đź” Starlight & Stories at Briones (A-List Experience #5)
It began with a single line in the A-List newsletter:
“Ever wonder what the Milky Way looks like without a city between you and it?”
By Friday night, twenty of us were pulling on jackets at the Bear Creek entrance to Briones Regional Park, where local astronomers from the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society waited beside their telescopes like old friends guarding secrets.
The hike to the ridge was short, the payoff instant — a bowl of sky so wide it felt alive. The astronomers spoke softly, as if afraid to wake the stars. “That bright one there is Vega,” one said, guiding our eyes through the constellation Lyra. Another traced the outline of Andromeda with a green-beam laser, his voice mixing science and poetry. Someone passed a thermos of hot spiced cider; someone else unwrapped chocolate truffles that tasted faintly of orange and pine.
Every few minutes a gasp cut through the night — Saturn’s rings sharp in the eyepiece, Jupiter’s moons in perfect alignment, a meteor streaking silently across the black. You could feel people remembering how to look up again.
When the cider was gone and the fire dying low, one of the astronomers began telling the story of Orion — the hunter who chased the dawn until the gods placed him in the sky. Everyone listened. Everyone believed him.
Walking back down, flashlights flickering across the trail, someone said softly, “We should do this more often.”
It wasn’t a stargazing tour. It was an A-List night — part science, part storytelling, and entirely Contra Costa magic.
And here’s the best part — you don’t have to decide now. You just put down $10 to join the A-List, locking your place at the front of the line for this and every other exclusive local adventure we’re planning. If you don’t like the offer when you see it, just pass and choose another A-List event. If you don’t like any of them, we hand you your ten bucks back with a smile. No risk. All reward. That’s how the A-List rolls.