What I loved the most about Oakland was that all of my neighbors came in as many colors, ideas, and religions as there are people on the planet. How lucky I was to know so many people that were so different and yet so much alike!
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| Van the Man |
I always wanted to see Van Morrison---ever since tacking up the Nile River for five days on a felucca with David DuBois and Chapin Marsh and a bunch of cool Nubian sailors to the frequently repeated tunes of Avalon Sunset on a Walkman with speakers in 1988. It was, after all, the only CD on the boat. Oh sure, I knew Brown-Eyed Girl and Into the Mystic. Who of my era doesn't? But until then, I didn't know the likes of I'd Love to Write Another Song or Van the Man's stylings on Have I Told You Lately. Ever since that time, I've wanted to see him live. An it appears I allowed thirty-two years pass without accomplishing the mission. So, the Pirate suggested he would buy me a scalped ticket (luckily, he didn't have hair to begin with!) to the intimate 300 seat Yoshi's theater in Oakland to see Van Morrison --and a plane ticket to boot as a combo birthday/valentine's gift. I said, "Heck, yeah!"
I found a really nice little airbnb in Oakland and we branched out from our usual downtown San Fran haunts for five days in Oakland, Ca.
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| Casa Havana. Stylishly decorated apartment by Francisco Javier in West Oakland |
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| A place to lay your head. |
Our habitation was in West Oakland in a very diverse neighborhood ---and quite expensive by East Tennessee standards! The apartment was about 1000 sq ft but had everything we needed. West Oakland was reasonably close to the BART train when desired as well.
We had a late arrival and stayed at the airport, then drove over the next morning for a beautiful hike around Lake Chabot. This area was the original water supply for Oakland in 1875 and is named after Anthony Chabot, an engineer/philanthropist of many talents, who was instrumental in bringing water to the city. He was known in the Bay Area as the Water Baron. Due to the water supply for East Bay being centered here, the site was not open for recreation until the late 20th century. But now, there is a park with hiking, boating, fishing and a marina. We decided to hoof the nine miles around this man-made lake that encompasses the lakeside as well as higher areas of redwood, oaks and eucalyptus.
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| A view of Lake Chabot. The path around it extends 9 miles. |
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| The pirate crossed that bridge when he came to it. |
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| I'm a sucker for reflections into lakes. |
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| He's not out of the woods yet! |
This was a really enjoyable hike with varied terrain and pretty easy for nine miles. We got out just about sunset and found our Airbnb. From there, we went the usual fine dining route. We ate dinner at Commis. We highly recommend this California fusion cuisine with an 8 course tasting menu. (Food porn warning!)
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| My first spirulina cocktail ever! |
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| A really nice radish salad with vinegarette |
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| Plating with Plastic Surgery instruments |
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| We sat at the counter which gave us a birds eye view into the kitchen. |
Needless to say, a good meal was had by all. The next day, we made a visit to one of the Pirate's favorite locations, SF MOMA. He refuses to let a visit pass without a wander over to see what's up. There might have been a pizza en route.
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| Always a good choice, SF MOMA is currently displaying Soft Power featuring fifty-eight artists...amongst other things. |
You can't go wrong in this museum as they have something for everyone. One interesting film artist was Richard Mosse. From 2014 to 2016, he documented the mass migration and displacement of people unfolding across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Filmed with a military-grade camera that detects body heat across great distances, these scenes are on view in the exhibition Richard Mosse: Incoming. The heat-vision camera used creates otherworldly footage that renders covert viewing visible and implicates us — the audience — in seeing our fellow humans as others. This immersive video installation is accompanied by panoramic photographs from The Castle, a series of “heat maps” or digital composites of refugee camps. Another interesting collection at present is Thought Pieces, which explores bay area photography amongst the three contemporary artists, Lew Thomas, Donna Lee Phillips and Hal Fischer. Fischer is particularly intriguing. In what appears to be a drug , alcohol and caffeine fuelled frenzy in the 1970s, he photographed a busy bus-stop in the Castro area at intervals for 24 hours. It made for an interesting collage at the intersection of human activity.
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| Hal Fischer sampling |
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| Donna-Lee Phillips photo exhibition: What do I mean when I say red? Also intriguiing as was her series of chair photos. |
We had a great visit to the museum which also has a store with lovely gift selections. You can use your Knoxville Art Museum membership to both gain entry (to an EXPENSIVE museum) and for discounts in the gift shop.
That night, we tried out a "wood fire" restaurant with Asian leanings called Mago in downtown Oakland.
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| My first foray into pig's ear. Not my usual food, but also not half bad. |
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| Grits don't look like this at my house. |
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| House made linguine covered in broccolini and edible flowers. YUM. |
The following day, we were awaiting the arrival of our buddies, Jen and Ed Scholte from Mather, California, so thought we'd get in a good walk. A little over a mile from our condo is Lake Merritt Wildlife Sanctuary. This area was the first wildlife sanctuary in the USA. It is very urban, as those refuges go, but still a place for waterfowl in the city. The hike is pretty short, somewhere between 3 and 4 miles, and you get to see downtown Oakland at the same time. If you are hungry, have a snack at the Boathouse at the end!
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| A map of Lake Merritt right smack dab in the middle of Oakland. |
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| We aren't kidding. Ducks and skyscrapers! |
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| Seagull convention. |
Our friends came in the late afternoon and we enjoyed a nice sojourn with them around Jack London Square. (INSERT SELFIE). There is a statue of the namesake there. ( I would also highly recommend Jack London State Park in Sonoma Valley near Glen Ellen.) We were able to catch up a little on their lives while hiking in the Redwood Regional Park. It's great walking and not as far away as John Muir Woods.
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| Really beautiful AND really close by. |
Paul was not disappointed at all when Ed suggested they visit Amoeba Records in Berkeley where I think both of them found vinyl. (But what else is new?)
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| It requires very little twisting of the arm to get the Pirate into a store full of vinyl. |
Jen and Ed left for home Sunday afternoon and Paul and I were off to visit his work colleague, Valerie in Livermore, CA. It was a pretty easy BART/Uber combo. Fortunately the bay area has great public transportation! We were treated to a plant-based menu by Valerie. The food was so delish we never missed the contribution of animal-based products. It was nice to see a friendly face and share a meal and Livermore based wines (which were great.)
The next day was VAN THE MAN day, so we didn't want to stray too far from the house. Fortunately, the East Bay region is rife with hiking opportunities. We chose the Big Springs- Seaview Loop near Orinda, California bordering on the Tilden Park and Recreation Area. This was an absolutely stunning walk with wanders through redwoods, eucalyptus, and big payoff up top by showing you about 180 degrees of the Bay Area including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Oakland, Sausalito, and a good deal of the area reservoirs north and east of the city. What a spectacular sight!
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In case you decide to tackle this, and we highly suggest you do, set your GPS for the Quarry Trail.
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For a walk of just under 5 miles and an elevation gain of only about 1000 feet, you get some of the best viewpoints in the area. There's even a bench to hang out and drool!
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| About half the walk is shaded. |
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| Paul and the area reservoirs behind him. |
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| The other half of the hike is open. We hit it on a perfect 65 degree sunny day. |
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| Unfortunately we can't do this view justice especially the view of the Golden Gate. But please go there! |
Since we were only about 10 miles from our apartment in West Oakland, we got back in plenty of time for the pirate to make my dreams come true at Yoshi's. This is a small restaurant/bar/concert venue predominantly jazz artists in a cabaret type seating. The secret is to go eat there first, and the waitstaff will get you a good table. We had seats right in the middle. Fortunately, "bad seats" were almost nonexistent.
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| Van the Man and his merry band |
I will have to say, Van Morrison didn't play many of his standards. He stuck to mostly covers, often of well-known blues songs, but he enjoyed himself and so did we. He definite didn't disappoint.
What a great break in, of all places, OAKLAND. I wouldn't hesitate to come here again.
You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.
Paul's Ponderings: Another great trip to the Bay Area.....been coming out here for almost 30 years for work and vacation, sometimes multiple times per year. It's an abundance of riches in almost every regard. Weirdly, I'd never stayed in Oakland, just passed through, so that was a first. We had a great time in West Oakland in a neighborhood that is clearly starting to (sorta) gentrify.
While our place was quite nice inside, it looked pretty modest from the outside and was surrounded by older wooden houses that were in various stages of repair. However, about four houses up the street, we saw a nice place for sale that was clearly remodeled recently and we looked it up. It was actually a duplex with two street entrances, but overall it was over 4000 square feet and multiple stories with a beautiful interior. Asking price? A cool $1.8 million dollars. Wow. In that neighborhood. Just shows the housing crisis out there (price wise anyway) is real, even in mixed Oakland neighborhoods.
That said, we had some great hiking experiences nearby (one of the riches of the area), visited the great SF Moma, and saw Van Morrison. He was in a jazz-centric mood, but at the end, he did this incredible medley that was clearly "his" that sounded like an amazing outtake off of "Astral Weeks". For me, that was a "so that's how he did that" moment.
At any rate, a great time was had by all....I'm sure we'll be back and hopefully soon.
