We went down to Oakland while we were in the Bay Area to visit two little old ladies that I have known since I was a kid. They both live in the same retirement community, a tall building right near lake Merritt. If you have to get old, this is a pretty nice place to do it…
We went way up on the roof so I could take a few pictures.
Lake Merritt is beautiful. Lots of people were strolling around the path that circles it.
In the middle distance you can see the huge Mormon Tabernacle temple thing up in the hills. Those are the same hills that burned during that huge fire years ago.
I thought I might be able to get a good picture of San Francisco across the bay, but the sun was lighting up the haze and made it impossible to see very far. This is part of downtown Oakland. It does have something of a reputation. There are parts of it that you might want to stay away from. I know this because those are the parts I used to roam around in when I was a crazy young person trying to prove something to the world. But there are lots of nice parts of Oakland, good dining, things to do.
We took a short walk around part of the lake.
I think that strangely shaped building is a church of some sort.
All in all, it was a pretty nice day. We brought some Christmas cheer… in the form of booze and chocolates filled with booze… to some nice ladies who don’t get out as much as they used to, and we spent some time with two of my brothers and some nieces and nephews.
Pouring My Art Out 
They say oakland’s by the bay
Don’t get in my fucking way
We got Frisco across the water
Wish it was a little bit hotter
All my homies takin it up one step
Pop that cap and my undies’ll be wet
I say oak-land
Say it with me: oak-land!
Shit yo motherfucker Darth Vader
Don’t fuck with the Oakland raiders
Gonna slurp some rock by the pool
All my bitches are super super cool
I say oak-land!
Sat it with me: oak-land!
Oh wait… Is this what you meant?
Ha… that was indeed a bad rap.
I do my best. Happy new year, my friend.
Good bad job… you too, buddy.
I remember seeing the breaking newscasts of the interstate after the quake and kept thinking why don’t the national reporters realize that was an under and over highway that had collapsed on itself. Apparently none of those east coasters had never driven it personally. First thing I thought of when seeing the pictures was all the people on the lower level.
I remember when the door flew off and that DC L1011 crashed in Chicago years ago. I had been on the same flight a month or so earlier going to LA and they sent the live video of the cockpit camera back into the passenger compartment on the movie screens at take-off. Frightening and tragic enough to go through it, but to have a front row seat to their own demise? We are all blessed in ways we have no knowledge of at times. Days and days of times when it isn’t our time. I fell asleep at the wheel with the cruise control on once on an interstate; missed the bridge piers in the median at full speed, crossed over into and spun in the on-coming lanes and ended up broad-sliding to a stop with my nose pointed in the right direction. No on-coming traffic when it happened. It wasn’t my time or anyone else’s then and there. Those who went immediately before and came immediately after that were unaware of the blessing they had just received. I wasn’t, for me or them.
My brother drove over that bridge an hour before the quake.
My point. Hope he was leaving Oakland.
Coming back from San Francisco… you just sort of brush the corner of Oakland. I think nobody on the bottom level was hurt, but somebody got killed driving into the fallen section.
Nice pics!
It was a beautiful day.
Looks like it as the snow gets taller than me here
You have snow shoes?
I need em!
Sounds like
guess what arrived…
NO WAY!!! Do you still like it?
Yes way!! and I LOVE it!! Thank you soo much!
You need to post a photo so I can reblog it!
I will probably tomorrow. I post every other day now mostly.
No rush… lots of Christmas pictures…
kk
Nice views! I wouldn’t mind being a shut in with those views!
They have lots of stuff for them to do. It is really very nice.