Over the last week I have been trying to explore as much of Oakland as possible with Freddie while Steve works. The weather has been incredible usually reaching a high of 23 degrees or so most days. We have gone to the Oakland zoo, the beach at Crab Cove, Fairyland, and a few local parks and things. On Tuesday I took Freddie to a place called the “Play Café”—a café not far from where we’re staying that has a large play area where kids can do their thing while parents sit and drink a coffee. It was very quiet on the day we went, only one other mom with her 2 year old daughter and 6 month old son. We ended up chatting (people talk to each other here—we aren’t used to that in Vancouver) and after a few minutes she invited me to come with them to the Oakland zoo the next day—she had a guest pass I could use so Freddie and I would be able to go for free. The next morning we met them at the zoo and had a great time looking around at all the animals together. The baby giraffe was adorable; we also saw a baby kangaroo, elephants, emu’s, chimpanzees and a gibbon. Runa (my new mom friend) invited Freddie and I to join her and her kids later in the week at the beach at Crab Cove in Alameda, a short drive away. Today we went to their house for the afternoon and next week we are all invited over for dinner. It is bizarre to me that I have been a mom in Vancouver for over two years and not once have I had much of a conversation with someone new at the park or any of the baby places; not for lack of trying either. People avoid eye contact, and if you try and act like you know them because you once had a brief conversation, forget it, you have to start from scratch. What are people afraid of? It has been baffling to both Steve and I how friendly people are here (and all over the States). All you have to do is say hi to someone or make eye contact with them and they’re asking you questions and telling you all about themselves. It’s great. I hope I can bring some of it back with me, but I'll probably just end up freaking everyone out.
Fairyland
Freddie had no fear when she found out Mom and Dad couldn't ride the Ferris Wheel with her.
As you can see she really had a lot of fun, and so did we!
While out with Runa at the zoo I asked her to fill me in a bit about the dark cloud over Oakland. She informed me that there are some nice places to live here but that Oakland is the most crime filled and violent city in all of California. The neighborhood she lives in is pretty good though. She said she had never seen anything too serious around their place, just the occasional broken in car. But she also said that she would never feel safe walking alone at night. This afternoon we met up again and she laughed, “I can’t believe I just told you my neighborhood was a pretty good place.” Then she told me about how on her way home from the zoo the other day she had driven onto her street and there was a car parked in the middle of the road so she slowed down. Suddenly there was a lady running beside her car in a panic and Runa thought, “What is she doing? Did she lose her child or her pet or something?” She stopped her car and saw a man chasing after the woman with a gun. He caught up to the woman and pulled on her arm grabbing something out of her hand, then he ran back jumped in a car and drove away. It was the woman’s car--he had stolen it and left his junker in the road. Apparently this lady had just gotten home and was getting out of her car when the guy ran up to her to take her keys, she panicked and ran away. He chased her, and so on.
The zoo
Baby Kangaroo
View from the zoo train
Squirrel Monkeys
Chimpanzee
Gibbon
My parents are coming to visit us on Sunday and we are all going to stay in Carmel for a couple of nights. I’m really looking forward to seeing them. It’s been hard not seeing any friends or family (other than Steve and Freddie) for the last five weeks. We are all really looking forward to seeing some different faces (Steve's a good looking guy but he really lets himself go when he has no one around him to impress--I don't count). I hope the weather stays nice for them, I just read it’s supposed to get rainy and cloudy on Sunday and stay that way through the week, but Carmel is supposed to be a bit nicer (fingers crossed).
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