Alameda is a beautiful island on the San Francisco Bay. Its Victorian houses rival those of San Francisco and it still has that suburban feel to it.
I lived here with my sisters, my mom, and my grandmother when we first arrived to the US in 1982. I moved away after getting married to follow Jon to Newfoundland, Canada, but we moved back after his term was over. When he reenlisted and was sent to Hawaii, I stayed to finish school. When I got a job across the Bay, we moved to Palo Alto, then to Hayward back in the East Bay. When I got a job at Microsoft, we moved to Seattle.
My mom and my grandmother always lived here. They moved around to different apartments or houses, but they stayed within Alameda. So Alameda will always be my "hometown." The place where we spent our holidays.
Alameda grew when Bay Farm was created by dumping soil on the edge of the Bay. The city had changed when the Naval Base was shut down. Business come and go, while some remain the same.
And as I drive around this town, memories flood back. I remember homes and apartments where my mom used to live. The beach where I went to be alone. The gas station on Lincoln Avenue and Webster Street, where I worked while going to school and where I met Jon. The park on Eighth Street and Central Avenue where Jon and I stole away in the dark while we were dating. The Nation's Burgers on Webster Street where we had coffee and cheesecake after my shift. Loard's Ice Cream at the South Shore shopping center. The MacDonald's on Central Avenue. The "O" bus that went straight to downtown San Francisco. The library on Santa Clara Avenue and Eighth Street. Otis, which takes you to Doolittle, which takes you to Hegenberger, which takes you to the Oakland International Airport. Alameda Hospital on Clinton near South Shore for too many painful trips. St. Barnabas Church where I took my grandmother so she could attend mass. St. Barnabas School across the street where my youngest sister and my nephew Ian went. The banks on Webster that kept changing. The busses that picked up casino patrons on Lincoln and left for Reno for a day or a weekend of gambling. Ralph's Market (a Filipino grocery store) on Eighth and Lincoln, and no one in the owning family is named Ralph. Sampaguita (a Filipino restaurant) on Webster Street. The hotel (now Days Inn) on webster and Atlanta. Longs Drugs on Oak Street. The music store on Lincoln and Oak where I started taking voice lessons. The many businesses along Park Street. The Christmas lights south of Park Street.
In spite of being so close to Oakland with its high crime statistics, Alameda had surprisingly maintained a relatively low crime rate. When a crime occurs within the city limits, all the police had to do is block the Posey Tube tunnels and raise the bridges, and the perpetrators are trapped on the island. Unless they escape by boat, of course.
Unfortunately, Alameda has become expensive now, like the rest of the Bay Area cities. The Victorian homes have been subdivided into apartments. The gas station where I used to work is now under a different management. The competing gas station a block away was torn down and a hotel was built on it. South Shore is expanding even more. The Mariner Square Loop is now also developed for commercial use and a new shopping center Marina Village is thriving in that area.
But the view on the beach remains beautiful, and the park remains mysterious at night. The population is more diverse, but the people are still friendly.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
SFMOMA
Today was my day with Ian, my 12-year-old nephew. Everytime I come home to the Bay Area, I make sure I spend a day with him. I picked him up last night and we camped out at my mom's living room. We got up very late though, and then we wrapped some gifts, so it was 1:30pm by the time we left.
We still couldn't decide where to go, but Ian mentioned going to a museum, so we got directions to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from my sister and off we went.
We drove to the BART station in West Oakland. While getting our tickets, a man in the next ticket machine spoke to me in Spanish. But he was talking so fast, I couldn't understand what he wanted. It seemed he was having problems with the machine and he thought I was Latina. Well, the only Spanish I could think off at that moment was "Un momento," so that's what I said as I finished getting our tickets. Then he handed me a one-dollar bill and he continued describing the problem he was having with the machine. He said "cinquenta" somewhere in that flood of words, so I figured he just needed another fifty cents. So I traded four quarters for his dollar.
A flower stand at the Montgomery BART station. more pics
We took the train to the Montgomery station and found a map that told us which direction to take. Two blocks down Market, left on Third, then eight blocks to SFMOMA at the corner of Third and Howard. Actually, we took a long time walking, since we were taking pictures and I was giving Ian some photography tips. He wondered how I find the good pictures. I replied that he has to keep his eyes open. He insisted that his eyes *are* open.
We found SFMOMA but decided to get lunch first. It was already 2:30 pm. Ian didn't like anything in the menu of the SFMOMA cafe (although I would have loved to try the salmon croissant), so we went to Chevy's in the next block and had sizzling fajitas.
SFMOMA was $14 for adults and free for kids 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. However, with my studen ID, I only had to pay $7 and Ian was free.
Ian had fun at the museum. We saw antique shoes behind cellulose strips inside the walls. Some guy named Close had an entire exhibit full of his self-portraits.
The best exhibit was a small circular room with nine screens in a row. When the show starts, it looks like you're on a rotating restaurant at the top of a tower and you have nine windows around you. Then as you wait for skyscrapers on one screen to start showing up in the next screen, you realize there's something wrong because the skycrapers get lost in the gap between the screens. Well, it turns out that each of the screens shows a different city across the country. And the clips are shown so that the sun rises from the leftmost screen to the rightmost screen. I recognized the rightmost screen as the view from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. I was even surprised to see Mount Rainier, because you don't always see it, what with all the clouds and rain. I also recognized Las Vegas in one of the middle screens during the "nighttime". I had seen that view before atop the Stratosphere.
We were there until they closed at 5:45 and we were able to see displays in all floors.
Detail of the Hearst Building in San Francisco. more pics
Afterwards, we went to a Starbucks at the South Shore Shopping Center in Alameda. Ian was hoping for a taste of Snickerdoodles with his hot cocoa but they were out.
But he's growing up to be a gentleman. Since I paid for our expenses all day, he offered to pay for our Starbucks drinks from his allowance. :-)
We still couldn't decide where to go, but Ian mentioned going to a museum, so we got directions to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from my sister and off we went.
We drove to the BART station in West Oakland. While getting our tickets, a man in the next ticket machine spoke to me in Spanish. But he was talking so fast, I couldn't understand what he wanted. It seemed he was having problems with the machine and he thought I was Latina. Well, the only Spanish I could think off at that moment was "Un momento," so that's what I said as I finished getting our tickets. Then he handed me a one-dollar bill and he continued describing the problem he was having with the machine. He said "cinquenta" somewhere in that flood of words, so I figured he just needed another fifty cents. So I traded four quarters for his dollar.
A flower stand at the Montgomery BART station. more pics
We took the train to the Montgomery station and found a map that told us which direction to take. Two blocks down Market, left on Third, then eight blocks to SFMOMA at the corner of Third and Howard. Actually, we took a long time walking, since we were taking pictures and I was giving Ian some photography tips. He wondered how I find the good pictures. I replied that he has to keep his eyes open. He insisted that his eyes *are* open.
We found SFMOMA but decided to get lunch first. It was already 2:30 pm. Ian didn't like anything in the menu of the SFMOMA cafe (although I would have loved to try the salmon croissant), so we went to Chevy's in the next block and had sizzling fajitas.
SFMOMA was $14 for adults and free for kids 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. However, with my studen ID, I only had to pay $7 and Ian was free.
Ian had fun at the museum. We saw antique shoes behind cellulose strips inside the walls. Some guy named Close had an entire exhibit full of his self-portraits.
The best exhibit was a small circular room with nine screens in a row. When the show starts, it looks like you're on a rotating restaurant at the top of a tower and you have nine windows around you. Then as you wait for skyscrapers on one screen to start showing up in the next screen, you realize there's something wrong because the skycrapers get lost in the gap between the screens. Well, it turns out that each of the screens shows a different city across the country. And the clips are shown so that the sun rises from the leftmost screen to the rightmost screen. I recognized the rightmost screen as the view from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. I was even surprised to see Mount Rainier, because you don't always see it, what with all the clouds and rain. I also recognized Las Vegas in one of the middle screens during the "nighttime". I had seen that view before atop the Stratosphere.
We were there until they closed at 5:45 and we were able to see displays in all floors.
Detail of the Hearst Building in San Francisco. more pics
Afterwards, we went to a Starbucks at the South Shore Shopping Center in Alameda. Ian was hoping for a taste of Snickerdoodles with his hot cocoa but they were out.
But he's growing up to be a gentleman. Since I paid for our expenses all day, he offered to pay for our Starbucks drinks from his allowance. :-)