Day 2, pt 1: Oakland

We began Wednesday morning by having a light breakfast at a locale bagel shop. In the tradition of taking pictures of places we eat, below is "Star Bagels" complete with a sexy Russian lady adorning the billboard above. If you shop at Russian International Trading Inc., you too can look like a circa 1960s Bond villaness. So after I finished my croissant and Kate ate a bagel with copious amounts of cream cheese, we headed down to Embarcadero station and picked up the BART. It took us on a swift ride under the bay to Oakland. Admittedly I was a bit leery about exploring the 5th most dangerous city in the U.S., however, I was pleased that most of the city exceeded my expectations.

The main station in downtown Oakland empties out into an outdoor shopping mall. As it was early on a Wednesday it was pretty dead, but I can see where it would be a nice place to eat if you worked nearby, or a good place to shop provided it was convenient for you.

Oakland was having a Earth Day fair. Many non profits and government agencies were set up handing out information packets and various trinkets (which I'm certain were all produced with the greenest of intentions).

Kate scored some "U.S. Census" potato chip bag closers. Since we pretty much paid for them any way, Kate grabbed several. Thank you stimulus!

Chinatown in Oakland was pretty busy. It kind of reminded me of Flushing in NYC's Queens, however it is not quite as big.

From Chinatown we headed to a shopping/ nightlife district on the waterfront named for Jack London of "Call of the Wild" fame. Apparently London was a Oakland native.

London himself in front of the Marina, on the harbor.

There is a small boardwalk in Jack London Square where I quickly snapped Kate taking a picture. She probably was capturing some historic boats which are moored there, or the enormous cranes unloading cargo in the distance.

The following photo is the USS Potomac, once serving as FDR's yacht. Elvis actually owned this boat at one time before San Francisco ultimately seized it from Drug Smugglers in the 1980s. It actually sank to the bottom of the harbor before being restored to its current condition.

The following boat The Relief, is actually a floating light house. It was built in Boothbay Maine.

I snapped this photo of a fine residence in a bad neighborhood we did manage to stumble into while looking for a "Chinese Garden". We found the garden which was almost under an over pass, only accessible through a Chinese Seniors Rec center, an aside from the nicely manicured front lawn was over grown and unsightly.

Next we headed to Lake Merritt which is a nice oasis near Oakland's downtown. We enjoyed the great weather and took a relaxing stroll in the park.

Included in the park is a very old children's theme park called "Fairyland". It is said to be the inspiration for Walt Disney to create Disneyland.

Before hopping on another BART train to Berkley we snapped a couple photos of some gorgeous Art Deco buildings in Oakland's downtown.

To be continued with Berkley

City By the Bay: Day 1

Kate and I began last Tuesday at Logan, waiting for our flight to board. With no McDonalds in our terminal, we settled on some French Toast from Johnny Rocket's. The service was slow but the grub was actually decent. Our Jet Blue flight was uneventful and we busied ourselves watching our TVs built into the seats, munching on the snacks, reading, and occasionally dozing off.

Upon arriving in San Francisco we waited for our bags while listening to an announcer unenthusiastically recite directions to the travelers in an accent that sounded slightly "surfer dude". Our transit into the city center of San Francisco turned out to be fairly simple. We purchased our week long MUNI passport (San Francisco's city Mass Transit. Next we hopped on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) after buying a one-way pass for $8.10. Like many airports, SFO is actually quite far outside the city and transit would have cost much more by cab or shuttle. The BART is actually just a long distance "commuter" subway system that looks and feels almost exactly like the Metro subway system in D.C. Once in San Francisco we hopped on the 1 bus line which took us to a stop 1 block from our hotel, the Gateway Holiday Inn. Kate booked the room and was offered a free upgrade to the 21st floor. We originally were on the 6th, and I'm sure this upgrade probably made a big difference in terms of the street noise. Van Ness Avenue which runs by the hotel, apparently replaced the central artery after the earthquake destroyed it in 1989. Surprisingly the traffic wasn't too bad, and although there was some noise, it didn't compare to NYC.

A couple shots of the view from the hotel. It was a little hazy the first day, but it was probably in the mid sixties Fahrenheit. We had few complaints about the weather.

After "unpacking" which for us means dropping off the suitcases, we took the "California St." cable car line down to Embarcedaro station next to the old San Francisco Ferry building.

Embarcedaro is actually one of the busier stations in San Francisco. It connects the Muni underground, the BART line (which we came in on), the F-line which is an electric trolley system, and the cable car line from California St. It runs from the Castro to a turn-around about a block from Fisherman's Wharf. The Ferry Building area is home to public markets, open pedestrian spaces that frequently were filled with arts and craft stands, various coffee shops and eateries, as well as gourmet food shops. There was an entire store in the Ferry building dedicated to mushrooms, and another dedicated to "pig parts".

Entrance to a Muni/Bart station with the F-train running in the background.

This is a view of the Bay Bridge which is a two part span that connects Oakland and San Francisco. It contains two layers of traffic, and at one time it continued through the city itself as a raised highway/central artery before getting damaged in the 1989 quake. I recall seeing it on TV because if I recall correctly the Sox were playing the Oakland A's at the time.

There are several historic boats that serve as museums along the San Francisco waterfront. This is an old ferry, complete with a paddle wheel.

A view of the Transamerica pyramid from a pier.

This is the Ferry building. The area is essentially San Francisco's equivalent of Quincy Market, however, where Boston focuses on quick/ prepared local favorites and ethnic food, the Ferry building contains gourmet foods that are often unprepared.

Palm trees and warm weather, ahhhh. Coit Tower is seen in the background on Telegraph hill. We take in that attraction from a closer vantage point later in the trip.

This is Fisherman's Wharf, home to many casual seafood eateries, often specializing in dungeness crab. This is San Francisco's claim to Sea Food greatness. Unfortunately I didn't find the ideal time to try it, however, it is my understanding that it wasn't in season.

The sea lions seen below were lounging outside of Pier 39. We stood around briefly watching these creatures bark, flap their flippers, and look lethargic.

We ended up eating on pier 39 which is essentially an outdoor mall with a tourist flare. Again, think Quincy Market. We chose a bar & grill that had a very over the top "California" beach theme. I had calamari and Kate had a teriyaki/ pineapple chicken sandwich. Both of course came with fries. It was too much food but I was starved. We walked it off afterwards, almost traveling all the way to another district of San Francisco, the Presidio.

From the end of pier 39 we had our first glimpse of Alcatraz. It is just over a mile out in the bay, however it seems much closer in person.

Musee Mecanique is a museum dedicated to antique arcade amusements. Among many fortune teller machines, movie viewers, pinball machines, and even the old Atari games were these politically incorrect gems.

Kate humored me and she treated me to a display of the "Opium Den" which cost a quarter.

The window in the back has a dragon to be "chased" and there is a skeleton that pops in and out of the door on the left.

Another shot of the festive "Fisherman's Wharf" area.

This shot of the sun setting was taken at Aquatic Park which is near Fort Mason. There were people swimming in here, it seemed a little cold honestly. Some of George Lucas's studios are near here in the Presidio.

Another historic vessel in the San Francisco harbor.

The old Ghiradelli Chocolate factory. We intended to get ice cream in a store there, however by the time we made it over it was unfortunately closed.

This is a photo from the breakwater in the San Francisco Maritime National Historic park.

Looking at the sun behind what was our first glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge.

This odd statue was located in a water front park in the Marina area of San Francisco.

The picture below shows the Golden Gate Bridge behind some of the buildings that make up Fort Mason. The shot below had some amusing graffiti on the sign, which was my primary reason for taking the picture. I have no idea what any of it means. A tribute to Aqua Teen Hunger Force perhaps?Above is a great shot of the Golden Gate Bridge with the Marina neighborhood in the foreground. Finally back at the hotel we shared a pint of top quality Walgreen's ice cream before heading to bed.

A Stroll in Belmont

Kate and I took advantage of a pleasant Sunday to go walking around one of outer Boston's gems, Belmont. You can't find too many towns of this size that still have a vibrant town center built around a stand alone Macy's. It is surrounded by historic buildings, beautiful homes, and quaint New England churches and town office buildings. We began our day with a nice lunch at the Stone Hearth Pizza Company. They make thin crust pizzas and pride themselves on using organic and locale ingredients. The menu made several boasts about various things they do to be "green". The interior is cheerful and warm while exuding a touch of that hipster/yuppie look that so many places embrace these days. Kate and I ordered a banana pepper and sausage Pizza, which was good, although the banana peppers tended to overwhelm the taste. We also ordered some flat bread seasoned with Parmesan cheese and garlic. We asked for some sauce to go with it (apparently they don't usually serve it with sauce), which they provided without extra charge. The sauce was probably the best thing about Stone Hearth. It was evident that this was freshly made from tomatoes, and it had a very rich taste lacking any hints of tin or overwhelming spice which all too often reside in Pizza Parlor sauce.

Following this we made our way to the Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a nice time here walking around easy nature trails through the woods. There was a 4 dollar entry fee for non Belmont residents, which honestly seems a little much considering this is essentially a patch of woods with a few beaten down trails. I was glad to pay, figuring it went for a good cause. That being said, this is far from the most picturesque location for nature lovers in greater Boston, and most others are free.

After this we went to Beaver Brook Reservation in Belmont. This was a great little park consisting of some trails around a couple of ponds connected by cascading waterfalls. The ponds appear to have been artificially created for mills in the 19th century. Only the dams and some ruins remain. There were some nice picnic areas there, although anyone who uses them may find themselves keeping company with many ducks and geese. A separate portion of the park that Kate and I didn't visit contains various recreational facilities, including tennis courts, a ball field, a playground, and wading pools.

We ended our day with a couple of drinks from CVS, and some Mrs. Field's cookies.

I'll have one day of work this week and then Kate & I will be off for our Spring vacation. And it is really, really needed. It was originally planned as a long weekend away for Patriot's day (A Massachusetts Holiday). Initially we were going to take advantage of the Give a Day, Get a Day plan from Disney for volunteer work we did earlier this year. However, once we started looking at prices, even with the free pass to the park for a day, it was going to be sort of expensive with flight, car rental, and hotel, and then after the day at Magic Kingdom or Epcot we were struggling to find much to do with our time other than to go lounge on Cocoa Beach. While that certainly wouldn't be a bad thing, spending several hundred dollars to do it just wasn't appealing.

San Francisco has always been some place I'd wanted to go, so on a whim we looked it up. We found some amazing deals through travelocity, (they don't seem possible!) probably because their state is on the brink of bankruptcy. Originally we had only planned on going Thursday through Monday, however it actually turned out to be the same price for flight and hotel to add a couple days (I try not to question things like this). In San Francisco we don't have to rent a car because of mass transit, and the walkable nature of the city, that saves a lot of money. (Car rentals have really gone up over the past few years-pretty much doubled.) We have quite a few fun items on our itinerary including Alcatraz, Chinatown, Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and of course the cable cars and Lombard St. Oh... and the taco trucks! I can't wait to visit them! We decided to rent a car one day and go to the Muir Woods which is a Redwood Forest nearby as well as check out Point Bonita Lighthouse. So for less money than the alternative we'll get to go exploring again, and I get to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. I'll be sure to get pictures and blog per usual.