adventures in oakland

well, being a northern california native there is one perception of the city of Oakland

and that is not a good one

in fact, Oakland is thought of as one scary place to be

and well, that image is still true in many parts of the town

however, as I learned today, Oakland actually has some pretty awesome gems

which is good, because my little sister meg is apartment hunting there at the moment

and that is what we spent all day doing

so here's what I learned

-oakland is filled with hipsters/punk kids-

-driving around downtown oakland on a saturday is actually pretty calm-

-parking isn't really a problem-

 [even though I may have tapped a car while parallel parking]

-the weather is pretty amazing, and so different from San Francisco-

-Lake Merritt is my new favorite place-

[and I can't wait to take E there]

-property managers may have some questionable practices-

[like when the apartment manager almost showed us a currently occupied unit because the tenant wasn't answering the door, seriously, he had the key in the door before meg kindly stopped him, needless to say, we won't be filling out an application for that building]

-I can eat my body weight in gelato-

[and apparently the girl working the counter really thought this pregnant lady needed some gelato, and since I pretty much finished the enormous portion, I guess she was right]

and finally...

-it is way quicker to get to oakland than dealing with driving all the way into the city-

[and that means everly and I will have to make many trips there to see her auntie meg]