Last summer, Kerry and I moved into the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. For one reason or another, life has been pretty busy over the past 6 months, leaving us little time to explore our “new” city.
Well, that ended today! We set out to Jack London Square and the Warehouse District for some good eats at Chop Bar. It was pretty good! According to various tips on Foursquare, they serve the “best hamburgers in all of the East Bay.” It’s definitely on my todo list for next time.
Walking around Jack London Square, we discovered some tall ships docked in the harbor.
Then there was this awesome statue of Cheemah, Mother of the Spirit-Fire — it’s part of a worldwide project to celebrate ” cultural diversity, world unity and care for the earth.” Awesome!
After that, we walked around Old Oakland. The buildings have this beautiful old architecture about them and the whole neighborhood was just awesome. So, obviously, the only thing I took a picture of was a sign. D’oh! Time to go back.
From there, we walked back to our neighborhood in North Oakland. Interestingly enough, the Oakland North blog is running a series on the history of the Temescal District today.
Speaking of Temescal history, earlier this weekend, some friends and I explored the Kingfish Pub, an old dingy dive bar in the neighborhood. Some commenters on Yelp have claimed that it’s the “second oldest bar in Oakland,” but I’ve yet to find an official verification of this source.
The SF Gate wrote about it last year:
It’s a mystery what, exactly, keeps the Kingfish from collapsing.
The roof sags, the beams lean, the floors slope more than some East Bay hills.
“The whole place is twisted. There’s nothing square in it,” said owner Emil Peinert. “One of the windows just popped out.”
The Kingfish Pub in its natural environment:
All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend in the East Bay and I’ve found myself loving it more and more. Others have mentioned that Oakland is San Francisco’s own Brooklyn. I believe it!
It’s fun. Does this mean I’m about to start saying “hella” though? Maybe not quite yet. 😉