Oakland

Saturday made for an interesting day in Oakland, Andy's city.

After waking up late, we grabbed breakfast/lunch at Crepevine in North Oakland. After dropping off Marie, Andy's lady friend, at the BART station, we went for a walk around Lake Merritt and through the farmer's market.

This photo really shows off some of the unexpected beauty of the city - a mature urban community with eclectic, culturally diverse neighborhoods. I'm always struck by how different the Bay Area is from Southern California not just when it comes to weather (I was FREEZING the whole time) but geography and the compactness of the communities (I haven't come across the sprawling suburban housing tracks that sprinkle across most of the So. Cal region). I love all the historic buildings and interesting architecture.

In the evening, we met up with some of Andy's old college friends for dinner at Luka's in Uptown Oakland. I tried oyseters on the half shell for the first time and actually really enjoyed them! Afterward, we went to Cafe Van Kleef which is known for their freshly squeeze grapefruit cocktails.

But after only twenty minutes Andy and I both decided we wanted to go. We had parked about two blocks away and at this point it was dark and the streets were empty.

As we approached Andy's truck we saw the shadow of a man in the front cab. At first, I thought we had the wrong vehicle - just this week I tried to open another Civic that wasn't mine - but suddenly Andy walked right up to the driver's side door and knocked on the window. It was then that it hit me - we caught someone in the act of burglarizing the truck!

I had my cell phone out and was about to call 911 when the guy got out of the truck and started apologizing profusely. He claimed that he was only looking for change so that he could make a phone call to Vallejo (yeah, and I have a bridge to sell you) but he was clearly strung out although not altogether homeless looking. Andy motioned for me to get in the car and we ended up just driving off.

We talked about whether we should have called the police but Andy's instinct was to just get us out of there. We didn't know if this crazy guy had any weapons on him and trying to restrain him until the police arrived just seemed dangerous.

I feel very lucky that we didn't get hurt, he didn't break anything (other than a lock on the truck's back window), and he didn't assualt us, or steal our wallets/my purse.

I've had my car broken into in the past (it's been years though) and it's a very funny feeling to come back to your vehicle and realize that you have been the victim of a crime. It's quite another thing to catch the criminal in the act.

A night for the memory books for sure! Crazy!