Stuff To Do — Chris+Erica

Oakland is great. Seriously.

If you see a [=^.^=] means its by the hotel.

Eats

=^.^= Blue Bottle - Delicious coffee.
=^.^= Chop Bar. Delicious bloody marys.
=^.^= Cosecha - Delicious sit-down type Mexican.
=^.^= Fat Lady - Delicious brunch and seedy backstory.
=^.^= Shan Dong - Delicious Chinese.
=^.^= Swan's Market - Delicious variety in an open air kinda deal.
=^.^= Tian Jin Dumplings - Delicious Chinese snacks. If you order enough, it becomes a meal.
Beauty's Bagel Shop - Delicious bagels. Pretty sure MC Hammer attends the church right next to Beauty's. Keep an eye out for a giant Hummer w/a MCHUMMER license plate.
Fenton's Creamery - Delicious ice cream and is mentioned in the movie "Up".
Lynn & Lu's - Delicious no-fuss breakfast and lunch. This is Chris' favorite breakfast spot.
Portal - Delicious brunch.
Shiba Ramen - Delicious ramen.
True Burger - Delicious burgers. This is Erica's favorite burger spot - actually favorite food. Period. Unfortunately they do not cater weddings. Otherwise, we'd all be eating burgers wearing (semi)fancy clothes.
Zachary's - Delicious deep dish pizza.

Drinks

=^.^= Beer Revolution - when you want to sample many strong, delicious beers from all around the US (but mostly west coast).
=^.^= Cafe Van Kleef - when you want a solid greyhound in a bar that usually has live music at night.
=^.^= Heinhold's - when you want to re-trace Jack London's steps but not outside an urban environment.
=^.^= Hi-Life - when you want some beer, pizza and pinball.
=^.^= Trappist - when you want to sample many strong, Belgium-style, delicious beers from all around.
The Alley - when you want to sing some karaoke alongside real life piano accompaniment in a dive-y environment.
Nido - when you want some of that new Oakland gastronomy and whatever the word is for drink equivalent of gastronomy.

Sites

=^.^= Oakland Museum of California - Great museum w/ food trucks every Friday night.
Mountain View Cemetery - Great views, great park. Dead people, some (living) dogs walked by their owners.
Lake Merritt - Great people watching and a variety of sunny picnicking spots. Also -
- Gondola rides if you want to be rowed around the lake by a semi-Italian dude.
- Bonsai Garden if you need some zen.
- Fairyland if you have littles that need to run around and tire themselves out.
The Bulb - Great weird art with the Bay as a beautiful backdrop.
The Bay Bridge Pedestrian/Bicycle Path - Great walk (halfway) to San Francisco.
Pacific Pinball Museum - Great place to get lost for too many hours.
Watch Baseball - (the) Great Oakland Athletics are back in town Monday after our weekend thing.
Watch Movies - Great theaters to watch movies.
- Grand Lake Theater if you've always wanted to hear a Wurlitzertzer on a Friday night and feel kinda old-timey.
- The New Parkway if you've always wanted to have pizza and beer delivered to you while you sit on a couch in a giant living room / garage evironment.