Sights in Oakland
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International Boulevard
Formerly known as E 14th St and once a neglected part of town, International Blvd is now a great place to stroll on a Sunday afternoon. Latino and Asian immigrants have turned it into a 3-mile carnival of food and festivities. You'll find an impressive fleet of excellent taco trucks parked along Fruitvale Ave or at the corner of High St and International Blvd. The Bay Area's best pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) joints are just blocks away.
Mexican and Central American restaurants rub elbows with Vietnamese. Dive bars selling cheap beer and margaritas open their doors here and there. Families out for the paseo, squads of young men, bevies of young women, strolling musicians …
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Lake Merritt
Oakland’s visual centerpiece, Lake Merritt is a gorgeous place to stroll, jog or lollygag on a sunny day. Once a tidal marsh teeming with waterfowl, it became a lake in 1869 with the damming of an arm of the Oakland estuary. It still supports migratory birds and remains connected to the estuary, but its 155 acres are briny and unfit for swimming. You’ll spot hundreds of Canada geese (and their droppings) along a 3.5-mile perimeter path. You can also rent boats. Those crew teams whipping past? They’re the Lake Merritt Rowing Club.
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Farmers Market
The waterfront where writer and adventurer Jack London once raised hell now bears his name. It's hardly a roughshod district anymore, but a tourist-oriented shopping mall dotted with chain restaurants, chain stores and cute little gift shops. The waterfront location is lovely, though, and for that reason it's worth a stroll - especially on Sunday, when a weekly farmers market takes over. Catch a ferry from San Francisco and you'll land just paces away.
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Children’s Fairyland
In oak-shaded Lakeside Park, on Lake Merritt’s eastern shore, Children’s Fairyland was apparently Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland. Through adult eyes, it has a weirdly dilapidated charm; little kids love it. The boating center lets you sail or paddle beneath Oakland’s downtown towers. At night, the lake is ringed with little lights, the kind you see decorating Christmas-tree lots.
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Camron-Stanford House
In the late 19th century, Lake Merritt was lined with fine homes, only one of which remains: the 1876 Camron-Stanford House . You can take a tour on the second and third Wednesday (11:00 to 16:00) and on the third Sunday (13:00 to 17:00) each month. But the best aspect of the house is really its wonderful lakeside setting and the hint it gives of how Oakland looked in its Victorian heyday, which can be admired from the sidewalk.
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Yukon cabin
A replica of Jack London's Yukon cabin stands in an awkward spot near a parking lot at the eastern end of the square. It's supposedly built from the timbers of a cabin London lived in during the Yukon gold rush, though many of the original materials had to be replaced during reconstruction. Another worthwhile stop, adjacent to the old cabin, is Heinhold's First & Last Chance Saloon.
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Old Oakland
Old Oakland, immediately west of Broadway, is lined with historic buildings dating from the 1860s to 1880s. The buildings have been restored and new, upscale restaurants have begun to make this a hub of evening activity. The area also hosts a lively Chinese-influenced farmers market every Friday morning – a great time to visit.
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Chinatown
Oakland’s Chinatown is much smaller than its San Francisco sister, but bustles with commerce. English is infrequent and tourists few. Oaklanders argue that its Chinese restaurants are more authentic than those in San Francisco’s Chinatown. We’d prefer to take this argument on a case-by-case basis; otherwise it’s a draw.
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Paramount Theatre
This gorgeously restored art deco theater is fabulous from every angle; check out the gentlemen’s smoking room and the ladies’ chamber. In any given month there’ll be rock concerts (Morrissey, Nelly Furtado), the Oakland Symphony or stand-up comedy. Tours ($5, starting at 10am) are on the first and third Saturdays of the month.
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Museum of Children's Art
This museum, also known as MOCHA, is a combination children's art gallery, and children's art class, where your kids can create their own masterpieces. Not surprisingly, it's a very popular venue for children's birthdays. A lively farmers market takes place every Friday morning outside the museum, making this a particularly good time to visit.
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Piedmont Ave
North of downtown Oakland, Broadway becomes a lengthy strip of car dealerships called Broadway Auto Row. Just past that is Piedmont Ave, wall-to-wall antique stores, coffeehouses, fine restaurants and an art cinema. At the end of Piedmont Ave, Mountain View Cemetery is perhaps the most serene and lovely man-made landscape in all the East Bay.
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USS Potomac
The 50m (165ft) USS Potomac was once Franklin D Roosevelt's presidential yacht; he fondly referred to it as the 'floating White House'. It's now moored by the ferry dock and is open for dockside tours. Two-hour history cruises are also held several times a month from April to October; call for reservations.
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Mountain View Cemetery
OK, it’s not your typical park, but Mountain View Cemetery was designed by Frederic Law Olmstead, the man behind NYC’s Central Park, and its gardens and statuary are gorgeous. Once you overcome (or indulge) the macabre aspect, it’s a lovely place for a picnic.
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Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California is a must-see. Relevant, fascinating exhibits have included knockout Yosemite photography and interactive Great Quake rooms. (It may close temporarily in 2012 for renovations.)
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Oakland's Imperial Walkers
The huge container cranes hovering threateningly above the Oakland docks are said to have inspired the Imperial Walkers that George Lucas dreamed up for The Empire Strikes Back.
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I Magnin Building
Downtown Oakland has plenty of buildings adorned with art nouveau or art deco details; the stellar I Magnin Building is an art deco beaut, gracefully clad in green terra cotta tiling.
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Cathedral Building
North of the center, where Telegraph Ave angles off Broadway, stands the 1913 flatiron Cathedral Building .
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Chabot Space & Science Center
Head to the hills of East Oakland to Chabot Space & Science Center, a hands-on science museum in Redwood Regional Park, which no self-respecting science geek should miss. On fogless Friday and Saturday evenings, scope out far-flung nebulae through 8in and 20in refractor telescopes, and a 36in reflector telescope – one of the largest in the US open to the public. Tickets include access to a stellar planetarium and Megadome theater with a 70ft, seamless domed screen.
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Ebony Museum
The Ebony Museum, a dense collection in a ramshackle Victorian house, exhibits African and African American art and antiquities. Head upstairs for a chilling perusal of the museum's Black Degradation Art collection.
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