Arbor Cafe

I pass Arbor on my walk back from the many visits to Kaiser over the last few months (getting blood work mainly) but on what was hopefully my last visit for a while, I treated myself to a nice meal of yogurt & tea in between appointments..

I had some of my last finals work to finish for school so Arbor is a good place to sit quietly in work. People are usually respectfully hushed when enjoying their coffee or lunch there.. and they have some large tables to sit and eat and have room to work.



Strawberries were huge!

the granola was so good.. I didn't think to ask if they made it themselves or where it came from.. If I thought I could get granola like this from a package I would, but I definitely would order the yogurt and gronola from Arbor again.. so good. I was happy and the serving was plenty as an early lunch/late breakfast.. (which is what this was for me.)

Jack London's Cabin

East Bay Brewers Fest

LINK to my pix from the special SF Beer Week brunch at Novel Cafe, San Pablo Ave. Oakland..

Overlook (views from the Hills)

Last week Friday I spent the morning in Sibley Volcanic Park (part of a lengthy California Geography project I'm working on for school) and we stopped at the overlook on the way back down..


You can see Oakland and San Francisco..


Oakland..

Here's the set from Sibley (minus stuff with my face in it..)

The sky was so blue.. something to recall as the rain moves back in the next couple days..

Radical Acts Pop-Up Talk

Friday August 15th the Oakland Museum of California held a pop-up talk by Lincoln Cushing, curator of Radical Acts..



The installation includes 15 counter-culture / activist posters within a smaller time frame of the original "All of Us or None" archive that appeared at OMCA in a previous year. Some of the posters were chosen based on comments from museum patrons, (which were included with the displayed poster art.)


This linotype poster print attributed to Franke Rowe is my favorite of the posters included in this installation. If I recall the story correctly, (I didn't take notes) Rowe was an instructor at SF State who was fired for refusing to sign the loyalty oath during the 50s... banned from teaching til the late 60s, when he was hired at Laney.


There was a pretty nice crowd for the talk which was to last about 15 min.. I wished it could have been longer.. Pop-Up talks as part of OMCA's Friday nights feature different speakers each week.. as well discounted admission, and the food trucks of course.. although honestly this was the first Friday Night event I've made as I specifically came for the talk.





I took the pix with my iphone.. no flash.. so a lot of blurriness & jazz hands.. ;) However, if you want to see the other pix I took of the framed posters or more blurry image 'jazz hands' you can view them in my OMCA flickr set HERE..

Temescal Street Fair

My enthusiasm for my first Berkeley 4th of July weekend in many years was moderately diminished by the fact I messed up my foot late Thursday night of the 3rd.. (I jammed my toe on the bed-frame and pretty much been having issue walking on my right foot for the past few days.)

I tried walking some on Sunday, down Telegraph to the Temescal Street Fair (we went last year and had a good time.) I admit I felt like I was cheating on Berkeley just a bit; our quick visit to Donut Dolly to fulfill a donut craving I'd had for the last two weeks did little to change that.. Then we came across this band performing between 44th & 45th Street (in front of the Jack in the Box no less.) Happiness and contentment were the prevailing moods as I forgot about worrying about what Berkeley was up to for the moment (although I did think about it briefly when we took the BART back one station.) I even forgot about my foot hurting me for a while..

The John Brothers Piano Company (Quintet) were playing.. Maybe they'd make you forget your minor troubles too??




My foot was hurting, so we BART'ed back to Ashby.. which is something I would NEVER do under normal circumstances I swear, but pretty sure I tore or strained something.. I'm still waiting for the swelling and bruising to abate, but I'm still walking.. just not as much for a couple more days.

Emeryville North Oakland GrafArt

near 57th & Lowell..

Summer Solstice

Last week one of our neighbors on nextdoor.com posted about the Summer Solstice concerts at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.. the Garden of Memory columbarium walk-through has been an annual event since the mid-late 1990s according to their website..



I spent some time researching Friday night what was involved, how I would get there.. trying to convince the spouse (he wasn't interested) and then finally purchasing my ticket online so I could "avoid the crush of people" that would be queued up to purchase tickets in person.. We're still in the midst of a drawn out moving in/moving out.. so there was the timing of how I could get there and from where.. It all worked out though.. I got there and I was just a little early.. which was nice because I got to experience how nice a soprano sax sounds echoing through the beautiful Julia Morgan gothic-inspired columbarium..




There were so many groups and individuals performing.. I definitely didn't see or hear everyone.. but I'm grateful for the experience. By going early I felt like I could take in the music and still experience the columbarium with some sense of reverence and appreciation of art and architectural detail. I kept in mind that a friend of mine had only recently experienced the interment of her grandmother. Then I found myself in the Chimes Chapel..

It's so beautiful..



and not knowing what I would walk in on.. I found myself sitting in on a performance of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble accompanied by actor Steven Anthony Jones performing "Reply to a Dead Man" (written by Laurie San Martin inspired by a short story by Walter Mosley) the rather jazzy, contemporary music with Jones' well-timed narration, drew me in. I only wish I had come earlier to catch the entire performance.





Although I wish I'd seen the entire performance, the event lends itself to wandering and taking in the various sounds, and musical genres.. whether it's experimental "bubble" music, feedback, water glasses, jazz, classical chamber, sitars, bells, or any number of sensory experiences.. I managed to experience several performers and I take a few photos with my cellphone.. and while not very good, can give you a general sense of what it was like.. some I posted here;

You can see the rest of my set including a couple very short videos HERE

If I manage to go again, (and I'd like to very much) I'll be sure and remember (along with a sweater and comfy shoes for my walk home) to bring the Nikon (wasn't sure I could bring a regular camera but you had lots of people taking images with digital cameras, iPads, and cel phones.) I would think as long as you don't take flash pictures it may be alright.. but checking ahead of time is always a good idea.) This is a place of rest and reverence for people and their departed loved ones.. I would think some consideration should be given before anyone goes shooting off photos or whatever..

As a little girl I witnessed skipping up to her mother exclaimed: "Look Mommy! More books!!" (this is where I kind of cringed) and her mom replied "Yes honey, more books.."

Raccoons in the Museum!

1000 Oak Street
Oakland, CA

Playing tourist and taking in a little history until I get back to class.. Spent a good time in the Art Gallery, had lunch and then took in the Museum.. and yes, they had raccoons in there. ;)



You can see the rest of my set (including food pRon) HERE

Temescal Alley

Seen waiting outside the Temescal Alley Barber Shop

Bike Lane!

Green stripe up 40th toward MacArthur BART.

Expectations of Security

The spouse and I lived several years in Downtown LA. It's not the safest place, and we lived "Skid Row Adjacent" for most of the years we were there. When I was out and about doing the blogging thing I walked through several areas that you'd think wouldn't be safe at night. I was very lucky maybe or despite the perceived lack of safety. I was OK. I hardly ever worried about things happening to me. I was aware of my surroundings.

Inside our own building I didn't have to worry about the drug dealers or getting robbed or anything. We were high up (5th and 6th floors respectively) We lived in "secured buildings" (number code to get in) in the Old Bank District right on Main Street. Not a fancy place at all,(no amenities), rather a friendly but sketchy area of DTLA: very "Mayberry" -like, if Mayberry had homeless people, pan-handlers, and drug-dealers. Tom Gilmore, the owner/developer does have paid security outside the main building (where Pete's Cafe and Bar is located) but that's about it. LAPD is your friend otherwise (and they are in my experience anyway). Moving on..

We live in Emeryville now, literally on the Oakland/ Emeryville border ("On the edge of E-Ville" right?!) where all kinds of crazy stuff is going down literally a couple blocks away from us. The Oakland border as I may have mentioned, passes through our next door neighbors apartment despite our street address being Emeryville. I guess crime doesn't pay attention to street addresses..

We just found out my super nice neighbor a couple doors down from us got a gun pointed at her head in a very bold attempted armed robbery late last night through her barred window! She's got 2 big dogs (one of them a scary looking to strangers doberman) I don't know what the heck is wrong with people!!? Does no one have any boundaries?? A few of my neighbors have decorative bars on their small windows and she says it was this and her doberman that kept them at bay enough for her to get down and call the cops. E-ville cops rock! She says they responded pretty quick. I'm so grateful and glad she's OK! It could have ended very very badly.

This getting mugged from WITHIN YOUR OWN SPACE is BS! As renters you should have reasonable expectations of safety within your own place. I guess I should be glad our cats are frightened of the fireworks last night as we closed and locked our windows by 8PM or so.. Went to bed by Midnight & the fireworks (illegal ones of course) were still going off. We live very close to Market St. (we're incredibly close to the Oakland border) which is a hotzone of muggings and armed robberies. The 4th of July is usually a time of hooligans to be out and about setting off M-80s and possible car break-ins.. It seems like it's escalating and our area (and my neighbors!) of E-ville is suffering for it.

I can't help but wonder stupid things like "If only they hadn't taken out most of the ground cover between our windows and the sidewalk?" or maybe our area of the street needs better lighting?? I don't know if anything would have discouraged these jerks from trying something as crazy as pointing a gun through my neighbor's window... but having our lush landscaping ripped out and left bare doesn't help.

I think "reasonable expectation of safety" should include NOT having some jerk point a gun at you through your window demanding your laptop. We live in a low-key but fairly nice place and pay decent rent... Like where we lived in LA, it's not a fancy building, we don't have crazy amenities and we don't have alarm systems and MOST of us don't have bars on our windows (but that doesn't seem to help much in this case) I really don't know what one or anyone can do if bars and scary barking dogs don't keep people from attempting to kill you over your things. There should be something.. You should be safe within your own space!

It's so frustrating! I've lived many years in New Orleans.. where I can't imagine the crooks ever trying anything like that.. maybe they do these days? In DTLA it seemed like things happened to people who 'asked for it' IE: not paying attention to their surroundings, flashing money or expensive accessories (ipod/cellphone theft is pretty high).. stuff like that. A guy gets stabbed in DTLA it's because he was in the middle of a drug deal that went sideways. I'm not saying crime doesn't happen to people that are aware and doing the right thing.. but it seems like it's less likely.. and the veil of security and sanctity of home is mostly intact.

Here things happen to folks outside.. down by the bus stops on Market or more recently out on the sidewalk in front of our neighboring buildings. Here we have people trying to live and be aware despite what is going on within a block or so of their home, still being victims of crime. Sanctity of home? Expectations of Security?? I'm just not sure, but something needs to change.

Arbor Cafe

Sometimes all you need is a sandwich and some good coffee! We finally got around to trying Arbor after returning our GetAround car mid-day... We didn't need a lot..


Pretty good Turkey & Brie sandwich.. was big enough to split!


The "personal" French Press is big enough to share with a friend as well.. enough for about 3 cups of coffee we were told.. Sounds about right!


Arbor isn't on our usual walking route.. We were pleasantly surprised to see how much it resembled one of our favorite places, (Actual Cafe on San Pablo: both Actual and Arbor are bike friendly and offer good & casual food and good coffee). You can read more about bike friendly East Bay from an article from last year in the East Bay Express:
A Bike Rack on Every Corner

Arbor Cafe is located at 4210 Telegraph Avenue.. They have a facebook page and you can read reviews on Yelp if you want to hear more from other people.

Bites off Broadway Pt 2: Dessert!

As mentioned in the earlier post, Bites off Broadway is a community event over in the Temescal area of Oakland every Friday night (from May 11th to October 12th) with the highlight being foodtruck vendors.

When it comes to dessert there may be a few options off the trucks, but if you want some really good treats, you wont' go wrong with Big Wheel Cookie Co.



Big Wheel had cookies as well brownies available for purchase.. but it was the organic iced cream sandwiches that caught our eye:



Lemon Ginger Cookie with Vanilla Iced Cream.

This was so good.. lemon-y ginger cookie matched the sweet, smooth vanilla iced cream and was an excellent finish to all the rich foods we'd had for dinner.


Expresso Chocolate Cookie with Mocha Ice Cream; rich and decadent. You could easily understand how they could run out. If you want to be super naughty this is the way to do it. =)

You can follow them on twitter: @BigWheelCookies or Facebook.. but if you want the yumminess you'll have to attend Bites off Broadway on any given Friday between now and October. =)

Bites off Broadway

Bites off Broadway is a community event over in the Temescal area of Oakland every Friday night (from May 11th to October 12th) with the highlight being foodtruck vendors.

Families picnicking on the lawn in front of Studio One Art Center.

We found out about the event via @NomNomTruckSF which we follow on Twitter. Sean has been wanting some nomnom for a bit, so the fact it would be a nice (1 mile) walk from our home was great! We were surprised when we got there and found they weren't the only food truck.


There were at least five or six food trucks.. and the Big Wheel Cookie Co. (more on them later)

We were tempted away from nomnomtruck at first by Nick's Wheelie Good Breakfast:


Nick's had a "Maple Glazed Pork Belly Sandwich" and pork belly hash.. this was offered together as the "Pig Lovers Combo":




seared pork belly glazed in maple syrup, pickled red onions, mustard aioli, organic arugula and fried egg on rosemary focaccia bread.

Nick's was definitely the winner of our evening.. although nomnom was still good.

@nomnomtruckSF menu

We went with the combo which included one taco & one banh mi and a drink:

Grilled Pork Taco


Grilled Pork Banh Mi

The taco definitely needed some Sriracha and the sandwich, although good wasn't pre-cut (we didn't remember to ask) so I nibbled off one end (again wishing I had some Sriracha) til I got about halfway, then passed it off to Sean.



I was thinking we'd had the 'deli special' (lunch meat banh mi) the last time we'd eaten NomNom (at its original LA truck) and Sean was saying he'd wished he'd gone with his original plan for deli special. Next time I promise! It was still good though.. I think we just ate a lot of pork in one meal.

Sean wanted to hit up one more food truck before dessert.. Go Streatery was tempting Sean with the Oxtail and Grits.. but it was Conklin's Catering truck with their Randang Fries that won out..


Randang Fries: fries with beef randang served on top. I expected them to be super spicy but they weren't. I left Sean to eat them since I wanted to save myself for dessert..

We'd definitely go to this event again.. probably NOT every Friday.. It's a nice walk from our apartment but not a long enough walk to burn off what we ate, despite splitting the various items.

Along with the food, there's kids games and at some point they'll be doing a movie night on the lawn in courtyard there. The community pool is next door to the Studio One Art Center.. While I didn't check out what the requirements are to swim there, I can tell the families that enjoyed the pool and then dinner afterwards could easily make an evening of it.

Bites Off Broadway is on facebook if you want to keep up with the schedule of events and photos they post there.

Lois the Pie Queen

Saturday had us walking to Berkeley for various errands. We headed up Adeline and decided to stop for breakfast along the way at a local favorite, Lois the Pie Queen.

Lois the Pie Queen is a legend and has been filling the neighborhood up with food and love for over fifty years. If you come here, bring your appetite and you will not be disappointed!



Sean and I made it over here quite a few times before we moved to SoCal, but that was well over eight years ago! Lois the Pie Queen is one of Sean's favorites, so you know we had to get over here at some point.. =)

The restaurant was the same as I remember it. The wall of photos, the dimly-lit dining room with its long diner counter and the uber-friendly service. It looks like a diner but you've entered a local family room really.



Waffles?? with pecans?? Pancakes with fruit?? Chicken with Waffles?? or eggs?? Do I want eggs?? So many things to choose from!! I decided on the Chicken breakfast with eggs and hashbrown potatoes and biscuits:



Sean had the Reggie Jackson Special (pork chops, eggs, potatoes and (not pictured) biscuits too!)


Assuming you had room after this (and if it weren't for the big walk we were planning this day, I'd be hard pressed to say we really had room for anything else) there is the pie!



There are so many pies and cobblers I couldn't get it all in one shot, so you'll just have to head over there and find your own way through that display case!

Sean decided for us with the Lemon Icebox Pie:


I am sucker for what I call "cooler" pie.. cooler/icebox.. it's good stuff! This was definitely GOOD stuff! It's not a place we can eat every weekend, or very often. I can't say chicken is something I should be eating very often.. Lois the Pie Queen is a good treat and great way to fuel up for a busy day.

If you don't think you can eat all that, just go for breakfast or just go for coffee and pie. It's family friendly (though you may have to wait for a free table, or be willing to sit at the counter like we did.

An important thing to note is that they are CASH ONLY. That's the way it used to be y'know, and Lois the Pie Queen is the same as it was these fifty plus years.


Lois the Pie Queen
851 60th St
Oakland, CA 94609
M-F 8am-2pm/Sat 7-3pm/Sun 7-4pm

No website but check out the YELP Reviews for other folks opinions and images.