Skywatch Friday: view from Joaquin Miller Park

The Oakland hills is home to several regional and city parks that preserve the natural woodlands of the area.  This 500 acre park is named for Joaquin Miller, a 19th century poet and adventurer, and some might say rascal and liar, whose work is no longer well known.  During the Great Depression the WPA helped build park trails, a beautiful water cascade, and an amphitheater where musicals are performed in the summer.  While walking some of the park yesterday I encountered runners, hearty bicyclists riding the steep hill trails, kids playing, Pacific Islanders performing a graceful hula dance for their family at an out of the way picnic area, and an aging hippie practicing the drums.  Typical Oakland.  This shot looks southwest across the bay with the coastal range in the distance.  Click here for more Skywatch photos from around the world.

Jack London's cabin

This is Jack London's Klondike cabin next to Heinolds' in Jack London Square.  Doesn't look like it would keep anyone very warm in the frozen Yukon.  The story about how it was found and moved is pretty interesting.  Wolf prints on the square will lead you here. 

Heinolds' Saloon

Heinolds' has been here at water's edge since 1883.  Jack London Square now surrounds it.  It's a funky old establishment where a cold beer goes down well on a hot day.  Jack London visited here often and wrote about it in John Barleycorn.  His Klondike gold mining cabin is reconstructed next door to the saloon.  There's a very nice walkway just outside of the photo frame which takes you along the marina and to Shoreline Park.

There is here

On the border between Oakland and Berkeley stand two iron sculptures with "THERE" denoting where Oakland starts.  What does Berkeley's side say?  "HERE," of course.  It's actually pretty funny even if it is a sideways diss of Oakland.  It's a sly reference to Gertrude Stein's supposed comment about Oakland that "There's no there there."  But honest, folks, she wasn't referring to her hometown, but rather to the fact that her childhood home was no longer standing in the old neighborhood.  The elevated structure in the background is the BART metro system.