Skip to main content

Oakland Ain't That Bad and Berkeley's the Madison of the West

By
DAY 6

Katie had a doctors appointment in the morning so she had the car today. We drove back up the Bay Area, this time towards Oakland. 

I've been told many times that Oakland is a not so nice place. Actually going there revealed the opposite. It has beautiful Lake Merritt, a bustling Midwest-like downtown and of course the opulent Fox Theater.

Oh, and they had 130 murders last year. Minneapolis has the same population and only had 40. So, I guess that might skew peoples perception.

We were hungry and parked in Old Oakland to look for someplace to eat. 

For lunch We settled on a small Mexican place Cosechea. They had a strawberry lime drink that was awesome. Plus they had homemade tortillas for their tacos. 

It was in a mini-market sharing space with a fish monger, butcher and wine shope. My horchata was great and the place just had a great vibe. Also my lips turned orange from adobo sauce.

I guess Old Oakland was the original downtown in the 1860s before the current downtown developed just to south.

I wanted to see Berkeley so we headed there next.

We took the scenic route up Broadway to Telegraph Avenue. I was surprised how the two cities seamlessly transitioned from one to the other. 

You probably can't read this, but the sign read, "Oh, no. Not another CVS."


We parked by Cal's campus and walked around.

Until this trip I never realized that UC-Berkeley was Cal. You learn a new thing every day.



The campus was nestled in amongst the hills

It was $2 to go to the top.

Of course we were too cheap.

We saved our two dollars and spent it at Cream instead. This place was awesome. You pick out a cookie and ice cream to make your own ice cream sandwich. I picked a turtle cookie with cookie dough ice cream.

I had banana fudge ice cream with a double chocolate chip cookie.


We ventured along the bay after leaving Berkley, checked out Alameda and then to took 880 back to the south bay.


Katie had to pick up food for her cats on the way home.


Feed lots in the city, yo.


Last time Scott was here he bought me a dress from this store that I still wear a lot.

So, I decided we should check out the Usuals before going home from dinner. I love this little shop and they sure know how to cash in on the Sharks fever.


For our last meal they made us salmon cakes and salad. Our flight was at 6:15am in San Francisco so we had to get to bed early.

So long California. Who knows when I'll see you again.

It's was cool. Thanks Katie and Dennis!
Labels:

Comments

Katrina said…
It was good seeing you guys. Hopefully we'll be seeing you soon in the Midwest!
8:42 PM, April 18, 2013
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

By
My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast.   Scott added granola to his oatmeal.  The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it.   Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof.  Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing. During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him. Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale. We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car....
4 comments
Read more

Japan Family Trip - Part I: Exploring Sangenjaya, Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku in Tokyo

By
After a 12 hour flight and years of planning we finally made it to Japan. I'd been looking for a decent deal to Japan for ages. Tracking on Google Flights. Searching different points websites. Then finally a flight showed up on Points Yeah the same week Meadow and Theo were off for 3 days. After a nervous half hour of transferring points from our credit card to KLM Air France, we got 4 direct tickets to Tokyo Haneda! Day 1 But first we had to fly and fly and fly. Ready for our longest flight ever. At least we were lucky and got a direct flight.  Theo looked nervous. I couldn't really see the kids too well since I was stuck in the center rows with strangers. Meadow, Brooke and Theo got the better end of the deal. He had been worrying about this trip ever since he learned we were going to have to sleep on the plane.  Meadow was excited to see that the flight had anime. First time in a long time that I've had a meal on the plane. My chicken curry was pretty good.  We got an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Duluth For The Day

By
 After work I decided to drive up to Duluth to visit my little brother Blake. Scott would have come with me if he didn't have to work. Like most streets in Duluth he lives on a steep hill. I couldn't remember how to park on a hill so I copied the car in front of me.   He gave me a tour of his house and when we were in his backyard I heard rushing water. There was a trail and some woods that we followed down a hill to Chester Creek. I had no idea he lived so close to a park.   Or a waterfall.        We walked a ways to find an old ski jump. Blake said he climbed it when he first moved here and a month later the city took the stairs down.      The ski lift is still in use for sledding.  Walking back to his house we passed another ski jump. Back when this was first built it was the tallest in the world. During World War II 50 feet was taken off the top to give to the war effort....
2 comments
Read more