Wednesday we soaked our heads - these two introverts have been mighty social on this trip. We needed a quiet day so we'd be ready for our dinner guest, Chris Moran (whose son Sam and his girlfriend Hannah stayed with us just before the pandemic shut down - see Fun in Gowanus post from March 12, 2020). More great conversation and this time we remembered to get a photo:
It’s been interesting this trip seeing so many old friends. We're all around the same age so there’s been lots of talk about retirement, making transitions, losing parents or other loved ones, pondering what the next phase of our lives will contain. Especially after being isolated for the past year or so, there’s a longing to make sense of it all and to understand how each of us is negotiating the changes.
Tuesday I visited Jim who said he could help me with an audio project. I'd lost a treasured and no longer available CD recording of the Peninsula Women's Chorus' memorial tribute to Patricia Hennings their former conductor (and Frank Ferris' sister). Through Jim's good work in his studio/lab, I now have it restored to my iTunes library.
Afterwards I took a drive down Telegraph to see if an old haunt was still there The White Horse Inn was the first gay bar I ever dared enter (thanks to Matt, whose last name I've lost, for holding my hand during that nervous moment). Not only is it still there, I learned that it’s the oldest continuously operating LGBT bar in the US (though perhaps others also lay claim to that designation?), dating from 1933. Apparently it used to be connected via a back door to Chinese restaurant so that patrons would only be seen from the street as entering a different type of establishment.
Here’s my picture and a better one from SF Gate
And an article for anyone interested in this particular bit of Oakland LGBTQ history
In the afternoon I took a drive to Palo Alto to meet up with Elisabeth Rubinfien, an old friend from Pomona College days. I often tell the story of when we first met in Microbiology class. We walked home together talking. She walked me to my dorm, then I walked her to hers, then back to mine again and by then it was dinner time so we moved on to the dining hall so we could continue talking. It’s been pretty much like that ever since (now almost 50 years). It was great to pick up the conversation once again. Elisabeth made a delicious meal, but no pictures were taken because we were too absorbed in discussion. We did manage a picture before I left though:
Being retired means getting to take a longer vacation. We've both been recalling how our employed selves would arrive at vacation exhausted and would need the first week just to recuperate. Then maybe we had a second week and back at it again. Now we can take 3 weeks, really settle in and enjoy "la dolce far niente" (the sweetness of doing nothing).
Rockridge is a neighborhood that straddles the border between the south of Berkeley and the north of Oakland. It was a place I remember as a high schooler where we hung out to feel cool. Much gentrified since then, but still sweet. Monday we started at Kitchen Story because Linda loves breakfast and they are famous for it. Linda had her eggs with the "millionaire's bacon" which is mentioned in all the reviews of the place. It’s marinated in maple syrup and then has some sort of spicy heat added.
I had a chicken sausage and spinach scramble which was also tasty. The potatoes were also particularly good - crispy and seasoned with rosemary
We wandered along College Avenue and visited Pegasus Books (there are actually two independent bookstores within a few blocks!).
I was tempted by this one since the sloth is my spirit animal:
In the end though I purchased this one as possible book club material:
The best discovery though was that the Women Street Photographers book that includes Linda was featured in the bookcase near the entrance!
This shelf amused me
As did this front yard later in our travels. Hard to discern any unifying thought. I guess we’re free to interpret as we will
Sunday my brother Jim and his partner Louise came over to see the AirBnB house and have brunch. The dining room table seats at least 6 and is dramatic, but we discovered that it was so large that we had to either stand to serve ourselves or scoot the dishes across to each other.
Later in the day, we had a mini reunion of Pomona grads: Denise, Frank, Linda, and I along with Denise’s husband Caleb and Frank's husband Bill. So great catching up and our first time meeting Bill, who is quite a raconteur and had some fascinating tales of his time researching German Opera Culture - by being a member of a German opera company.
The food was fabulous as always at Denise and Caleb's house and included carrot soup, mashed sweet potatoes with ginger, baked salmon, a Japanese cabbage slaw and a sort of agro dolce cannellini beans dish.
The show stopper for me though was the fruit plate for dessert which included freshly picked pluots from their own trees - so fragrant you could smell them from several feet away
So grateful to be able to gather with friends and family after a year of separation.
After visiting the Afrofuturism exhibit, we stopped at the cafe which has a lovely outdoor dining space. This is a picture I cribbed from the internet. The tables were much further apart and nowhere near this crowded
The cafe Town Fare is run by one of our favorite Top Chef contestants- Tanya Holland. She also owns Brown Sugar (which we may yet get to before we leave).
Her interesting story here (keep scrolling through the ads to get it all)
Barbara and I had sides of deviled eggs eaten before the camera came out and this beautiful beet and fennel salad and elderberry tonic to drink
Linda went for the fried chicken sandwich. Brown Sugar is famous for its fried chicken. This was a slightly healthier version made with a skinless chicken breast - really delicious (this gluten free girl had to have a wee taste)
Friday Linda visited the SF MOMA. She is not quite as into documenting her visits as I am, but she enjoyed the Calder exhibit
And
She also visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum and particularly enjoyed
Saturday we met Barbara Ustanko (fellow Pomona alum) and visited the Oakland Museum of California to see the exhibit called "Mothership - Voyage into Afrofuturism which was fascinating (some of these entries require scrolling through the thumbnails at the top to see them all) I tried to add the legend and info after pictures
The science fiction writer, Octavia Butler is referenced as a visionary force in multiple places
Barbara suggested we spend some time with
"Passage", a video triptych installation
There’s no way here to do justice to the way it simultaneously mesmerizes and challenges so here’s a link to an excerpt to give you a taste if it interests you - imagine though that you are sitting surrounded by the 3 projection screens
There were references to The Black Panther and something called the Wakanda Dream Lab
I remember Sun Ra vaguely from my Berkeley days, but mostly as a musician. I learned he also made pioneering movies and wrote and spoke prolifically
Two of the pieces that grabbed my attention were these two by Nigerian artist Olekan Jeyifous called Shanty Mega-Structures: Makoko Waterfront and Makoko Canal
Here are selections from a series of photographs from 1960s and 1970s Oakland community life
Ruth-Marion Child: Mother and Child & Black Panther feeding son(Free Huey Rally, Oakland, CA
Stephen Shames: Untitled, Woman with a bag of food at the Black Panther’s FreeFood Program & Untitled,Black Panthers testing for sickle cell anemia at Community Survival Conference rally
Some of W.E.B. DuBois' contribution to the American Negro Exhibit in the 1900 Paris Exposition seemed out of step with the other pieces, but his approach to graphic representation of data was fascinating:
Friday I was very happy to reconnect with an old and dear high school friend, Christine who’s lived in Europe for many years. We had a lovely lunch, looking out over the Bay from the Berkeley hills and catching up. Too wrapped up in the conversation, I forgot to take pictures, but I'll have another chance later this week.
One thing I enjoy while traveling if we have a kitchen, is taking the restaurant left-overs and making something new out of them. Friday, I used the braised lamb shank left over from Wednesday's dinner at Trabocco to make a lamb ragu (with gluten free pasta) accompanied by some yellow patty pan squash.
On Thusday we tootled around to some of our favorite spots in Berkeley and Oakland. We went over to the Fourth Street area where there are old warehouses and factories now tuned into shops and restaurants. We visited Builder's Booksource which has a beautiful collection of books about practical things, but accessibly written. So it’s the place to learn about how to build a composting toilet or a better roof, but also how to read weather signs, learn better cooking skills and understand color relationships. We always find interesting things there.
This clothing store also struck me as an "only in Berkeley" (OIB) kind of thing:
Apologies for the less than perfect angle. The sun mad a straight on shot challenging.
We grabbed lunch at Tacubaya, a Mexican place. Corn and veg tamal, tacos with pork 2 ways and roasted corn with cotija cheese.
We also stopped into the toy and children’s bookstore, Five Little Monkeys which provided another OIB moment. The inclusion of progressive heroes in the book collection seemed fitting
But we thought maybe this one was a step too far
Our final stop was Top Drawer which has an eclectic stock of "functional products for work and travel". It’s ridiculously priced and we rarely buy anything there, but they have beautiful paper and writing supplies, clever contraptions for transporting just about anything, funky slippers, reading glasses and a whole lot of other stuff and we usually enjoy a good prowl through the store
Before we returned home, we visited the Mariposa Baking Company shop in Oakland, not far from our house. Known as the best gluten-free bakery in the Bay Area, it did not disappoint i got some fabulous tea cookies that I brought to lunch the next day with an old friend (who pronounced them delicious) and a GF bagel that was definitely a step up from the crumbly bagel-shaped roll that you usually encounter
Yesterday we scooped up my brother Jim in Berkeley and took a drive to Alameda where his partner, Louise has a beautiful home on a lagoon. She served us a beautiful lunch, including homemade crab cakes accompanied by roasted tomatoes- to die for (kicking myself that I forgot photos till they were eaten). We spent a lovely afternoon on the deck looking out at the water and then had dinner at a local Italian restaurant - Trabocco. Again forgot photos of the fabulous food, but we did get the most important ones (Jim was more on task there than I):
Monday we left Arcata and drove down toward the Bay Area. We saw some smoky skies at times, but didn’t feel it where we were. We stopped for the night in Windsor, an almost too cute town that feels a bit like a movie lot marked "small town". But Linda had fond memories of the "Ultimate Grilled Cheese" sandwich at KC's American Kitchen there so that influenced our decision. It involves several cheeses, bacon, and sour dough bread
2018
2021
Tuesday we drove the last hour or so to reach our AirBnB house in North Oakland. You do your research and sometimes you get a gem; sometimes not. This one turned out to be fabulous. Quiet street, comfy beds and beautifully decorated.
It has a front porch for morning coffee and watching the neighborhood activity
And a back deck for evening wine and cheese perfect for these gals who love to lounge
Situated at the bottom of the Rockridge neighborhood that straddles the Berkeley/Oakland border and has lots of cafes, restaurants, and shops (most of which seem to have survived the pandemic).
