Cycling the East Bay

Suddenly we're on our own.  After a week very full of social events - family, friends, and so on - we woke up this morning without any particular plans.  After breakfast, we decided to bicycle a section of the San Francisco Bay Trail, from Berkeley south to Emeryville and back.  It isn't a long route, but we took our time, nosed around on side trails and generally enjoyed the afternoon.

Driving on I-80, we were passed by a car COVERED in stuffed squirrels and whirligigs.  It was all motion all over.  And on the back window was scrolled in white script letters:  "Squirrly Whirly."  No car was more aptly named.

As we got on our bikes and pedaled south, our first sight was Snoopy, flying on his house past Treasure Island, with San Francisco in the background.  (Wondered where he got to.)

The view of the City were really special today, which was generally clear, sunny, warm, with a light breeze from the ocean:

Soon after Snoopy, we came across a more tradition Bay resident, sunning himself on a piling with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background:

Kathy said she wanted a photo of Dave with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.  So it was said, so it was done.

The favor was returned in a photo of Kathy with Treasure Island, the City and the Oakland Bay Bridge behind her:

Near the southern end of our route, we came across the Emery Cove Yacht Harbor - notable for the fact that the vast majority of the boats moored there were 30-foot Shields-type sailboats.  There were a few large yachts, but very few other motor-propelled vessels.

We got a great view back across Emery Cove toward Berkeley.  You can just make out the Campanile just above the trees in the photo below:

We actually spotted some wildlife, including some black oystercatchers with long, pointy reddish beaks (sorry, no photos, they were too quick and we had sandwiches in our hands when we spotted them), and a garden variety seagull who was staking claim to his own mossy rock along the shoreline:

Several upscale hotels and restaurants were in the area, and between those and the marina, the area was beautifully landscaped:

Pedaling back to the main bike trail, we spotted a view of downtown Oakland, which in its own gritty way appeared beautiful when seen past the beautiful landscaping of Emery Cove:

Here's one of Kathy admiring downtown Oakland - from a distance:

The bike trail had its quirky sculpture moments.  In addition to the water-situated sculpture of Snoopy flying his doghouse, shown in a photo above, there were more elaborate sculptures of Snoopy as the World War I flying ace --

-- and the inimitable Red Baron himself.  Note how he uses his legs to manage his takeoffs and landings:

Then there were some other random sculptures, including this lady of the harbor:

At various places along the bike trail, there were, actually, sandy beaches where people could walk, dip their toes in the water, let their dogs run, and so on:

Almost back to our starting point, we decided we couldn't resist stopping at Seabreeze, on the bay side of the Berkeley University Avenue bridge, for pina colada smoothies.  Here's Kathy demonstrating the best way to enjoy the whole experience:

We thought we bicycled early enough to beat rush hour headed north on I-80, but as we approached the Vallejo Bridge, we hit a backup:

We first thought it was rush hour volume and the tolls just beyond the bridge, but halfway across the bridge we found the actual reason:  a pretty severe crash leaving two cars disabled.  Once we passed them, we were moving ahead "with vigor"!  It wasn't more than 5 minutes to our RV park.

We celebrated with a little very special Vigonier white wine from the Freemark Abbey in Napa.  We normally favor red wines, but this white was very special.  Now, after a little blogging and such, a nice light dinner and a quiet evening before tomorrow's big adventure back in the heart of the City of San Francisco.