Things to Do in Berkeley

A chalky hand swings over the top of the wall, grasping onto the red hold embedded in its surface. After a tense moment, a second hand swings up, pulling the rest of the climber’s body up with it. Having successfully scaled 18-foot top-out boulder, the climber scurries back down the wall she has just conquered, swapping places with her spotter below.

This cycle repeats throughout the day at Bridges Rock Gym, spurred on by a crew of climbing enthusiasts and instructors who initiate people into the low-altitude sport of bouldering. That form of climbing emphasizes solving climbing problems and chasing archaeologists through ancient caves. The gym unleashes visitors’ inner mountain goats with their well-maintained climbing facilities, including an overhanging indoor-climbing cave that thoroughly punishes muscles into growth and top-rope climbing walls that help beginners get the hang of scaling the crag.

While specializing in the art of ascents, Bridges also bolsters patron fitness. Yoga and fitness classes, as well as a fleet of cardio equipment, facilitate heart-strengthening workouts. Waves of free WiFi allow mountaineers uninterrupted access to videos of their pet rocks, best enjoyed with a grilled sandwich or all-fruit smoothie in the gym's organic café and lounge.

Peruse and sample the flavors of five chocolatiers, five breweries, and two bands. Chocolatiers include Bittersweet: the Chocolate Café, Galaxy Desserts, , TCHO, Vice Chocolates, and Teeny Cake. Brewers include Trumer Pils, Drake's Brewing, Triple Rock Brewery, Napa Smith, and Linden Street. Bands such as The Beehive Spirit and Tornado Rider will entertain during the festivities. Also featured at the event will be a booth accepting charitable donations for Saffron Strand Inc., a non-profit dedicated to finding employment solutions for the local homeless.

Since 1978, the experienced captains at Rendezvous Charters have staged picturesque pirouettes through San Francisco Bay waters aboard a fleet of vessels, including two schooners, two yachts, and a slew of motor yachts. The seafaring specialists welcome passengers for cash-bar cruises aboard the Bay Lady, a custom-built schooner that accommodates up to 77 passengers and boasts a cockpit big enough to seat 56 people or 30 pandas with sailor caps. Rendezvous Charters also works with clients to plan private chartered cruises and team-building events for businesses and recreational groups.

Independent and perennial craft distilleries take center stage during the San Francisco Craft Spirits Carnival. Across two days, more than 80 producers—including Great Lakes Distillery, Bulleit Bourbon, and St. Germain—pour samples for aficionados and curious customers alike to highlight the taste and texture of handcrafted whiskeys, gins, vodkas, mescals, absinthes, and spiked grape juice. The festival also works to expand knowledge of the alcohol arts through industry and consumer educational forums, dinners with spirits pairings at well-known local restaurants, and a culminating two-day tasting event at the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion. In keeping with its vaudeville-style carnival theme, the festival will also feature live performances by fire-eaters, trapeze artists, and contortionists, who keep any self-proclaimed Twister champions from bragging all day long.

Unless the ceramic-robot coup d'état comes to pass, fine pottery isn't going to paint itself. In order to become a decorated hero of ceramic lore, all artists pay a modest studio fee ($7.50 for kids under 18, $9.50 for adults) and then pick from a dimensionally diverse range of pottery shapes, priced from $3 for small ornaments to $60 for platters fit for a king who loves to host royal potlucks. Creatively stymied artists can either browse the samples for inspiration or mimic the enthusiasm of the nearest euphoric child lost in a paint-speckled universe.

The high-end fleet of Hornblower Cruises & Events fills ports up and down the California coast, as well as in New York, with similar eco-friendly extravagance. Founded by environmental engineer Terry MacRae, Hornblower puts its luxe navy to use hosting dining, entertainment, special-event, and sightseeing cruises, as well as journeying to such storied landmarks as Alcatraz Island and the Statue of Liberty. Beyond these cruises, Terry's team champions green practices through the Respect Our Planet initiative, which works to develop and promote earth-considerate practices such as using hybrid boats that draw power from the sun.