hell of a week of partying. Whether its the boardwalk party, the beach party or the Garnet party, it doesn’t really matter since they all take place within a few square miles.

Last spring break, five of my girlfriends and I decided to take a road trip down to San Diego. Lucky for us, my aunt lives a block away from the beach and only two blocks away from Garnet Avenue, P.B.’s main street. I frequently come down to San Diego, but the difference between coming down for a visit and coming down for spring break is a drastic one.

Fisherman’s Wharf: The Other Side

Hanging out on a sunny afternoon


There is no place quite like Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. While some equate the area to a crowded, tacky tourist trap, others find it to be the perfect place to hang out on a sunny afternoon. One perception of the area: a boardwalk and pier lined with overpriced merchandise and food and cheesy museums and attractions. But those who come for the atmosphere and bring nothing more than $20, say there is a completely different side of the wharf.

I have been here a couple of times, but never without my parents and an agenda. In order to insure I wouldn’t be caught in a number of tourist traps, my friend Emily suggested that we take no more than $15. Emily has been going to school in Berkeley for almost two years and often comes to the wharf to “just chill.” Once in a while she admits to buying an overpriced t-shirt or keychain, but every time she has a new “Wharf Day” album uploaded on Facebook.

I can smell the wharf before I see it, and while I’m not a big fan of the fish section in grocery stores, the wharf smells different. It smells like the ocean, which makes sense since it overlooks the bay, but it’s blended with a sweet and salty smell of fresh bread and chowder.

UNR’s hidden trove of jewels, ancient fossils, glowing minerals, and stunning silver –

Most UNR students have never visited the W.M. Keck Museum. The museum is rarely advertised on campus, so unless you are in one of the areas of studies in the Mackay School of Mines or took geology as a core science, you most likely have never been inside of Keck.

The Keck Museum, founded in 1908, is located inside of the Mackay Mines Building, which is situated on the north end of the quad. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free, so you can walk right into the museum, sign yourself in and spend as long as you want looking over the impressive collections. Although group tours can be arranged, I suggest going on your own or with a friend.

On one of my many visits to the museum I brought Devon Thomas, a friend and newcomer. Devon, a first-year student in the Nursing School, had never heard of Keck and was less than thrilled to be dragged along on our visit. I explained to her that while some minerals are plain and boring, Keck offers much more than some dusty old rocks. The museum houses thousands of sparkling gems and minerals, both local and foreign. The majority of which are found on the first floor and are arranged by mineral type in long glass cases. Mackay School of Mines graduate, Troy Anderson, favors this floor.



“The geological collection is incredible,” said Anderson. “You can see everything from gold pieces found during the Gold Rush to precious gems to colorful minerals that you never would have though existed.”