...but then again.

View from Jack London Square in Oakland

Okay, in my last post I spoke of all of the wonderful small towns and cities along the Bay Area.  These gems are fantastic places to visit.

Now having said that, I have to tell you about my first trip into Oakland.

I visited Jack London Square in Oakland which is situated on the bay.  It is a planned area that is lined with restaurants and shops.  I crawled my way from San Jose through the evening rush hour traffic and the normal 40 minute trip took an hour and a half, but that was okay.  The evening certainly was worth it.

As I got there, the sun was just setting and the skies over the bay were lit with beautiful pinks and blues.  The water on the bay reflected these colors magnificently.

It was a Wednesday evening in October so there streets were pretty bare but there was music in the air coming from a band playing at place called Plank which highlights pizza and Bocci Bowling.  After roaming about, I ended up at a place called Bocanova, and man was that a good (and rather pricey) choice.  I was in the mood for some ceviche and they had a wonderful sea bass ceviche with sweet potato, red onion, cucumber, and something called aji amaillo.  I have no idea what that last ingredient was, but it sure tasted wonderful.  Add to that a wonderful California Rose... wonderful.

After dinner, one last look at the bay and I decided to have a drink before heading back to San Jose.  The primary reason I stopped was because the place had a nice brass bar and Frank Sinatra was playing.

Life is good.

On the road to...

Fremont, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Gilroy, Dublin, San Ramon... the list goes on and on.

There are a lot of wonderful smaller towns in the mix here. While there are the three major cities, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose that form a bit of a triangle around the Bay area; in between each of these cities are a line of small towns that dot the landscape.  And each one of them has their own personality and design.

They each have a downtown area that is lined with shops and restaurants.  My current favorite restaurant in the area is the Bella Saratoga.  It is an Italian joint that is housed inside a house (Wow, diagram that sentence...).  But I also recently enjoyed Satomi Sushi in Fremont.

It really is a ball to discover new places in these little gems.  While the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose have almost anything that a person could want, it is really nice to just take a side trek and visit the town/cities of Palo Alto, Berkeley, Mountain View, Cupertino... well, you get the idea.

Just pull up to the downtowns in these places and get out of the car.  Roam around and find the most interesting things and places.  I will bet that you will find a new favorite place again and again...