Getting Touristy For Friends Afar Part 4: Conclusion

Finally--the conclusion of the photos I sent to my Russian friend on my recent trip to the Bay Area. Clearly these are nothing to get excited about....but to someone from some far away land, they could be of interest.

On the day after my excursion into San Francisco, we went out to lunch to celebrate another friend's birthday. We went to lunch in an Italian restaurant, Buon Appetito.

The bar area was nice.

There was also plenty of seating. The food was good...but how it compares to authentic Italian fare, I really do not know.

Afterwards, we drove by the original Casper's Hot Dogs, a Bay Area chain. A co-worker of mine who used to live in Hayward has often asked if the original was still there. I took this photo for her. (And it's kind of cute looking... I may have to go back and investigate...but I'm not a fan of hot dogs. Hmm.)

A little later in the day, Erich and I went to a movie in Hayward.

We saw the new "Halloween" sequel. It was okay and fairly seasonal (Halloween was the next day).

After the movie, we headed to Emeryville for dinner at Trader Vic's, a tiki bar and restaurant. We arrived at sunset and there was a great view of San Francisco and the new Oakland Bridge in the distance.

I had been trying to get to Trader Vic's a couple of  times over the past year. The first time, I went to meet my friend Ray there around the holidays. It was closed. another time, Erich and I were headed there...and we had a flat tire on the freeway. 

It was Tuesday night. Tuesdays are all-day happy hour days. We went for dinner, but the place was so packed that we got seated off of the bar for our meal.  We had been at the restaurant nearly 20 years ago--but it was almost entirely different than I remembered it. Had they had a remodel in the intervening years? 

Of course we had cocktails, too. We each had two. The first one we had was not so great (it was a weekly special that was so NOT special. Blah). My second was a Chi Chi (basically a pina colada made with vodka). But Erich's was more interesting. it was a Koana Puffer. It came with an extra shot of rum he could squeeze into it.

I had some shrimp dish.

Erich had some short rib dish he LOVED.

The next day was Halloween. We were out running errands and I thought we should pick up some extra Halloween candy--just in case. There was very little left to choose from, but I found these nifty-sounding Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in groovy glow-in-the-dark wrappers. I'm a sucker for gimmicks (and I like Reese's). SOLD!

We needed to charge them under a light for a while to charge up the glow...so we laid the all out under a lamp.

And it worked...well, sort of...

Because it gets dark in Erich's neighborhood and his porch lights don't always cut it, we put candles up and down the steps, so the kids didn't fall.

We were ready for the trick-or-treaters.

After our visit the previous evening to Trader Vic's, we decided to enjoy some cocktails that were no longer on the menu--the Kami'ina. Back when we had first gone to Trader Vic's, they had let us keep the mugs. We still had them and used those for our drinks.

We also found a recipe online years back when we had tried to recreate the drink at home. Erich had saved the recipe. Mmm.

While we were dealing with trick-or-treaters, enjoying or drinks, and trying to find a decent horror movie on Netflix that we hadn't already seen, our friend Greg--who now rents a room from Erich downstairs--came home from work early in his homemade costume--a factory reject.

Neither of these films worked for us... Oh well.

The next day, Nov. 1, I would be heading home. We got a late start getting out of the house for breakfast. The first place we went to was already serving lunch, so we left. I couldn't resist snapping a shot of the place as they had this pair of giant feet wearing ruby slippers sticking out from underneath. Awesome!

Instead, we ended up going an old Alameda favorite, Ole's Waffle Shop.

Ole's is a great little vintage dinner. 

To kill some time before my train departed, we visited Jack London Square and walked around a bit. This wolf statue had once been sniffed by Boo, my beloved Chow Chow. He mistook it for a real canine.

At the far end of Jack London Square stands this old cabin. It was moved there from the Yukon and dates back to the time of when Jack London would have been there. I don't recall if this is an actual cabin he stayed in or one like he could have stayed in.

Just beyond the cabin stands Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon.

opened in 1883 and supposedly made of wood from an old whaling ship, Heinold's was frequented by Jack London during his formative years. many of the people he encountered there, as well as the bar itself, were featured in many of the author's novels. The write up on Wikipedia is fairly interesting. I've put a link HERE if you are interested. While we did not go in, I have been in the bar in the past. It is a neat place.

Further away from the main part of the square there is a park-like area and a small pier. I got this shot of San Francisco (with the Bay Bridge visible in front of it).

These are boats in the marina at Jack London Square.

And this is looking across at Alameda. 

Soon it was time to head to the train station just a short distance from the square.

It was rather warm, so we waited inside.

Soon the train showed up...and it was time to go back home. Waaagh.

The most interesting part of the trip is the first half, when the train travels along the bay and then up into the delta. There are homeless encampments (which I meant to get shots of) as well as decaying ruins that I find fascinating.

This boat has been sitting there for years, rotting away.

The Carquinez Bridge is actually two bridges. The erector set-looking one on the right is the original bridge. A few years back the built the new bridge. The old bridge takes the east bound traffic and the new bridge handles the west bound.

The C&H Pure Cane Sugar processing plant is right next to the tracks.

There are lots and lots and LOTS of old pilings in the water.

This old train sits in a park near the train station in Martinez.

This old abandoned house, with its crumbling pier boggles my mind. It is placed high on a platform in the delta with ladders to reach it and there is the carcass of an old boat afloat near it.

Here's another old house in ruins in the delta with an old house boat behind it.

Stockton's station is old but looks nice.

Castle Air Museum can also be seen along the route.

As we got closer to my stop, it had gotten dark and riders were thinning out.

This guy slept through the entire trip and was constantly flipping into strange positions every few minutes, it seemed. I am not sure, but I think he may have slept through his stop.

I could totally understand his comatose condition. The ride home is 4 hours long and B-O-R-I-N-G!

And that is the end of the trip and the end of the photos I shared with my friend. I realize these were not the most exciting of photos---but I was just trying to share a little more of the world with my friend than I normally would have bothered with.

Thanks for visiting.

CHEERS!