August 29 – September 14, 2024

After some months of planning, Labor Day Weekend rolled around, and we found ourselves back in Oakland to start what would be a two-month road trip to the east coast.  Ostensibly, our initial motivation revolved around two separate events, meeting the Cisco’s in Rapid City and landing in Fernandina Beach in October to celebrate my Uncle Dale’s 100^th birthday.  As luck would have it, both of these goals would be compromised, almost from the get-go.  We’ll go into all of that later.

We arrived in Oakland on Thursday the 29^th and would stay through the following Tuesday, departing for Boise on Wednesday.  Overall, it would be a quiet weekend with most meals consumed at the house and one large gathering on Sunday.  To start the weekend, on Friday Joanna, Jessica, and I drove to Marin to take a tour of the Marin County Civic Center. 

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright’s death and under the watch of Wright’s protégé, Aaron Green; it was completed in 1962.  The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969.  Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.

The selection of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957 to design the Civic Center was controversial.  The assignment was Wright’s largest public project and encompassed an entire campus of civic structures.  Wright’s design borrowed ideas and forms from his Broadacre City concept, first published in 1932.  The principal structure consists of a four-story, 580-foot-long Administration Building and a three-story, 880-foot-long Hall of Justice at a lower elevation, joined at a 120-degree angle with an 80-foot diameter rotunda.  The Hall of Justice spans a small valley, arching twice over an access road and a parking area, while the Administration Building spans a smaller ravine.

The rotunda on the central hill houses the county library and a central cafeteria, which was closed during Covid and had not re-opened.  The site is home to a 172-foot gold spire meant to house a radio transmitter, as well as the boiler plant’s chimney.  The interiors are arranged around open atria or “malls” as Wright called them, which allow natural light into the space.  Originally open to the sky, the malls were later covered with skylights designed by William Wesley Peters.

In recognition of its exceptional design the Marin County Civic Center main building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1991, and was designated a National Historic Landmark the same day. The designation as a National Historic Landmark came thirty years after completion of the first construction phase, compared with the more usual 50-year term before a site is considered eligible for the National Register.

It was a good tour but a little disjointed as we were a large group, and one wasn’t always able to position themselves to hear the tour guide speaking.  Having visited many of the properties that Wright crafted, his style and philosophy are consistently seen in the Civic Center, that is designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture.

We finished the tour and returned to Oakland and later in the day ventured up to the Laurel District Taproom of Ghost Town Brewing for some beers and dinner.  I devoured a delicious Chicken Salad sandwich and looked forward to eating it again someday.  Unfortunately, a later visit would find it no longer available, not unusual as they change their menu regularly. 

Our last day in town, a Tuesday, found us preparing for what would be a nearly ten-hour drive to visit our friend Cathy in Boise made even longer, mentally, but the one hour we would lose by traveling to the Mountain Time Zone.  For lunch (and dinner for us) that day, we drove up to Mac Arthur Blvd to eat at Communite Table, a small but interesting chef/owner driven café, where Jessica had recently started working.   

After we were seated inside, we ordered an Arnold Palmer apiece (freshly made at the counter) and for me, the French Ham & Gruyere Sandwich on Semi Freddi Baguette with house mayo, and Dijon.  Joanna got the special for the day, the Chicken Salad Sandwich with capers, scallion, celery and house mayo, Dijon on Semi Freddi’s Sweet baguette which came with the house made Smoked Paprika Fries (Hand cut fries tossed with salt, smoked paprika & parsley).  It was all quite tasty.

Later that day we received word that a member of the family tested positive for Covid the day before and knowing that we would be staying with our friend Cathy, the next morning as we prepared to depart, we both tested ourselves with negative results, good news as Cathy was preparing to leave after our visit for a bike tour of the San Juan Islands. 

We the hit the road and pushed through the ten hours in good form, arriving at Cathy’s place, where we spent the evening getting caught up on each other’s lives and generally looking forward to the next couple of days together.  That night though, Joanna slept roughly and was definitely ill the next morning.  We both immediate tested and she came back positive, while I was still negative.  Not the best news as we quickly decided to depart for the Best Western Northwest Lodge, located on the southern edge of town. 

Thus, would begin a couple of weeks that would dramatically alter the first stage of our trip as we would, beyond me getting hammered by this version of the illness, have to quarantine as best we could while on the road.  While in Boise sheltering at the motel, I wasn’t exhibiting any symptoms yet so we thought I might have dodged a bullet.  Needing some food one day I ventured out to Taco del Mar, located in a shopping center not from our lodging.  I ordered the two fish taco special and was pleasantly surprised at just how good they were with the total for the order, with a soft drink as well for a shade over $10.  We’ll pick up the rest of our Covid journey in the next set of posts.  Until then, stay healthy. 

Links

Marin County Civic Center: https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/

Ghost Town Brewing: https://www.ghosttownbrewing.com/taproom

Communite Table: http://communite-table.com/index.html

Best Western Northwest Lodge: https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotel-rooms.13055.html?iata=00171880&ssob=BLBWI0004G&cid=BLBWI0004G:google:gmb:13055

Taco del Mar: https://tacodelmar.com/menu/