Oakland Favorites

Favorite thing: What's it look like right now? (broadband connections only.... have patience )
LIVECam Oakland Observatory and Berkeley

What's the weather gonna' be like when I get there tomorrow?
Oakland Weather

Favorite thing: Oakland's jewel is Lake Merritt. Without it, this would be just another 'burb of San Francisco.

There's bird-watching, people-watching and general strolling in a great environment.

There are more people to hang out with on Piedmont Avenue, Rockridge (College Ave) and Jack London Square.

There's more natural beauty in East Bay Regional Park and, surprisingly intriguing: Mountain View Cemetery where SF's elite from the last century have been laid to rest.

Favorite thing: I like to watch all the late-night activity by the port / loading docks down the long waterfront from Jack London Square all the way to Berkeley.

The waterfront can be very pretty & peaceful, yet still busy at night.

Fondest memory: Walking the Jack London boardwalk and sitting up late one night in the Waterfront Plaza watching them load a huge cargo freighter.

Sounds boring, (maybe it IS) but it was intriguing watching how the huge rail cartons are trucked;
then the whole truck lifted up into the belly of the ship by gigantic cranes like the ones in the pic;
where the truck drives to the location inside the ship to unload the carton;
finally the empty truck is lifted & unloaded by the crane back down to the dock so it can drive off for another carton.

This was repeated over and over all night until a mind-boggling (tons & tons) number of cartons had been placed onboard for a voyage to somewhere in Asia / Pacific.

It was interesting to watch, and the impression it gave me of the scope and size of international trade really put things into perspective & made me feel rather small.

Fondest memory: Driving through parts of Oakland with my boyfriend and his sister. He was born there and they showed me the house where they lived, where their parents worked, the area where they grew up and I got to hear some childhood memories.

East 14th street, now called International Boulevard ... people seem to wonder how they came up with that name.

Fondest memory: I used to get really restless at night and would need to get out. The Freeways in the bay area all loop around. So, you can go out on one and come back on another.

One cool phenomenon I liked to see was how the bay would glow like a big halogen lamp right before the sun broke the horizon. It was kind of eerie and looked very cool at the same time.

I usually drove around and crossed over on either the Oakland/SF Bay Bridge or the San Mateo bridge and come back on the other. If I couldn't sleep, I used to go out in my little car with the windows open bumping Too $hort for 2 or 3 hours then come back when I was tired enough to go to sleep.

Favorite thing: Go to Chinatown and eat!!Ride a bicycle around Lake Merrit!!Go and see a movie while drinking a beer and eating pizza at the Parkway Theatre!!

Fondest memory: My fondest memory of Oakland was watching the sunset over San Francisco Bay - it really is beautiful! Oh, I also have very fond memories of playing foos ball on a really old table (so I was told) in a Mexican taqueria - I never knew a game could be so much fun! The table had much more character than the one pictured here.

Favorite thing: Explore some of the neighborhoods. See the historic architecture downtown, stroll down College Ave, get a cup of coffee on Piedmont Ave, see a movie at the Grand Lake Theater, get a burrito in Fruitvale, then head up to Montclair and watch the sun set over San Francisco Bay.

Oakland's neighborhoods are the cities heart and soul; and because of the area's decentralised nature, they are also where most of the action is.

(photo: a residential street off of Piedmont Avenue)

Favorite thing: Take care the schedule of the transportation,usually it will takes long time to wait a bus and they will work off very early in a day(except bart)

Fondest memory: When i first time came here,The Oakland Tribune Building which shows on picture impressed me,it's the symbol of city.