The Weekender!
by Ayman Siraj ‘18
Last weekend, I and a few friends headed up North to the San Francisco Bay Area to what is the annual pilgrimage for many USC students – The Weekender. This year it was Stanford’s turn to host the USC Trojans for a PAC-12 footballing showdown.
The Stanford Stadium. Picture taken by: Ayman Siraj
Getting to the Bay Area
There are multiple ways to get to the San Francisco from Los Angeles:
1. Car: Most people choose to drive up North with friends. It takes 5-6 hours on average with a stop in between to get to San Fran. If you do not have a car, fear not because you can rent a car with an USC student discount, for more on that checkout my previous post on the perks USC students can avail.
2. Airplane: There is the crowd that do not have the time to drive up – due to classes, lots of work, etc. For this bunch flight is the preferred mode to get to and from San Francisco. There are flights out of Los Angeles, Burbank and Long Beach to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Yes, there are plenty of airport combinations you could pick from so do not just limit yourself to fly the common LAX-SFO route. Yours truly managed to get round trip tickets from Long Beach airport to San Francisco airport for $100 due to a special discount from JetBlue airways for USC students. If you are wondering why I did not decide to drive up, it is because missing one engineering class sets you back for pretty much the entire semester.
The Big Blue Bus to San Francisco. Picture taken by: Ayman Siraj
3. Train or Bus: This is the far less common option but Amtrak has services to the Bay Area from Union Station. Also there are plenty of bus companies that do the all night trip from LA to SF.
4. RV: Then there are the largest of groups – these groups go all in. They rent RVs. Get all the stuff they need to have a great time and hit the road. RVs also come in useful for tailgating before the game.
Accommodation in the Bay Area
Most people who make the trip up have friends in the area, so they just ‘crash’ at their friend’s place. Others rent Airbnb properties online. My friends and I got a sweet BnB in Atherton – a 5 min rideshare away from the Stanford stadium.
Game Day
People wake up early for game day. Every group has that one person that will start blasting out the Fight song in the wee hours because that is how Trojans start game day. The festivities then move out to the parking lots on Stanford’s campus. There’s music, there are Trojans everywhere and for the sake of not spilling too much – lots of FUN. You need to go experience it yourself!
