c.i. Don't forget Alameda on an island in SF Bay
c.i.
Everyone seems to forgotten the City of Alameda, the city in S.F. Bay, where I used to live before moving to New Mexico.
http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/community/introducing_alameda.html
I have lots of contacts there to help planning a SF gathering. Public accomodations are plentiful. And Alameda would be tons less expensive than most of the surrounding cities, with the possible exception of Oakland.
Alameda is in the center of the greater SF Bay area. It is less than 15 minutes from the Oakland Airport, which is the easiest airport to fly in and out of in the greater Bay Area. A direct freeway link from Alameda to San Francisco is a car trip of less than 1/2 hour. The Bart rapid transit trip is even less.
Lodging and rates:
http://www.metrotravelguide.com/hotels_nearby/Alameda/CA/USA/0/Alameda_Museum/?&radius=5
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/California/Localities/A/Alameda/Travel_and_Tourism/
Alameda camera pan of greater bay area:
http://citynight.com/livecam
My continuing contacts with my previous employer, one of the largest homeowners associations in the state, would make it possible to rent very inexpensively a large meeting room with a full kitchen, tables and chairs, on the beautiful Community of Harbor Bay Isle lagoon for get togethers. It is also a bird sanctuary.***
Harbor Bay Isle (where I lived) is on a second Alameda island called Bay Farm Island. There are two draw-bridges to cross to get from Oakland to Alameda. Actually, there is a third bicycle bridge. There are walking paths along the SF Bay shoreline where the San Francisco skyline seems only a few miles away. Or you can walk the paths along the meandering lagoon systems crossing the wooden bridges to get to the other side. There are grassy areas for lounging and chatting and parks and picnic areas, too. There is a unusual shopping center with several excellent, but not too expensive restaurants, a deli and an ice cream parlor. There are basketball courts and a baseball field along with several tennis courts. And, Ash, there also is a swimming pool. And for football fans, the Raiders officers and training field is less that two miles away. There also is a golf course across the road from Harbor Bay Isle near the Veteran's Park, a large, beautifully landscape park overlooking the estuary where the brown pelicans play. All of these ammenities are open to the public and won't cost you a dime.
If you are interested in Alameda as a home base for the SF Gathering, let me know and I can obtain more information for the April 2004 dates.
I'm getting homesick just telling you about my wonderful former home town.
---BumbleBeeBoogie
***The Lagoon at Harbor Bay Isle: It's For The Birds
By BumbleBeeBoogie
From my corner office window, one can see a lovely stretch of lagoon where animal and bird life abound. Squirrels romp across fence tops and up the trunks of pine trees. Occasional opossums and raccoons make nocturnal visits under the arching Alder trees.
But its the bird life on the lagoon that never ceases to enthrall and even amuse me. One day as June was drawing to a close, I was distracted by loud noises outside. What made me look up from my work and out the window was the raucous honking and screeching of a flotilla of iridescent blue-green-feathered geese, white ducks and dark gray mudhens all frantically paddling in the same direction.
I walked out to a balcony to see what all the fuss was about. Up stream and across the lagoon, a father and daughter were seated on a dock, their dangling legs reflected in the sparkling water, throwing food to their bird audience.
Clouds of gray-white seagulls swooped through the air catching bits of food in their beaks while the geese, ducks and mudhens paddled in the water in pursuit of the bits of food floating on the water, bumping into each other and scolding furiously.
The approaching bird flotilla from down stream appeared around the bend, honking and screeching loudly to announce its arrival as if to demand "save some for me".
In the late afternoon sun dozens of tiny bird wakes spread across the lagoon as birds neared the dinner spot. Fortunately, there was enough food for the late comers to join in the feast.
I've always wondered how the birds at one end of the lagoon know that someone, out of sight several hundred yards in the other direction, is providing a feast?
However they do it, one handful of birdseed can truly draw a standing room only crowd on the beautiful lagoon.
