Here are some pictures of Oakland, which I did not take myself...
From above Lake Merritt, with San Francisco in the rear center of the frame:
A street-level view of the same lake, from about the same spot, at twilight:
The other end of the lake, at sunset. I have spent a lot of time over the years watching the sunset from about this spot, and it never fails to please:
One of our historic homes, the Dunsmuir House (built by a member of the same Dunsmuir family as one finds in British Columbia, but never occupied by a Dunsmuir; it was the home of the Hellman family for three generations, but Hellman House sounds kind of sinister). This picture is from the Oakland Soul Festival:
And here are two pictures I
did take...
Another historic home, the Cameron-Stanford House, built by Leland Stanford (the railroad baron best remembered for founding Stanford University) for one of his daughters as a wedding present. It is the last of several mansions which used to stand alongside the west shore of Lake Merritt:
And finally, the fountain of the Kaiser Center Roof Garden; the surrounding buildings look short because the garden is on the seventh floor of a parking garage. The name Kaiser (of Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Permanente fame) is on half the buildings in this city, as they were our greatest patrons:
I feel inspired to go out and take some more pictures now! Maybe that's what I'll do this coming weekend.