Oakland

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Old Carnegie Building Being Demolished On the Hopkins Campus at San Martin Drive & University Pkwy

One thing that makes Baltimore so different from New Orleans is that here in Baltimore, for much of the summer it cools off enough at night to make a difference, and sometimes, on summer mornings, it’s actually nice outside. That hasn’t felt true for the past couple of weeks, but Monday at 8:30am it was only 73 degrees and the humidity was only 80%. I was so excited to experience a run in tolerable conditions that I headed out for my weekend long run (four miles, week one of round two of half marathon training, for those following along at home) on a Monday.

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Bikes in Bike Racks at the 16th Street BART

I’ve been at a conference in Oakland, CA for the past several days which has meant no bicycle riding–too busy, too tired, no bike. But I see bikes everywhere. There are lanes in downtown Oakland, signs directing riders all over town. My dear friend S. reports there’s going to be a bike lane on the new Bay Bridge when it eventually opens. Tonight when I took the BART into San Francisco for dinner with D. and P., there were bikes boarding trains, a space in the car set aside for bikes, and a pamphlet on the floor from August when bikes could ride in any car on Fridays. I snapped this picture of bikes lined up on racks at the 16th Street BART station–so many riders! Bikes are clearly just normal here–they can be normal. The infrastructure is built with the assumption it will be used for biking, and it clearly is. How, though, do y’all get up some of these San Francisco hills? Next time I best find out.

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Sunflowers at Eastman and Allendale

I am on another vacation, this one courtesy of my dear old friends E. and S. and their Southwest Airlines frequent flyer ticket. I am all the way in Oakland, California, where it is cold and foggy in the mornings, even thought it’s August, but this afternoon, because I am one seriously lucky girl, the fog burned off as we walked through Muir Woods, taking in the tallest living organisms on earth–the coastal redwoods (though there’s some fungus in Oregon challenging for the title–*shaking fist at Oregon’s fungus*). Continue reading →

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Geese Napping at Lake Merritt

Geese Napping at Lake MerrittToday’s my last day in the Bay Area, and I spent the afternoon tooling around on the bicycle, running errands for S., who is still recovering from surgery. I went to the drug store, the grocery for flowers, and then the bakery. Oh, the bakery. Continue reading →

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Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light

Cathedral of Christ the Light in OaklandWhen I moved from Oakland four years ago, there was a big sign on this empty lot at Harrison and Lakeside Drive that read, “Future Home of the Cathedral of Christ the Light.” Well, the future is now, because today I rode my borrowed bike to that corner and took this picture of the church rising up in all its glass-encased glory. Continue reading →

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Nine Week Old Baby In Oakland

Baby Eli in OaklandI enjoyed another day in frigid northern California today, riding my bike around Oakland. As I mentioned in a previous post, I lived here for years, though it now seems like a lifetime ago. When I lived here before I didn’t have a bicycle, and my life was much, much different from its current incarnation (and not just because of the bike). Continue reading →

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Scraper Bikes at Lakeside Park

Scraper Bikes at Lakeside ParkI’m in the Bay Area for a week visiting my dear friend S., who is recovering from major surgery. I was a bit nervous to be away from my bikes for that long, but thankfully S. has a bike, and she has graciously ceded it to me for the week during her many naptimes. Continue reading →

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Future Trump Condos in the CBD

I was itching to ride my bike today in the lovely weather–overcast and a touch windy, humid and thick–and decided to head down to the CBD to run an errand or two.  Continue reading →