In part 1 of the blog about Emeryville we traveled to Pixar, the Town hall and the community gardens. Now we head off to the marina. What was that? You didn’t know Emeryville has a marina and even a waterfront park! They do, even some good restaurants like Trader Vic’s (not to be confused with the Traders Joe’s around the corner) and Chevy’s. At the end of the point there is a very popular (from the looks of the packed parking lot) establishment called Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood. We passed up all the food choices and headed straight for the park and pier. Harry and Lily love, love, love the water but properly motivated by a promised treat Harry stopped splashing long enough to pose for me at the boat ramp. Check out that look on his face – “hey, aren’t I a cutie and where’s that treat?” – he seems to be asking.
Bordering the marina is a fairly long pier with great views of the East Bay. We had the pier to ourselves on Sunday morning, of course that might have been due to the fact that the fog brought the temps down and wind up!
Our final stop in Emeryville was Shorebird Park. That is the small strip of beach and pier along the Frontage Rd. This is a relatively new addition to the city or rather the site used to have a restaurant on it and therefore no access to the beach. Growing up here I ate at this place often. Perhaps you remember it – Charlie Browns was the name. The food was good, and the drinks and view even better. Today the old pier that ran along side the restaurant now has new residents – Snoopy and the Red Baron. Perhaps not an homage to the former tenant, but for those of us long time residents there is a story of how they came to be here.
When I was a kid growing up in the 70’s and 80’s driving down Hwy 80 toward Emeryville and Oakland had one interesting treat past Golden Gate Fields. That was the, now long gone, mud flat sculptures.
Snoopy and the Red Baron were my favorites – I grew up when Peanuts was a very popular cartoon strip and occasional TV special. I have very fond memories of the adults on the TV show who you never saw and only talked with that deep monotone “wor-wor-wor” sound. Ah, childhood…….
There were numerous other sculptures along the Frontage Rd then and I miss seeing them now. If you’ve never heard of this before or if you’d like a visual reminder of what it looked like, check out this article I came across – Emeryville Mudflat Sculptures.
I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Emeryville, we enjoyed our morning and Harry and Lily especially enjoyed their play time at the beach!
P.S. Harry may be 10 years old but he still has it going on!