February 3-5, 25- 28, 2025

The rain finally stopped overnight and although it was quite chilly, not needing to rush back to Oakland Joanna and I finally got that bike ride it we’d been wanting to do.  We managed to eke out 16 miles before time constraints, and the cold, made us turn around and head back to the Best Western where we got cleaned up, packed the car, and made the drive back to Oakland. 

Marty had forwarded to us a recommendation for a good spot to eat in King City, roughly 90 minutes north of Paso Robles and so we got off the 101 there and after a couple of false starts, finally pulled into the parking lot at King City Grill.  As we waited to order, and throughout the meal, we knew it was going to be a good experience as almost everyone there knew each other, obviously loyal customers and we weren’t wrong. 

Along with a coffee apiece, Joanna ordered the Friou’s Signature, deep fried French toast served with candied pecans and for me, the Steinbeck Omelet with bacon, avocado and mixed cheese.  Both items were remarkably good, as tasty a breakfast as one could hope to enjoy.  Although not low in cost, it was high in quality with a tab of $53 including tax and tip.

Returning to Oakland we got a couple of nice bike rides in, one up to Berkeley and the other expanding our usual Alameda ride to include the Bay Farm Islan Loop.  The first part of this ride took us out to the former site of the Alameda Naval Air Station (1938 – 1997) where we rode out to the end of one of the long runways to catch a view of San Francisco across the bay, and also of the USS Hornet, a retired Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the Navy during World War II.  Completed in late 1943, the ship was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force (variously designated as Task Force 38 or 58) in the Pacific Ocean, the navy’s primary offensive force during the Pacific War.  The ship was also used to recover the Apollo 11 crew.

Hornet was decommissioned in 1970, and she was eventually designated as both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark and opened to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California, in 1998.  We retraced our steps and continued on our usual route until we decided to extend the ride by trying to find one that Alyssa (a friend of Jessica and Kris’ who we lent a bike to) had discovered some months back.  This exploration led us to the Bay Island Farm Loop, a six mile on and off-road trail that takes one around the circumference of the island of the same name. 

Bay Farm Island is a district of the city of Alameda, California, though it is separated from the rest of the city on Alameda Island by an estuary of San Leandro Bay.  The location was originally an island in San Francisco Bay, but due to land reclamation it has become a peninsula and is now connected to the mainland of Oakland and Oakland International Airport.  Marshes and other areas of the island were also reclaimed.

Although parts of the trail are roughly paved, overall, we enjoyed the nearly 25 miles the ride gave us and look forward to doing it again.  The next day we drove up to Russian River Brewing’s new brewpub and expanded brewing facility in Windsor, just north of the original taproom in Santa Rosa to meet Mary and Norm for lunch.  It’s a large facility, reminiscent of the new Sierra Nevada taproom outside of Asheville and it was bustling that day. 

Their most popular brew is Pliny the Elder, a 8% “full-bodied, hop forward Double IPA” and it is very good.  Prior to the opening of this new brewing facility, capacity was limited and thus it was difficult to find Pliny outside of Santa Rosa.  But now it is readily available in Southern California, and we drink it often.  I started with the STS Pilsner and Joanna had a sampler of which included the Porter, OVL Stout, Rejection (6.1%, Belgian-Inspired and Barrel-Aged), Blind Pig, and Happy Hops which prepared us for the Fish and Chips and Chopped Salad we ordered and split. 

To finish I enjoyed my Pliny on draft and my only mild complaint about the meal is that the Chopped Salad wasn’t your typical version, not at all what we expected.  If I’d known what it would be like I wouldn’t have ordered it, not bad, just not what we wanted.  We finished our meal and hung around in a lounge for another hour or so chatting with Mary and Norm and then hit the road for Oakland. 

We closed out our weekend with the kids with a bike ride up to Berkeley in the morning, it being Super Bowl Sunday, the usual one we do that gets us 25 miles or so.  We returned to the house late morning and prepared for an afternoon of watching football hoping to enjoy what we thought would be a good competitive game, which turned out to be not the case.  We won’t go into who won or lost here to protect the tender feelings of fans of the losing team, but it was still a fun afternoon. 

We drove home on Monday, a very familiar routine for us now, one that we can easily do in around six hours including stopping for gas and lunch.  In the next post we’ll cover the trip I made to Yosemite with the Kim, Marty, Kris, Gemma and James at the end of the month while Joanna was in North Carolina. 

Links

King City Grill: https://www.yelp.com/biz/king-city-grill-king-city

Alameda Naval Air Station: http://alamedanavalairmuseum.org/history-of-nas-alameda/

USS Hornet: https://uss-hornet.org/

Bay Island Farm Loop: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bay-farm-island-shoreline-trail-alameda

Russian River Brewing: https://www.russianriverbrewing.com/