On the way to the airport. It's been a whirlwind couple of days. OAK > Baltimore > SD > OAK. More on the purpose of this trip in the next couple of weeks...

Took a walk down to Barnes and Noble in Jack London. Decided to snap a few pics along the way.

Here's a few shots of the area right outside of B&N.

Next took a walk down to check out the new Jack London Market. Last shot is of Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon near the base of the Jack London Market; an old school bar - 126 years old to be exact!

Here are some shots of the new Jack London Market itself. Still not yet open for business as the economy has derailed some of the tenants that were hoping to move in this summer. As such, final interior work has been greatly delayed as the landlords figure out who is going to occupy the lower market floors, as well as the upper office space. When we first were looking at office space a year ago, word was that office space would top $4 per square foot. Fast forward a year later, that number is down to about $3 but still no takers. One of the reasons is that they want to rent large blocks of space (25K minimum) instead of opening it up to smaller tenants. I give them another 3 months before that attitude and the price changes.

Exterior shots of the Northern side including shots from the top of the stairs.

Eastern side with the roll up doors for food vendors to bring in their goods.

The interior of the ground floor where all the small market vendors will be situated.

Shots of the Amtrak station and walking bridge across from the Eastern side.

Southern side of the building. Third shot is of an art piece done by Roger Stoller, a Silicon Valley product designer turned sculptor.

Western side of the building with a similar set of stairs to the Northern side.

Interior shots of the second floor. This is where the many restaurants and coffee shops will be. As you can see, very unfinished.

I missed my afternoon cup of coffee yesterday and had a headache all night long and even into this morning. Sitting at Crema at the base of the Oakland Tribune building and having a nice latte. Five minutes after taking my first sips... headache gone. This is not good. The wife has been like this for years. I guess I'm screwed now.
 
13th Street between Franklin and Broadway is turning into a nice little block. Besides from Crema there's Ba Vo across the street and a couple of other small eating spots. With the UC headquarters around the corner, this makes sense. Too bad the Oakland Tribune moved to a building closer to the airport. I wonder who occupies the Oakland Tribune tower now. Definitely an iconic Oakland landmark that needs to be repurposed in some way.

It's been a while since I've been able to get away from the office for an afternoon at the cafe. Today was perfect cafe weather if not for the sun being blocked out by the APL building. Centrro's first offices were at 22nd and Broadway at the BroadLake Plaza Building, a standard eight story office building in what is now called the Uptown District. BTW, what's up with the naming of Oakland's districts? Guess it's just another phase of the gentrification of the city (not 100% bad, but not 100% good either). More on that another time. At any rate, one of the consistent things we noticed was that even on sunny days, it always seemed dark outside of the downtown buildings except for the hours right around high noon. Contrast that with the Old Warehouse District where there are very few buildings over five stories and you can get decent sunlight on the sidewalk for most of the day. Can't wait for Jack London Market to open up so I can get my cafe fix within closer walking distance.

This morning, I dropped off the car at Downtown Toyota and decided to walk the rest of the way to work. That was actually a good work out (by my low standards). If I walked directly from home, it would be another 15 minutes and 0.8 miles for a total of 3.5 miles and 68 minutes by Google Maps standards (it was actually pretty accurate for today's walk time).
 
I'm definitely feeling the pains of being overweight and old. I think I'll incorporate this walk a couple of times into my week's sparse exercise schedule. One thing I'll definitely NOT do is lug my backpack with a laptop in it. My legs and knees are fine but my shoulders are killing me.