8/27-8/29
ven if you don’t know a chopped and channeled Deuce from a bucket T dragster, you can have many cylinders of fun at the Goodguys West Coast Nationals just checking out the chromed universal joints and luxurious lug nuts of the more than 3,500 pre-1955 hot rods, customized cars, and stock classics on display at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton for three days beginning Friday. The Goodguys are promoting a certain three-window ’36 Ford coupe owned by Kirk Hammett of Metallica (might be interesting after viewing Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) and created by Salinas Boys Customs, but there’s no need to dwell on it — not when the other contestants for “America’s Most Beautiful Street Rod” are scattered around the fairgrounds like so many four-wheeled jewels. Seminars, car modeling, a Hawaiian shirt contest, dozens of manufacturer booths — too much fun for the automotively minded. General admission is $15, parking extra, kids under six free. For more info: Good-Guys.com — Kelly Vance
Credits: Al Cameron
Sun 8/29
Walk this way
Fit and Fitter
The intrepid trippers of the Berkeley Hiking Club know that not everyone has the time or the stamina to make an all-day trek through the underbrush in the Sierra foothills — so they offer numerous urban and semi-urban walkabouts for weekend wanderers. This Sunday there’s a choice. Take a 10 a.m. mini-hike around Oakland’s Lake Merritt followed by lunch on the grass (meet at 20th St. and Broadway). Or venture into Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley for a seven-to-eight-mile hike with some steep climbing up to the ridge — 8:30 a.m. meeting at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way. For more info, visit BerkeleyHikingClub.pair.com — Kelly Vance
Sat 8/28
Rapid Deterioration
The road-challenged San Jose Earthquakes may be in last place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, but they’re only a few points behind the first-place Los Angeles Galaxy. Three wins in a row could change everything. If the Quakes are going to make their usual late-season move, Saturday’s match at home against the Colorado Rapids — led by forwards Jean-Philippe Peguero and Chris Henderson — is a good place to start. Keep your eye on Quakes midfielder Brian Mullan, playmaker extraordinaire. The teams hit the pitch at 7 p.m. Saturday at Spartan Stadium, 1257 S. 10th St., San Jose. Tickets and information: SanJose.Earthquakes.MLSnet.com/MLS/sje/ — Kelly Vance
