Lake Merritt is a large manmade lake in the middle of downtown Oakland. It was the U.S.'s first wildlife refuge in 1870. The pedestrian/biking path is 3.1 miles around. We got there around 9:30 am when it was still cool and overcast. There were lots of people walking their dogs, strolling their babies, jogging, etc. This is the Southeastern view of the Lake.
I wish I knew what this was called. It looks so colorful and unusual!
We saw ducks and Canadian geese, along with this bird (not a stork)...Crane? Egret?
The view from the Western side. We didn't think it would take that long to walk around this place. I didn't know at the time it was 3.1 miles around so we took our time walking and looking at things. It took us nearly two hours to get around the lake.
The Scottish Rite Temple:
Believe it or not, that is a church - The Cathedral of Christ the Light (aka the Oakland Cathedral) on Harrison St.
We finally rounded the Northeastern side and took a wrong turn because it veered off into a city block instead of hugging the perimeter. We found our way back and bypassed the children's amusement park, Fairyland (TC was too old for their rides) and made our way back to the car. Built in 1950, Children's Fairyland is the first theme park geared towards families with "young children" so yeah...skip!
There's those Canadian geese I was talking about earlier. At one point, a flock of geese approached us (very bold!), perhaps expecting food. We saw some people feeding the birds there so I guess the birds are used to "handouts".
Here's my obligatory graffiti/sticker street shot!
Map near tChildren's Fairyland...
Check out this ultracool building...turns out it is a school - St. Paul's Episcopal School.
The view as we were rounding one of the city blocks (our wrong turn after Fairyland)...
Back at the far eastern end of the lake...
By this time, the clouds had burned off and it was getting pretty warm. Below, leaves from a young gingko tree...
Up next - the best spur of the moment lunch decision!
No comments:
Post a Comment