Emily and Linda’s Travel Blog

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)

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/Tanya-Holland-opens-veggie-centric-soul-food-cafe-16258559.php

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:

One last for further thought

 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).  

We might have to send for the dog and stay. 

Sunday Jo introduced us to the sport of hatchet throwing since these Brooklyn girls had never experienced such a thing.  Hatchet throwing is often combined with beer drinking, but we were happy to experience it without alcohol (hatchets and booze - what could go wrong?). We were outside the Hatchet House early Sunday afternoon when it opened.  Jo got me an official T-shirt so I could fit in.

 [Linda has one too, but she decided to wear her other gift from Jo - the Humboldt Crabs T-shirt  (the Crabs being a point of Humboldt pride as the oldest continually-operated summer collegiate baseball team in American baseball).] 

We got a lesson on throwing and safety from the Hatchet House staff and then they turned us loose. 

It’s all about distance, speed and keeping your wrist straight. Not easy, but each of us did get at least one in the creditable zone

You can see Jo got off the best shot  

Here’s Linda lettin' er rip

After all that we came home for a dinner of sausage, leeks, and peas pasta - with peas fresh shelled from Jo's garden. Sadly no picture. The peas deserved better. 

Saturday is the weekly Arcata Farmer’s Market which is part market and part street festival. 

Friday was a beautiful sunny, clear day so we went off to the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka to visit the new Redwood Skywalk.