Academy of the Arts, San Francisco Tour

Last weekend we drove up to San Francisco to tour the San Francisco Academy of the Arts. We did a tour a over a year ago but we didn't tour or look at any of the dorms. Crystal is gong to there this Fall and she has to choose her top three picks for dorms so we thought another tour would be good now that we know for sure that she is going there.

Crystal was so excited!

I checked my Marriott points and I had enough to get us two free nights at a brand new Marriott one block from Union Square which was perfect because it was right between the campus building where the tour was and the dorm that we were going to tour. We got an awesome room - nice size and a great view.

Here we are waiting for the tour of the school.

After the last tour Crystal was not sure if she wanted to major in Graphic Design or Animation. However, what really got her interest this year was a major called New Media. Now she is leaning towards majoring in this but she is going to take a few 3D Animation classes to make sure. Graphic Design is pretty much off the table. New Media is kind of a combination of Graphic Design and Animation. While Graphic Design includes designing the packaging of product (cereal boxes, CD covers, etc) and company logo's and things like that, New Media is more of the animated graphics you see on TV and Web Sites.

After touring the school we had lunch then went on the dorm tour. Crystal has to choose three dorms and her preferred room set up as soon as possible because it is prioritize by when they receive your request. We won't know which dorm she gets until about month before school starts - likely in August.

This is the dorm that is Crystal's first choice. The only bad part is that is right across the street from the Ambulance entrance to the SF Hospital.

This is the dorm that we got to tour. It used to be a hotel but was donated to the school.

This is the old lobby. You have to use your student ID card to get the doors open, but they also have a security guard in the lobby 24/7.

Here is Crystal in the hall way on one of the floors where the rooms are.

All of the rooms have bunk beds. Most hold two students, a few four and some, for those who can afford it (not us) are single rooms. The bathroom set ups are also different so you have to request your choice. Some rooms have a full bath, some have only a half bath and showers shared for each floor and some rooms have no bathroom at all, just one shared for the whole floor. Crystal is going to request them in that order.

This is a shot of the rec room. There were two students playing a video game when we got there, so of course every started watching them play rather than listening to the tour guide.

When we were walking between buildings of the campus tour and old Asian guy walked by with a huge cat on his shoulder. The cat was just kicking back on this shoulder like a bird. I thought he had an owl on his shoulder at first. I can't believe he trained a cat to stay up there like that. He was just walking down the streets of San Francisco. It reminded me of Harry Potter for some reason. I tried to get a good shot but this is the only one that turned out. This is from the back so you can't really tell it is a cat.

The day after the Campus tour we stopped by Santa Cruz on the way home to visit Amber. He had lunch with her, her boyfriend Josh and Josh's brother. This was the first time we met Josh's brother. He's a real nice guy - takes after Josh.

I was worried about going on this trip because of my back. Tania drove most of the way. Crystal even drove for a while once we got out in the middle of no where. It was the first time she drove the van but she did a good job.

When we got about an hour or so from the city it started raining so I took control and drove from there. Neither of the girls wanted to drive into the city any ways. On the way back I drove the first 2 1/2 hours and then Tania drove the rest of the way. My back held up great. No bad pain the next day, but most importantly, no hospital trip needed.