Posts Tagged ‘lake merritt’

The return of Fairyland for Grownups

August 3rd, 2022
Children's Fairyland Children's Fairyland Children's Fairyland Children's Fairyland Children's Fairyland

 

It’s been a while since there was a 21 and over night at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, but Fairyland for Grownups returned on July 29th, 2022. Obviously I had to go. Aside from a vaccine check on the way in it felt very similar to the last such event three years ago.

The big change this year was that it was a few weeks earlier which was fine, although in retrospect the weather is usually better in August. The upside to holding it in July is there’s a little more time before the sun goes down.

Everything seemed to be in about the same condition as last time which is to say the paint was recently touched up and the gardens were in good shape, but not all of the story boxes were functioning when activated with a Magic Key.

The line to enter the park was very long and took almost 30 minutes to get through. A number of guests showed up in costume, others in light-up outfits to dance until closing time in the old west area with the DJs.

Not everything at Children’s Fairyland is open during these events, mostly the kiddie rides that wouldn’t fit adult-sized people anyway. One thing I wish they did operate during Fairyland for Grownups is the “zoo” section of the park. This is a very small section that apparently has tame animals like guinea pigs and goats during the day — so why can’t it be open for the adult’s only night? You don’t have to be a kid to appreciate seeing some small animals.

That leads me to another unique aspect of these events: one might worry that a bunch adults with alcohol would be staggering around and causing problems, but that doesn’t really happen. First of all most people only stick to the two drinks included with admission, and second it only goes until 10 PM.

On the subject of the early ending time, I’m surprised there aren’t any public afterparties. There’s already a crowd that’s in a partying mood, why not offer to chauffeur them to a nearby bar or dance venue? Seems like a missed opportunity.

To stay up to date on Fairyland for Grownups events, follow the Oaklandish blog or sign up for their newsletter.

Fairyland for Grownups

August 19th, 2019

Fairyland for Grownups
 

Children’s Fairyland is a small theme park attraction at Oakland’s Lake Merritt, and is normally only open to children accompanied by an adult. However once a year there’s a fundraiser organized by Oaklandish as a benefit for the park: Fairyland for Grownups.

On Friday I visited Fairyland for my first time ever — I’d never been to Fairyland as an adult, let alone when I was a child. I’ll have to say the park itself is pretty impressive, which I’ll get into more in a moment.

To make Children’s Fairyland a “grownup” experience it was a 21 and over event with an ID check and bag inspection out front. Inside the park there were stands serving beer and wine, as well as a couple of food trucks.

Several attractions too small to accommodate adults — most notably the rides — were closed. The (relatively new) old west town in the park was converted into a dance area with a DJ. Security guards stood around to prevent adults from climbing on attractions meant only for children.

 
Fairyland for Grownups
 

Upon entering the park you have the opportunity to buy a special key. You may also bring a key with you if you already own one. Both an affordable plastic key or a significantly more expensive keepsake metal key are available.

These keys can be inserted into keyholes throughout the park to play an old fashioned record telling a fairy tale. Small buildings, sculptures, gardens, and playgrounds near the keyhole boxes bring the stories to life. The quality of these recordings is honestly quite poor and worn out, but I found the idea of secret story boxes amusingly unique. Better yet each story has both an English and Spanish version available depending which keyhole is used, providing children a bilingual experience and the opportunity to learn a new language at a young age.

One recording that doesn’t require a key is a big googly-eyed dragon near the entrance. Pulling on his tongue plays a message welcoming you to the park.
 

Children’s Fairyland was originally conceived in 1948 and opened two years later. One early visitor was planning a much larger theme park of his own and was looking for inspiration. Apparently he liked Fairyland enough to poach a few of its employees.

The man’s name? You probably guessed it — Walt Disney.

 
Fairyland for Grownups
 

As for the park’s attractions they’re all focused on fairy tales, of course. The first one is a big shoe at the entrance, from the There was an Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe. The attractions are often intended to be climbed on, walked through, slid down, or all of the above.

I should point out upfront that some of the attractions are in much better shape than others. The story boxes are broken at a couple of them, and a few badly need a new coat of paint.

The real standout of the park is an Alice In Wonderland fun house with big dioramas, murals, and a maze of playing card people at the end. Of all the attractions this one seems to have had the most love put into it over the years.

I also appreciated the Chinese-ish pagoda in the sky, an overlook attraction that’s reached by walking up a series of ramps. There’s plenty of benches to sit down and relax there. It’s a good place to get one’s bearings of the park’s winding pathways.

 
Fairyland for Grownups
 

For the special Grownup night costumes were encouraged. A man in a Robin Hood outfit was happy to pose for photos. At least two groups of women were dressed up with matching mermaid outfits. One couple arrived dressed as Aladdin and Jasmine.

As the night went on the vibe started to feel more like a chill house party with plenty of friendly guests. As the sun fully set the park took on an otherworldly electric-lit glow.

The night ended with most of the guests gathered around the Old West area as many danced to the music. At closing time the DJ announced “one more” song as the security guards began clearing out the park.

 
Fairyland for Grownups
 

This year the tickets went for $35 each, which included two drink vouchers. Compared to other Bay Area events it’s a reasonable price, especially for a benefit. If you’re curious about going next year, check with Oaklandish for the exact date and price. It’s about a ten minute walk from 19th St. BART in downtown Oakland to the Fairyland entrance on Grand Ave.

Lakefest at Lake Merritt

June 23rd, 2019

Lake Merritt
View of Lakefest from across the lake
 

Today was Lakefest at Lake Merritt in Oakland. I’d never been to this festival before and decided to go take a look.

Lakefest is a free street festival outside the boat house at the north side of the lake. There’s your typical street food vendors, artists, and local businesses with booths. Walking over from the 19th St. BART station the first two booths I encountered were Oakland Police recruiters, followed by “The 90’s Experience,” which is apparently something like the Museum of Ice Cream. I couldn’t help but to chuckle when I noticed everyone promoting it was too young to have any nostalgia for the 90’s.

Wandering past all the food vendors I spotted another area behind them that wasn’t at all obvious how to get to. I snuck between a couple of food trucks and found a large booth selling Bud Light. I was about to turn away until I noticed they also had a frozen margarita machine. Wasn’t the best margarita, but given the heat I was happy to part with ten dollars and suffer from brain freeze to cool down a little in the hot weather.

At the other end of Lakefest were some kid friendly activities like carnival games, a little “train” ride, and an inflatable slide thing. These attractions had a shared ticket booth.

Lower down towards the lake was another area with a music stage set up, a second Bud Light/margarita bar, and various clothing vendors. If you wanted any type of t-shirt with “510” or some variation of the Oakland city logo, that was the place to get one.

 
Lake Merritt
 

In some places the event was listed as the “2nd Annual” Lakefest, which isn’t exactly true since there was a similar festival at Lake Merritt of the same name back in 2008 and 2009. While I wasn’t there, my understanding is it was at a different location. Further back in time there was an annual event called Festival at the Lake in the 80’s and 90’s.

It’s worth pointing out that Lake Merritt began attracting increased attention two years ago when the racist “BBQ Becky” incident made national news, and quickly became an internet meme. Whether that incident spurred the organizers to resurrect Lakefest or it was just a coincidence, it’s a great example of the old saying about making lemonade when life gives you lemons.

After leaving Lakefest I went for a walk around the lake. It was easily the busiest I’d ever seen it. Aside from the usual joggers and the drum circle that’s somehow always under the pergola, there seemed to be a record number of picnics taking place around Lake Merritt — including plenty of black picnickers with BBQ grills.
 

My recommendation: I don’t know if they’ll do Lakefest again next year, but if you live in the area or want an excuse to visit Lake Merritt it’s worth checking out. There’s something for kids and adults alike at Lakefest, but of course the same can be said of Lake Merritt itself.

A visit to the Oakland Museum of California

February 10th, 2019

Oakland Museum of California
 

With so many museums in the Bay Area to choose from, I’d never gotten around to visiting the Oakland Museum of California until yesterday. It’s not that it wasn’t on my radar, I just wasn’t sure what it was aside from a funny looking building I occasionally pass by while walking from the Lake Merritt BART station to Lake Merritt itself.

The reason I finally decided to visit was the Eames special exhibit (more on that below.) A while back they had a special exhibit on Pixar and I’ve been kicking myself for missing it ever since; the Eames exhibit ends on February 18th and I was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

Before going any further, what is the Oakland Museum of California? The name tells you where it is, but not what kind of museum. Is it an art museum? Science? History? Who’s the target audience? There’s no definitive answer but I’ll provide the best one I can at the end.

I bought tickets at the museum rather than online. In the morning this wasn’t an issue, but in the afternoon the lines grew significantly longer. If you buy a “print at home” ticket you only have to wait in a short line to exchange your printouts for a sticker. As far as I know you can’t present tickets on your phone.

For backpacks and jackets they have a number of free lockers available. These work like hotel lockers where you punch in your own PIN. Be sure to test these before you leave your stuff here, I tried two lockers before I found one where the lock worked correctly.
 

Special Exhibit: The World of Charles and Ray Eames
 

Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California

If you’re at all familiar with mid-century American furniture you’ve probably heard of Eames. Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell you’d probably recognize many of their iconic designs from shows like Mad Men or even cheap knockoffs sold at chain furniture stores.

Eames wasn’t some big faceless furniture company — it was the name of a Los Angeles design firm headed by husband and wife designers Charles and Ray Eames. While they both passed away a few decades ago, many of their iconic furniture designs are still manufactured today. In fact I’m even writing this from the comfort of an Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair.

Despite the Eames name being most closely associated with furniture it’s hardly the only type of design work they produced. The exhibit doesn’t go too deep into how Charles and Ray got their interest in design, instead delving into World War II as the couple experimented with molded plywood to develop leg splints and stretchers for wounded soldiers. When this didn’t pan out they turned their focus to home and office furniture after the war, partnering with Herman Miller for manufacturing and sales.
 

Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California

This is where the exhibit took an unexpected (to me, at least) twist into film. After working on a few very short films Eames was hired by IBM to create a film for an exhibition. The film was displayed on several screens and explained in simple terms how to break down a problem into a model so a computer could help solve it. One such example involved predicting the weather, using the weather data to predict attendance at a baseball game, which the stadium would use to know how many hot dogs to order. Like most old educational films it’s a little hard to judge this one by modern standards. For one thing I doubt most people need to be sold on the concept of computers anymore.

Another Eames film in a similar multi-screen format was originally shown in the Soviet Union as part of a cross-cultural program. The description said this was intended to highlight advantages of American capitalism. This film didn’t age well; the dated images of Americans driving to shopping centers came across less like a promotion of capitalism and more like a parody of suburban banality. Between the dimly lit room, slow pacing, and the Eames Lounge Chair I was relaxing in, it felt like time for a nap. Each mini-theater at the exhibit featured Eames chairs to sit in but this one felt like a particularly poor choice.

 

The last film in the exhibit surprised me the most because I’ve seen it several times but had no idea it was created by Eames: Powers of Ten. The exhibit includes three versions of the film, starting with a glorified storyboard and ending up with the final 1977 version above.

Each version begins with a guy sleeping after a picnic in a park, then zooming out exponentially in powers of ten until ending up at the limit of the observable universe. The final version also zips back in the opposite direction into the nucleus of an atom inside the picnicker’s hand. I think the film still holds up even if the graphics look a little dated. Spend the next ten nine minutes watching the video above for yourself if you’ve never seen it.
 

Gallery of California History
 

Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California

After grabbing lunch at the museum’s cafe I headed back across from the special exhibit hall to see one of the three permanent exhibits: the Gallery of California History. Those of us who grew up in California probably won’t get much out of this one, but for kids there’s a lot of objects you’re free to touch or little doors and boxes to open.

The exhibit starts with the lives of California’s first human inhabitants, the native Ohlone people. From there time skips ahead with the arrival of the Spanish, followed by the takeover by America and the Gold Rush. Here the exhibit takes a bold yet straightforward stance: it refers to American settlers slaughtering California’s Native Americans as genocide.

This dichotomy of high and low moments continues throughout the decades as the exhibit goes on. Chinese laborers build the transcontinental railroad, only to return home to California facing racism and violence. Hollywood movie studios sprang up, but all the good roles went to white actors. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed most of San Francisco leaving hundreds of thousands of people scrambling to find new lives, if not outright inventing new ones due the destruction of their paper documentation. Japanese internment camps stripped over one hundred thousand people of their rights during World War II.

Black Californians began protesting for equal rights in the 1960’s and 70’s, and at this point the exhibit’s timeline starts to seem more familiar. News footage, statistics, and a list of demands from the Black Power movement still seem relevant today.

 
Oakland Museum of California

The final section of the California History gallery wasn’t 100% operational during my visit, but what was open felt both interesting yet incomplete. It focused on the achievements of Silicon Valley with Hewlett Packard and Apple starting out of their founders’ garages. Yesterday’s computers were behind glass, including an early Mac and a Palm Pilot. I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt old seeing these “ancient” relics in a history exhibit.

The absence of any deeper insight of this part of the gallery was surprising. Perhaps it’s too soon to say who benefited or lost due to Silicon Valley’s rapid rise? It hardly fit the rest of the exhibit’s analysis of California’s history.
 

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

 
Oakland Museum of California

Just under the history gallery is the first floor exhibit on nature in California.

I hate to say it but this exhibit doesn’t have much going for it. The environmental info was hardly new or surprising, and the taxidermied animals felt a little creepy. Not sure who it was intended for as this exhibit was nearly deserted during my visit with maybe five or six others.

I quickly bailed on this gallery, but not after snapping the above photo of Oakland’s tree logo built out of pipes.
 

Gallery of California Art

 
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California

The art gallery includes many styles and forms of art from or relating to California, arranged chronologically. The first part of the gallery largely focuses on 19th century oil paintings, mostly landscapes. Yosemite Valley is a recurring theme here as well as Gold Rush era San Francisco.

Gold Rush era photographs are displayed in a small side room, which I almost missed. That would have been a mistake — although the photos are very small, they’re also quite detailed and provide a glimpse into the past most of us rarely get a chance to see.

Walking away from the entrance is like a trip forward in time, with figure paintings, photographs, Impressionism, dioramas, modern art, and lastly a few contemporary special exhibits. It’s undoubtedly a solid collection though I wasn’t clear how some of the pieces connected to California, even after reading all the descriptions.

Unlike the rest of the museum there’s not much for younger children to do in the art gallery.

Before moving on here’s a couple paintings early on in this gallery I found interesting.

Oakland Museum of California

This piece by George Henry Burgess captures an unfamiliar landscape… or does it? The painting shows Gold Rush era San Francisco featuring Telegraph Hill in the center, with what I believe is Montgomery Street (or perhaps a parallel street west of Montgomery) leading up to the hill.

If you look closely a the edge of the bay there’s a pier under construction. All the ships are much further out in the bay, since the water was far too shallow near the eastern edge of San Francisco to bring ships closer in. What’s now Embarcadero and the Ferry Building would have been underwater.

Oakland Museum of California

The above painting by Albert Bierstadt sits at the end of a hallway. At first I didn’t think much of it — it’s clearly Yosemite Valley, perhaps on a hazy morning — but the background is so overdone it looks almost cartoonish.

But in front of the painting there’s a few seats with headphones. I sat down, put on a pair of headphones and hit the play button. An unnamed narrator (who sounds suspiciously like Oakland-based podcaster Avery Trufelman) walks the viewer through a short meditation-like exercise of essentially imaging oneself in the painting.

I came away enjoying the piece more after this exercise, and wondered why museums with audio guides don’t have similar features to help guide viewers in appreciating a piece rather than simply discussing facts about it.
 

Garden

 
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California

A network of terrace gardens, stairways, and patios extends across and above the museum, with a grassy field at the bottom. There’s a number of outdoor sculptures to see. During my visit some of the walkways were covered in large puddles due to the rain earlier in the day.

On the field down below a Chinese New Year celebration was taking place. Not many people had turned up, probably due to the weather.

I’m not sure if you need museum admission to enter the garden. I put on a sweatshirt that completely covered my museum admission sticker and nobody stopped me or said anything.
 

So, what is the Oakland Museum of California?

With the three galleries covering different topics and exhibits for both children and adults, this museum wants to be all things to all people. Without any clear focus it’s a hit-or-miss affair, never quite going into the depth I’d expect for a museum of this size.

To me it seemed almost like three museums glued together. So it was no surprise to read this about the museum on Wikipedia: “It was created in the mid-1960s out of the merger of three separate museums dating from the early 20th century…”

There’s something else going on here too: according to the education section of the museum’s website students can “[e]xplore art, history, and natural science under one roof…” The website also includes curriculum for teachers. During weekdays the museum must act as a magnet for school field trips.

 
My recommendation: I don’t think I’d visit the Oakland Museum of California just for the permanent collection. That said if there’s a special exhibit that sounds interesting it’s worth checking out the rest of the museum too while visiting, or at least the top two floors (history and art galleries.) The cafe’s fine, though you could probably find better options nearby.