Wednesday, June 26, 2013

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.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

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.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

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.

Friday, June 21, 2013

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