Category Oakland

West Coast Holiday 2016, Part Three

Timeline: December 25, 2016 – January 5, 2017 Today’s hotel/motel industry has evolved from its early days when what you got when you booked a stay was hopefully a clean room and good night’s sleep. Now most of the places we stay at feature a flat panel TV, refrigerator, often a microwave and universally, some […]

West Coast Holiday 2016, Part One

  Timeline: December 25, 2016 – January 5, 2017 Upon returning home from our fall west coast trip, the days turned into weeks and those into months, as we spent time with friends, riding our bikes, hosting our nephew Dillon (with a surprise addition from sister Bev) at Thanksgiving and preparing for the Christmas holiday […]

West Coast Tour 2016 – Oakland, Part Two

Timeline: September 29 – October 2 After a better night’s sleep, we arose to a day with not much planned, just dinner out later on at Chez Panisse.  While Kris and I hung out at the apartment, Joanna and Jessica spent the morning in Berkeley getting Joanna a new piercing for her ear.  Later in […]

West Coast Tour 2016 – Oakland, Part One

Timeline: September 29 – October 2 We took off for Oakland mid-morning, stopping in Redding to get gas and some cash from an ATM.  From there it was a smooth and easy drive down I-5, I-505 and then the I-80 into the East Bay.  The drive didn’t take that long, a little under four hours […]

West Coast Spring Swing, Part Six

May 5-17 Followers of this blog will recognize our destination for Saturday evening, Speisekammer Restaurant, as being one of our favorite places to eat in the Bay Area. This would be our fourth or fifth visit, having lost track, and we looked forward to a wide selection of German draft beer, authentic food, spending time […]

West Coast Spring Swing, Part Five

May 5-17 On the way back to Oakland on Friday we stopped in Grants Pass to get the car washed (it was very, very dirty), fill the tank, and pick up a big coffee at Dutch Bros Coffee, our go to stop just before getting on the I-5. I parked the car some feet away […]

West Coast Spring Swing, Part Two

May 5-17 Two short weeks passed and we were back at the airport on the Thursday the 5th for our flight to San Francisco, the beginning of one of our regular not quite two week visits to see Jessica and Kris.  By now these trips have become routine, much like the many we undertook after […]

West Coast Fall 2015, Part Seven

  10/22-11/2 With a relatively short drive back to Oakland that Thursday and a bit of time on our hands with Jessica and Kris at work all day, we elected to visit Tuolumne Grove, one of Yosemite’s three Sequoia groves (the other two are Mariposa and Crane Flat), just past the Tioga Road turnoff. Not […]

West Coast Fall 2015, Part Two

10/22-11/2 Kris had to go into work on Sunday to begin decorating his office for the big Halloween Party they would be holding the following Friday and after he left Jessica, Joanna and I took off for Berkeley and a visit to the REI there to pick up some supplies for mine and Joanna’s trip […]

West Coast Fall 2015, Part One

  10/22-11/2 After my return from Copenhagen on the 14th we had a week in town before our scheduled trip out to the west coast to visit Jessica and Kris. Kim and Marty, Kris’ parents, stopped in early the next week for three nights giving us the opportunity to show them a bit of Charlotte. […]