To Oakland

Up at 5:20 am, we were out the door about 6:50 am. We pulled up to Jack London Square in Oakland about 8:35 am. The square was closed for the A's Fanfest so I had to drop Sharon down the block from the Waterfront Hotel. Sharon spent the day in a McGeorge MCLE class.

From the there, I headed south to the Garin/Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Parks. My plan for the day was a long hike. After a couple of quick stops, I pulled into the park about 9:30 am. I hiked for almost four hours and covered eleven miles. A map of the hike is here.

I pushed myself hard. The only time I stopped for any length of time was at the top of Tolman Park to take a few pictures.

Finishing up my hike about 1:30 pm, I grabbed a bit to eat and headed back to the Waterfront Hotel. When Sharon signed up for the class, she proposed that we spend the night and have dinner in Berkeley. We got a nice corner room with a view with a 270 degree view of the area.

After getting settled into the room, we wandered over to Scott's Seafood. We did some planning for our next big trip.

We finished the day with dinner at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley. Sharon had eaten there in 1987 or 1988 with Tom, Becky and Paul. We had a very nice dinner. I started with a salad [Butter lettuce, Cara Cara orange, Oro Blanco grapefruit, and avocado salad], while Sharon had soup [Cannard Farm cardoon soup with rosemary and olio di peperoncino]. For entree, I had duck [Sonoma County duck confit with winter squash purée, cauliflower, and toasted hazelnut salsa], while Sharon had rock fish [Pan-fried rockfish with leafy broccoli, fingerling potatoes, and Meyer lemon-olive relish]. We split a dessert [Coffee-caramel custard with crème Chantilly and orange currant cookies].