Thanks to Yelp I was able to get in to the 3rd Annual Vegan Festival in Downtown Berkeley. Regular…read morecost at the door was $20 and I guess it's mostly for the speakers & food demos because you don't get much for that fee. It's only a block away from Downtown Berkeley Bart, next to Taqueria Cancun. They gave some vegan chips & vegan giant cookies at registration. There were a bunch of tables set up around the main area & another room. Most of the food vendors charged money to eat their food, only a few gave samples. Tamale Love - I got a vegan tamale with sweet potato & some mole & green salsa $4 - it was ok, nothing special about it. The Taste of Tea - tiny samples of hot or cold tea Local Love Catering - he sampled out a hot potato soup - it was pretty good. V-Dog - got some samples of vegan dog food - will give to co-workers that have dogs. Beyond Eggs - they made a tasty chocolate chip cookie & gave out sample of something that's like egg just add water. There were talks in the Conf Room; Theater, Main Lobby. I only stayed for the Dr. Alan Goldhamer talk on Avoiding the Dangers (and achieving the benefits) of a Vegan Diet. He was good & talked of avoid sugar, fat, salt, get his book "The Pleasure Trap" I left after a while, went to Cal Day.

Full disclosure - this year I won tickets for BVED, but otherwise probably wouldn't have attended…read more I volunteered to help with the first BVED -- helping the very kind, ambitious and all around awesome Karine B with the event as well as working with James Hall/Raw Daddy at his table. Wow - it's been FIVE years! I haven't been to the David Brower center before -- it's a beautiful lobby, and probably not ideal for a crowd, really. I did check out the itinerary of speakers before the event and the charter for the event implies that it is really more "Vegan 101/201" -- lots of food prep demos and nothing too controversial in the topics. However - if I were a new vegan or interested in going vegan - I'm not sure I would be all that jazzed about paying $20 to go spend more money. It was great to see Raw Daddy there -- and there were plenty of vendors and food samples available. I was surprised to see Synergy there - and ended up spending about $200 at the expo in food & clothing. Since the event charges the vendors a percentage of sales -- as my friend pointed out, "it would be nice if they gave a refund if you spent over a certain amount at the expo" -- certainly that might encourage more people to shop! While most of the expo focused on lifestyle/consumer vegan offerings -- there was table full of very informative and engaging folks from Food Empowerment Project (www.foodispower.org). This sparks my intellectual curiosity as a trained political sociologist (now you know - I'm a marxist) and the volunteer who spoke with me asked me about chocolate. I love chocolate. And, of course - I thought that I knew about what chocolate to eat: fair trade, organic etc. But honestly - with so many excellent vegan candies available at places like Republic of V, I think I just assumed that vendors like Amy E's chocolates or Vega were using fair-trade/organic/equal exchange products. It turns out that the Food is Power folks have a massive list and many vegan food producers are on the "not recommended" or "problematic" list (including Amy E's and Vega!). I'm glad that these events exist - they provide a very important function to new vegans and in exposing more people to vegan lifestyle oriented goods and services.

Have to agree with Corey C. here, the view here is RIDICULOUS. I stood there with my mouth agape…read morefor a good five minutes. There were several other people doing the same. The golden hour was upon us, and the city was bathed in beautiful light, while a big tanker was cruised by next to several beautiful sailboats. Pretty much everything was closed by the time we were wandering around, and there seem to be far fewer shops here than what Corey mentions - mostly real estate offices now. That's okay, because it saves my pocketbook and still gives me a cute area to stroll through.

Ark Row is a block of quaint shops located in downtown Tiburon. My favorite thing to do here is to…read morecome at night, when everything is closed, with a hot drink and check out the window displays. If you keep walking past the shops and turn left along the water, you will be rewarded with an AMAZING view of the bay which, on a clear night, has the moon reflected in the water, framed by the city lights of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

I feel that it's almost unfair to review an entire neighborhood sometimes, but hey, we do that with…read morea lot of the restaurants/businesses we go to, so I guess it's still fair. I think of it as one snapshot in time and a personal experience of that moment which is why I always laugh when people take it so personal when they don't agree with whatever a reviewer is saying. Write your own review then! Hayes Valley is an ever evolving place. Besides a place I spent a lot of time at currently, it's a vibrant, a tad rowdy, attractive to slightly younger crowd, expensive and slightly hipster. Nearby to lots of museums, governments buildings, boutiques, and restaurants.

great facilities. conor is a great guy, very attentive and professional. Still need to try the…read moresteam room

** The following review reflects my experience DURING the COVID-19 pandemic. **…read more There's an extraordinary new mural on the side of the Oakland Marriott City Center. At 190 feet, it's hard to miss unless you don't look up from your smartphone as you walk by on Broadway. If you do look up, you will be rewarded by the sight of a smiling child grasping a bundle of wheat. It's a beautiful image created by artist Victor Ash, and it serves as a message about world hunger, very well-timed as food banks have been struggling in response to months of the pandemic. Take a moment, look up for yourself, and advocate for #ZeroHunger, a global campaign sponsored by the UN's World Food Organization. RELATED - Exploring Oakland? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/2ObVcpQ

this mural is the tallest, biggest...mural around but it's not the most impressive. it can be…read morepartially seen while driving along highway 880 thru downtown Oakland. i happen to be taking the Boardway turnoff so i saw it. otherwise it's a miss. It's on the left side of the Marriott Hotel. the mural "the child" depicts a happy Black girl running in a field proports to be in support of an UN support to end hunger called "Zero Hunger". Kellogg is a corporate sponsor. i don't see any connection between the mural and the program. maybe it's projects wishful thinking. creator: Victor Ash

Seriously soo many restaurants, bars, cafes, local stores,…read morehidden gems you will find here. Take a few hours to explore and eat your way through the place! You just can't eat it all. Always need another trip Parking and traffic suckssss

Parking's horrendous, even on weekdays when it's not a super busy time (people going to work and…read morepeople getting off of work). I can't imagine what it's like on the weekends when people actually want to go out and do things. I can't really speak for how it's like in the evenings and at night considering how so many things in the Bay Area close so early in comparison to SoCal, but I digress. Parking can get quite confusing here since there are so many loading areas, other spots where it's metered parking but ONLY for a certain time period or else you're not allowed to park there, some actually free parking (I think), and much more confusion, so be prepared to sort of park before you can get closer to read all of the fine print on the signs. Even Koreatown isn't this bad. Eugh. But other than that, I really do like the variety of restaurants and businesses that they have here and the fact that it doesn't feel gentrified or franchise/trend slop. Definitely more lively than many parts of LA and other major cities as so many in person things are dying out. One day I'd like to go back and go eat here, and hopefully be able to find parking. Also random, but my boyfriend and I saw a stubby caterpillar looking van that was super close to the ground with 6 wheels and I sadly couldn't take a picture in time, but the visage haunts me to this day.

I first encountered a painted utility box about a year and a half ago in a small alley tucked away…read moreoff Columbus Ave. It was so charming, a little mouse holding a flower. I took a photo but didn't have a clear spot to feature it on Yelp. Like flowers after a spring rain, these painted utility boxes sprang up all over the city as part of the Paint The City project founded by Daniel Lurie (before he was Mayor) and Manny Yekutiel. Now numbering over 325 (formerly army green) utility boxes, almost 50 artists were commissioned to transform the utilitarian into something special and reflective of the neighborhood as well as support our local artists. Add your own photographic encounters with this public art here!

I am a fan of obscure historical sites. This fire hydrant fits the bill!…read more Yelp wouldn't let me post a two sentence review. The computer told me to keep writing. There's not much you can say about a fire hydrant that hasn't been said already. There was a huge fire, most of the fire hydrants were inoperable. This one wasn't! It saved lives and property. As far as fire hydrants go this is probably one of the most historic fire hydrants in the United States. If you're in the neighborhood stop by and give her a pat on the head.

For a few months, I kept seeing another Yelper (Steven B. of Castro fame) checking in at the Little…read moreGiant Golden Hydrant, down in The Mission. Didn't pay much attention - thought it might be the name of a bar. This is actually a really cool piece of history relating to the 1906 Earthquake, and the devastating fire in the aftermath. The Little Giant is a fire hydrant that saved most of The Mission below 20th Street because it pumped water that day. As it turns out, there were two other notable hydrants that put on a good fight that day - They are known as the Silver Twins. This hydrant is on Hayes and Buchanan - the other is supposedly at Van Ness and Ellis, although it is not the original hydrant like the one at Hayes. If you notice all of the old, pre-1906 buildings out in the Western Addition, you can thank this little guy. On the morning that the Earthquake struck, there was a kitchen fire that broke out by Hayes and Gough. Sure enough, because there was water from this hydrant, the neighborhood was saved. Imagine no pre-1906 buildings in Hayes Valley, Alamo Square, The Haight... Hard to believe that we owe as much of our history and our aesthetic to a few fire hydrants that functioned when almost all of the others didn't. I think it's well work a few moments if you're walking by to reflect on the past - it's always amazing to think of how much has happened in The City. Practical note: Hayes Valley Market is right here, and it's a solid place to grab a drink, snack, or a tasty sandwich.

Mom: "I bought something for you." *huge grin*…read more Me (I was parking the car, we've been apart for 2 seconds, what could she have bought in such a short amount of time?): "For me?" *smiles* Mom reaches into her purse...and pulls out...a FROG paperweight! Me (to my sister Dominique): "How could you let her do that?!" Dominique: "She was so fast, I couldn't stop her. I turned and before I knew it the transaction was made!" -- Now, a bit of history about me, my mom, and frogs. Some time ago...in a galaxy far, far away...my mom got the idea that I like frogs. I was probably with her in some shop and pointed at a frog and said it was cute or something. Ever since then on birthdays, holidays, and random days I get frog pajamas, slippers, stuffed frogs, paperweights, gold pendants from aunts who've been told I like frogs (I don't even wear jewelry!), calendars, magnets...I could go on. So, last year I had to have a very, very difficult conversation with my mom. It was really hard, I mean, how do you tell your mom who has been building this crazy collection for you for years (maybe even a decade?) that you actually don't really care for frogs. She seemed to take it well and last year's birthday AND Christmas came and went sans frogs. Yay! -- Now, return to present day. My mom and Dominique arrived late Friday night for a fun filled weekend with ME =) It's my mom's first visit to my new(ish) apartment. Her eyes settle and she comments on a frog stuffed animal that I have on my bookshelf (the ONLY one left in my place - after our "difficult" conversation last year I felt liberated and got rid of most of the collection sparing one in the apartment on my bookshelf and one in the backseat of my car.) So, at this point I should have told her not to get any crazy ideas, but I didn't feel the need to rub salt in her wounds. Look where that got me...with another frickin' frog... Bernal Heights Hill Wide Garage Sale - don't you know you shouldn't be tempting my mom with frog paraphernalia?! After our brief spat on Cortland about my mom's frog purchasing addiction we had a great time weaving up and down the hills wheelin' and dealin' with the Bernal residences. My mom loves garage sales and we really lucked out with their visit coinciding with this annual sale, PLUS great weather! I'd like to try to visit again next year - with my mom =) - only following another reminder about frogs!

It's to raise fund for the elderly care. Good cause deserve support. We bought great art pieces…read morefrom Juan Vargas who overcame a stroke that paralyzed the right side. The trained left hand creates powerful and delicates strokes nevertheless. I will go again next year if I am in the Bay Area.