After spending the day in San Francisco last week, my sister Susan and I - along with her dog Blackberry - headed to our luxury resort hotel in nearby Oakland - the Motel 6 on the Embarcadero. Somehow, someway, I wrote down the wrong freeway number on my handwritten map, and we wound up driving all through the city. I was very surprised to find that Oakland is actually a pretty large city, with a downtown filled with high-rises. Eventually, we made our way to the Embarcadero, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the motel was right on the water, fronted by a marina. The building and rooms did not look like the usual Motel 6, so I think it must have been built as an independent, upscale motel, and bought by Motel 6 later on. It was indeed an unexpected treat.
We went to dinner at a waterfront restaurant at nearby Jack London Square, where we sat on the patio (required, since we had Blackberry along) and watched the sunset as we dined, as seen in the photograph on the right. Jack London Square is a popular spot for locals, and we really did enjoy walking around the area. However, I did not enjoy having to order - and pay for - our food and drink using my mobile phone at the Belcampo Meat Company. Fortunately, the waitress was able to guide me through the process, or it would have been a fast food kind of evening. When Susan suggested a second round, I insisted we head to a different place, and a few doors down discovered Plank, a local hot spot, with a huge patio overlooking the water. And they actually - thank God - took cash. The place was very lively, and a lot of fun. The next day, we tried to find the local McDonald's for breakfast, and once again I got lost - this time for almost an hour - before a local gave me instructions to the freeway. I later discovered that I had been driving all over Alameda Island most of the time, which is a very nice town indeed. It was definitely worth seeing, even if I was hopelessly lost at the time.
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