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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Oakland Hills


Yesterday we went up to walk around in the Oakland hills, and we stopped by one of my favorite spots, the Woodminster Amphitheater and park.


Usually the fountains are going and the spot where I stood to take this photo is actually a water fall, but since it's off season the fountains were turned off.


I took this shot too, from the top - standing where there is normally running water!

The view from there is amazing, you can see Oakland down below, and out across the bay to San Francisco, there was a bit of cloud cover so the city is not so clear in these shots. But when it is clear you can see San Francisco's landmark buildings.


Yes, that is San Francisco on the other side.


There are many little trails around, and some great picnic spots with some fantastic views.


These stairs lead down to one of two fountains.


Fountain one.


Fountain two, down below.


I love just walking around there- and it's only a ten minute ride from home up into the hills. There are many parks and trails, this is just one of my favorites. The Amphitheater and park were built in the late 1930's -early 1940's as part of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) brought about by the New Deal. It has a very interesting history you can read more about here.

You can go see outdoor performances there during the summer- I haven't been to one yet, but I would love to go this year.


5 comments:

  1. How beautiful! Some of the shots (trees, fountains) look like the South of France.

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  2. Beautiful photos - the tree lined road is my favorite!

    Chic on the Cheap

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  3. It's so awesome that WPA went towards park-building. For some reason I had always thought it was more fixer-upper projects.

    This sentence:

    "We are definitely in an era of building," he said, "the best kind of building — the building of great public projects for the benefit of the public and with the definite objective of building human happiness."

    ...makes my heart sing. I think it was just such a brilliant idea and shudder to think how poorly that era would have turned out if people didn't have a positive focus, thanks to him.

    I do remember hearing some negative WPA feedback but now I can't remember what it was. Although I feel like it's difficult to develop programs and have everything work out positively the entire time.

    Anyway, I'm glad you had a great day!

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  4. Yeah, there is always the positives ad negatives of any sweeping plan. but a lot of good came out of it for man of our beloved parks and landmarks.
    I think it is poetic that fund went towards the beautification of the country after befalling such hard times.

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