Sunday Drives with Mike: The Weekend Between Seasons

<p>A Pink Floyd tribute, a Saturday basketball showcase and the weekly search for Bay Area experiences hiding in plain sight.</p> <p>By Mike MacPherson</p> <p>What the heck am I doing in Stockton, California, on a Saturday night watching a women's community-college basketball tournament that does not even count in the standings? What does that have to do with SF Bay Weekend? And why should you care? Fair questions. Stick around. The answer started two nights earlier, beneath a tree in downtown Concord, with barbecue chicken, Pink Floyd and a newsletter deadline. Pink Floyd and a Deadline Every week, the SF Bay Weekend newsletter needs my Top 10 and a new story for subscribers. That pressure keeps me on the hunt—looking at where I have been, where I am going and whether something unexpected might be hiding inside the experience. It has also made me more likely to say yes. My family invited me to the final night of Concord's 2026 Music & Market series at Todos Santos Plaza. I had not attended one of the concerts all season, but this time I said yes. We set up beneath a beautiful tree with barbecue chicken, salad, plenty of fruit and the kind of spread that makes an outdoor concert feel like your own backyard gathering—only with a much better sound system. Food trucks lined the plaza, the crowd filled in and House of Floyd took the stage to perform the music of Pink Floyd. As the evening moved forward, the plaza changed. Sunlight became twilight. A beautiful sunset gave way to darkness. The white lights wrapped around the tree trunks began to sparkle, and the laser show cut through the night and bounced across the trees. What the heck am I going to write about this week? I knew I was driving to Stockton on Saturday to watch the City College of San Francisco women's basketball team. I also knew a preseason tournament outside the Bay Area did not immediately sound like an SF Bay Weekend story. Then, during the break, local officials began talking about the summer concert season coming to an end. You could feel it throughout the crowd. Everyone was still eating, talking and enjoying the music, but the light had changed. The weather was changing. Summer was giving way to something else. Two nights later, basketball season would begin to take shape inside a Stockton gym. There was the first connection: one season ending and another beginning. But the more interesting answer was still waiting for me. What Have I Been Missing? Following CCSF women's basketball last season brought me onto community-college campuses I otherwise might never have visited. Some were expansive and beautiful, with impressive athletic facilities, theaters, galleries and public art that made me stop and look around. I kept having the same thought: What the heck have I been missing? That question belongs at the center of SF Bay Weekend. The major concerts, famous attractions and big festivals will always be part of the site. But I also want to turn over different rocks and find stories that may not look like obvious weekend material at first. Community colleges may be one of the Bay Area's most overlooked sources of affordable sports, theater, music, art and public events. City College of San Francisco is my anchor for exploring them. San Francisco's College City College opened in 1935 as San Francisco Junior College. It began in temporary downtown and Marina locations, then spread into so many borrowed sites that it became known as the Trolley Car College. Its permanent Ocean Campus opened in 1940. More than 90 years later, CCSF still represents San Francisco across the Bay Area and Northern California—not only in classrooms, but on courts, fields and stages. Its men's basketball team won its sixth state championship in 2025, part of eight consecutive appearances in the state championship tournament. Its football program brings its own championship history to George M. Rush Stadium. The Ocean Campus also has a free public art gallery, along with student music, dance, theater and film. CCSF's Concert and Lecture Series presents more than 60 free events annually across its campuses, all open to the public. For people who live in San Francisco—and for the rest of us around the Bay—City College should be part of the weekend map. That was why I was in Stockton. One basketball team had opened the door to a much bigger discovery. A First Look at the Season San Joaquin Delta College was an appropriate place to begin the new season. Its women's basketball program won its first state championship in March, making the gym more than a neutral showcase site. This was the home of the defending champion. I followed the Rams last season, too. I was in the gym for head coach Derek Lau's 250th career win and took the picture of the team gathered under the basket with the silver 2-5-0 balloons. He passed that milestone before the season ended. Now I was back to see what a new group might become. CCSF arrived with five returning players and seven freshmen—enough experience for a foundation, enough new talent to make almost everything uncertain. In the first shortened game, the Rams showed flashes of promise alongside first-game jitters. The question was whether these two groups could fit together. Then came the second game. The freshmen made dazzling plays, while the returners supplied a little more calm. For stretches, the team began to look like one group. It was a noticeable change in the space of an evening. These were shortened three-quarter showcase games, not official results. No season was decided. But I had seen the question that will bring me back: how will five returners and seven freshmen find their place together? At this level, almost nobody is playing out the end of a story. They are trying to change it. Following the Rams has changed my own route, too. Their games have taken me onto community-college campuses I might otherwise have driven past. Once there, I began noticing the theaters, galleries and concerts beyond the gym. The team gave me a reason to arrive; the colleges gave me a reason to look around. The Next Story Appears Thursday night at Todos Santos Plaza, Concord's final Music & Market concert felt like a farewell to summer. Two nights later in Stockton, a new basketball season was taking shape. Between those moments, I found the direction for this series: follow what catches my attention, even when it leads somewhere unexpected, and see what else is there. The Rams will give me a reason to return to community-college gyms. The campuses around them may give me stories I did not know to look for. One season was ending. Another was beginning. And my weekend map had become a little bigger. Sunday Drives with Mike · SF Bay Weekend It's out there. Let's go find it. Find the Magic.</p>