Upper Dimond, Lincoln Highlands, Redwood Heights, Upper Laurel
Day Miles: 26.2(J) / 26.4(S)
Cumulative Miles: 139.1(J) / 142.3(S)
Day Hours: 2:58(J) / 2:59(S)
Cumulative Hours: 14:26(J) / 14:32(S)
A very hilly day indeed. Another familiar neighborhood for us, one we've ridden on our bikes for years, though mostly downhill. A lot of history for us, too. It's the neighborhood with the Mormon Temple, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the former site of the Carousel Capers Fair. The Mormon Temple is probably the most famous of these, with its prominent perch visible throughout most of Oakland.
The Mormon Temple is a regional draw for the Bay Area's practicing Mormons, and the church has extensive publically-accessible ancestry databases for researching genealogy. The databases inspire a bit of controversy in that one of the goals for maintaining birth and death information is to posthumously convert non-Mormons to Mormonism.
Joel likes to take photos of interesting artifacts from Oakland's better days. Here's one:
Overall, I felt like we accomplished a solid day of riding today, and I really enjoyed seeing the super-remote little streets tucked away behind the Mormon Temple.
Cheers,
1970
Cleveland Heights (Includes Haddon Hill and Peralta Heights)
Day Miles: 15.5(J) / 15.6(S)
Cumulative Miles: 112.9(J) / 115.9(S)
Day Hours: 1:38(J) / 1:39(S)
Cumulative Hours: 11:28(J) / 11:33(S)
A pretty light riding day, though a bit hilly. I really enjoyed riding the Cleveland Heights neighborhood. People often speak of Oakland's housing stock as being a "block by block" affair, terms of safety and quality. No less true here. Sandwiched between I-580 and run down businesses on Park Boulevard and East 18th, there were some lovely homes and beautiful landscaping.
It saddens me so that the Parkway theater hasn't been open in years. The building is still lovely, and just begs for an occupant:
One other neighborhood curiosity is the F.M. Smith Park, named after Francis Marion "Borax" Smith: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Marion_Smith.
A borax miner in Death Valley, and creator of the Key System interurban in the Bay Area, this park makes a show of his famous "20-mule teams" for hauling his mined minerals from their excavation sites. I'm sure the significance of this figure and the testament to his contributions to California and the Bay Area are lost on the average basketball player in the park.
I like this greenhouse in the neighborhood. I'm sure it's well used:
Cheers,
1970
