Oakland and San Leandro

These pictures were taken on a hike around Lake Chabot, near San Leandro. The area was beautiful and seemed to be consumed by spiderwebs. They were everywhere - little cradles hanging on nearly everything. Me and Kay played around with my new camera. The shots of our feet are my favorite. 

The lake has a strange blue-green algae which looked gross along the edges, but they are supposedly strict about kayaks and boats being brought in. You have to pass an inspection so as to not bring foreign algae in to the lake. There are bass and other fish in the lake that you can fish for and there were birthday parties, family reunions and children playing everywhere. That is definitely something I love about this area. Good hikes aren't a far drive, and there are lots of them. My favorite hiking spot is in Oakland, up by Skyline Drive. You can see all of the city, the boats leaving the port - Everything. It is only a 15 minute drive away from the city. 

Kaeleen and I also went to the Oakland-Grand Lake Farmer's Market. I have never had so many free samples at one time, or possibly ever. Pomogranites, peaches, pasta, hummus, cheeses - Every booth was flagging potential mouths down. We stopped at one cheese booth and Kaeleen bought some of their blue cheese, which turns out, was voted best blue cheese in the country. It was packed and we spent a long time looking for parking in a nearby residential area. Turns out, everyone else had the same idea. We parked so far down, it took about 15 minutes to get out of the neighborhood. There were multiple kids selling lemonade in their yards. The houses were beautiful and when I saw a mailman, delivering mail to everyone's door, I had to take a picture. Oakland continues to surprise me with its diversity and richness. We stopped in a few shops and looked at precious stones. There were restaurants with outdoor seating everywhere, but we ducked into this little place called Grand Lake Kitchen and lucked out. We tried to sit outside but there was a wait. Instead of waiting, we posted up at the bar style eating area inside, right on the end. Our view were the cooks and preps, slicing carrots, peeling potatoes and chatting to each other. I ordered an Oakland I.P.A. called Drakes and the savory french toast. I felt quite fancy, enjoying my new city life.

There was a book store called Walden Books that does trades and such, but I had to pull myself away or I would have spent all day in there. 

Oakland is diverse and lively. Tomorrow, I plan to hunt down a venue for me and my typewriter near Lake Merritt. I also have plans to see a movie called A Pigeon Sat on a Bench Reflecting on its Existence at the Roxy theater in San Francisco and to explore the San Francisco Public Library. 

I have all the time in the world and it feels great.