showing off Oakland

Kand I have some family in town (K's cousins from Sweden), so Friday afternoon we showed them around Oakland.

We started in Joaquin Miller Park and Redwood Regional Park to see the redwoods. They had been up near Mendocino and seen lots of larger redwoods, but Oakland's redwoods and their relative youth (less than 150 years old) are part of Oakland history. And it was quite warm, so a shady walk was just the thing to start our afternoon with.

After wandering amongst the redwoods, we headed down the hill past the Mormon Temple and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral through the Dimond and Fruitvale, along the south end of Lake Merritt, and down to Jack London Square.

In Jack London Square we saw Heinold's and talked about Jack London and his writing career. We walked along the waterfront, enjoying the warm sunshine and cool breezes. We checked out the cranes at the Port of Oakland, the USS Potomac, the Lightship Relief, and the OFD fireboat Sea Wolf.

Then we returned home for dinner and more conversation. But our visitors weren't done with Oakland yet—they headed back to Jack London Square to meet up with some other cousins for Dancing Under the Stars!

More photos from our tour: