Fruitvale Shapes

Neon Green in Fruitvale

A Family Trip to the Bay Area

The day after Raul and I embarked on our westward journey, my mom calls to tell me that she's bought a ticket for San Francisco within a month and a half. Instead of showing them around, we found ourselves being led to explore our new city.

In the couple of hours when Raul and my work schedule overlapped, my dad would take walks around our Oakland neighborhood to photograph it's strange structures and characters. You should see his photos, they speak for themselves:

 

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Tight-rope at Lake Merritt.

MUIR WOODS

While we didn't hike too far due to some back pain, but we happily snuck some beers on a bench under the trees at the edge of the parking lot.

First trip over the Golden Gate Bridge was on the way back from Marin and into the city. The light was magical, but after years of dreaming of this place, it went by too fast! Raul, mamá y papá walked over a few days later.

Look at this bum! So lucky to have Matias in town as well who, even though he doesn't think so, is right in synch with SF style.

More cousins... and this one lives here, which is a plus! Rose in front of a gallery with strange illusionist (albeit, entertaining) art near Union Square.

Back at Rose and Nick's in Bernal Hill.

 

FELICES

We thought we were in Alameda but we were back in Oakland.

Berkeley

How'd you know?

USC campus

Lucky to call these fools family! (P.S. Notice how dad's trying to outdo me with his photo, heh heh...)

"So Sweet!"

Reunited with one of the two Diegos I had as roommates in Lima, and his girlfriend Maricarmen. Diego, a jazz guitarist, invited us to hear Bobby Hutcherson's sweet-sounding vibraphone and even sweeter fans at Yoshi's.

Anthony SHA-BO

Morning hike around Anthony Chabot Park. Side note: I've been mispronouncing the Spanish names of things around here (i.e. San "Peh-dro" instead of "Pee-dro"), but surprisingly this park does honor the French pronunciation à la "sha-bo". I'm still such a newbie.

Right after interviewing at AFAR's NYC office, I bumped into Rosey in front of Madison Square Garden. She told me that she and Eddie were moving to San Francisco in a matter of weeks-- what a good sign! It's nice to be nearly neighbors.

Nature can be a highlighter (above) or a camo's playground (below).

Getting lost around Oakland.