My New Favorite Mexican Joint-La Calaca Loca Taqueria

Since La Imperial closed in December I have been looking for a new Mexican joint. I think I found one in La Calaca Loca Taqueria located in Oakland's Temescal District. The place has good food at good prices and the people are nice to boot:

The inside

The place has all kinds of cool stuff around:

Loved this painting

And this one is too cool

Love the ceramic frogs

And the head frog

Besides the cool stuff, the food is awesome:

Chips with fresh salsa on it

A Chicken Quesadilla

A lovely Carne Asada Burrito

And I thought this was too cool:

They have a fridge where you can get you own fresh salsa. That is so cool

La Calaca Loca Taqueria is a place that I will start coming back to.

Walking Around Oakland's Lake Merritt

A little view of Lake Merritt

When I walked around Love Your Lake Day couple of weeks ago, I walked the around whole of Lake Merritt-all 3.1 miles of it. I found out how nice of a walk it is. Oakland's Lake Merritt was an arm of the San Francisco Bay. In 1869, Mayor Samuel Merritt funded a dam between the estuary and the bay. The water level inland rose and the tidal lagoon became "Merritt's Lake. In 1870, it became the United States's first official wildlife refuge:

The Cameron-Stanford House built in 1876 along Lake Merritt

A view of Oakland's skyline from Lake Merritt

Scottish Rite Center built in 1927

The new Cathedral of Light

Besides cool buildings around the lake, there are many recreational opportunities:

People kayaking on the lake

A little boating

Some sailing

How I miss dragonboat racing

Another thing on Lake Merritt is Children's Fairyland which has been a great place since 1950. I went there as a little one, my kids went there when they were little and I hope my grandkiddos get to go:

Part of the outside-since I did not have a little kid with me, I was not allowed in. A great policy

And a couple more view of the lake:

Lake Merritt

Some waterfowl around the lake

Oakalnd's Lake Merritt

In a city that is bashed by the national press, Lake Merritt is a true jewel.

Chabot College Flea Market

Took the kiddos to the Chabot College Flea Market in Hayward. It seems like we always missed it or we had to do something that day. Like a moron I had forgot my camera at home and had to rely on my IPHONE camera:

Loved the Shakespeare Bobblehead

People walking around

Replica Star Wars poster in Japanese

Nice tea set

I saw this and it made me mad. I used to collect bar coasters like this with this intent. 

Loved this shirt but they did not have it in my size

Here is what we bought:

These trays were too cool

My daughter is into the Presidents so she got this book 

Liked this plate

I was able to get all eight volumes for $2. I just think that this is too cool

and the deal of the day:

1989 Score football set. It has the rookie cards of Troy Aikman, Thurman Thomas, Deion Sanders, Derrick Thomas, Barry Sanders and many more. Seen it listed for $50 and I got it for $5. She had no idea what it was worth. Is it my job to tell her??

The Chabot College Flea Market was great. It was a beauty of a day and we had a blast.

Stockton Ports vs.Inland Empire 66ers 5-28-13

After showing you the park I might as well show you the game between the Stockton Ports and Inland Empire 66ers:

Inland Empire's Abel Baker

Stockton's Drew Grainer

Stockton Ports manager Webster Garrison

Stockton's Myrio Richard at bat

Inland Empire's Eswarlin Jimenez on the mound

Stockton's Drew Granier in the stretch 

Inland Empire's Abel Baker taking a swing

Inland Empire's Brian Hernandez at bat

My Cal baseball that I caught

Welcome to Stockton Ballpark

The main entrance to Stockton Ballpark

Stockton Ballpark is home to the Class-A Stockton Ports. The Ports are the Oakland A's High Class-A team. Stockton Ballpark is new, it was built in 2005 and holds 5,300 people. I always thought it was called Banner Island Ballpark, but I learned that it is the unofficial name that used by both fans and the administration of the team. By either name it is a nice place to view a game:\

From the third base side

The view from the third base foul pole

The bullpen

From left center

This is what the centerfielder sees

From rightfield 

One thing I love about minor league ball is that they always post the line-ups somewhere in the park.

The Ports Dugout

The view from my seat before I moved

One cool thing about Stockton is that they hang current jerseys of current Oakland A's players under the press box who played in Stockton. From left: Brett Anderson, A.J.Griffin, Sean Doolittle and Dan Straily

From the home plate

The scoreboard