Perhaps it’s travel or maybe the newness of unstructured time as retirees, but the days are a bit jumbled. One recent day, we started in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland and made our way up College Ave. to Elmwood, the Berkeley neighborhood where my family lived and where brother Jim still lives.
In Rockridge, we noticed shared bikes like we have in NYC, but also shared electric scooters which you unlock by scanning a QR code. You find them with an app and it seems you can leave them anywhere. This apparently has been a source of trouble since residents get riled when people leave them on their yards, blocking driveways,etc. Still an interesting idea
Elmwood is very different from when I lived there in the 1970s. Gone is the 5&10 type store and the drustore with soda fountain (though the latter has been replaced with a cafe that tries to have some of the old feel). More restaurants now - my favorite is Trattoria La Siciliana .
There's a bookstore (Mrs. Dalloway's) and an Italian food shop complete with fresh pasta "performance " in the window
There’s even a milliner's shop
And they've spruced up the old Elmwood Cinema where I spent many an hour as a teenager
Back at home base, we decided to eat in so we stopped in at The Local Butcher where it seems a beard is a requirement of employment. One such hirsute fellow was happy to pose for us as he rang up our our Tuscan White Bean Soup.
