These adorable fairies were spotted in Oakland’s Temescal Alley

Where can you eat fish tacos, sample Indian street food, sip coffee, nosh on a doughnut and see fairies all in one location? That would be in the hipster Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, California.

While Oakland sometimes gets a bad rap, join in a Temescal Tastes food tour with Edible Excursions and you will experience a natural high. Perhaps food coma is a better descriptor for this Sunday morning escapade conceived by owner Lisa Rogovin?

Kouign Amann, from Starter Bakery, is one of the culinary delights on Temescal Tastes tour.

Edible Excursions

This culinary tour company offers intimate strolls through San Francisco, California’s Ferry Building Marketplace, Mission District and Japantown, as well as epicurean tours of North Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto, but the Temescal Tastes tour, located in the East Bay, takes the cake – or the Kouign Amann cake.

Urban Village Farmers’ Market

My first encounter of the Kouign Amann pastry was shared with Brian Wood at the Urban Village Farmers’ Market. Wood, the owner of Starter Bakery, is the man responsible for bringing us this butter cake, originally found in the northwest of France and now, Oakland’s Temescal district. His tasty treats sell out fast at the Urban Village Farmers’ Market and once they are gone, they won’t make another appearance until the next Sunday.

Another participant of the Urban Village Farmers’ Market, as well as the Temescal Tastes tour, is Cholita Linda. Be sure to try the fish tacos and agua fresca. This popular booth is a mix of eclectic Latin America street food.

Cream filled doughnuts at Doughnut Dolly

Temescal Alley

Moving on to Oakland’s Temescal Alley 49, we arrive in time for coffee and doughnuts. Like peanut butter and jelly, coffee and doughnuts are a match made in heaven. Whether you prefer your coffee iced or spiced, and your doughnuts cream or jam filled, you will be delighted with the outcome.

The Cro Cafe owners are dedicated to creating the perfect cup of coffee and Doughnut Dolly owner Hannah Hoffman is the woman behind the Naughty Cream filled doughnuts.  This clever girl named her company after the Doughnut Dollies,  Red Cross helpers, who delivered coffee and doughnuts to injured service men and women from World War I.

Authentic foods

From Indian street food at Juhu Beach Club to vegetarian offerings at Abesha, tomato soup made with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer at Sacred Wheel Cheese, or tofu stew and Ban Chan at Sura Korean; Temescal Tastes participants will not return home hungry from this Oakland, California food frolic.

Cro Cafe makes the perfect cup of coffee

Priced at a reasonable $75 per person, the three hour tour is an easy walk. I say this after having a total hip replacement not too long ago. Parking is easy by the Urban Farmers’ Market meeting point and the MacArthur Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station is within walking distance of tour.

If You Go:
Edible Excursions (415) 806-5970

Article written by and photos courtesy of  Travel Writer Nancy D. Brown of What a Trip, Travels from Northern California. I was a guest of Edible Excursions.

Related Posts:

Things to See and Do in Berkeley, California

Things to See and Do in Oakland, California

Tubing hill at Snow Trails, Ski and Snowboarding Resort

Every time I head to Mansfield, Ohio–or talk about its virtues as a getaway possibility, I think about things to do there. One day really isn’t enough.

This past weekend, along with passing out Mansfield travel advice to a woman I met at a car repair shop, I went to Mansfield myself. This time the draw was the tubing hill at Snow Trails, Mansfield’s ski and snowboarding resort. With only a few weeks left in the season, I didn’t want my son to miss out on this winter thrill.

Along with the tubing hill, Snow Trails, Ohio’s first commercial ski resort, has slopes that range from beginner to difficult.  There’s a lodge with a restaurant and bar, as well as, a separate snack bar for warming up and gnoshing on simple fare near the tubing hill.

Snow Trails is not the only trail type activity Mansfield offers. The Shawshank  Trail is a major draw to the area.  Several scenes of the 1994 movie “The Shawshank Redemption” were filmed here. The most impressive site, of course, is the prison.

Ohio State Reformatory, a major feature of the movie The Shawshank Redemption

The Ohio State Reformatory, a massive, stone building designed as a blend of Victorian Gothic, Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne architecture, first opened in 1896. Before it closed in 1990, it had housed 155,000 men, the youngest of them boys. These days, the reformatory is a tourist draw. In the fall, the building’s windy staircases and twisting halls that lead through cell blocks of peeling paint and metal are a perfect backdrop to The Haunted Prison Experience. . This top notch haunted house attraction can give a person the creeps even without the actors dressed in ghoulish finery, some of them with chain saws. At other times of the year, people seeking the paranormal can take tours and also stay overnight.

In addition to the prison, The Shawshank Trail goes past several other sites that were significant to particular scenes in the movie.  A couple of them are at Malabar Farm State Park, the former home of Pulitzer-prize winning novelist and conservationist Louis Bromfield.

Bromfield was friends with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and hosted their wedding in his gorgeous home that is a testament to his travels, family and ideals. The house is now a museum and looks exactly like it did in the Bogart and Bacall days. Malabar Farm is an Ohio State Park that operates as a working farm similar to the days when Bromfield ran it.  Throughout the year, special events keep visitors busy. The next major event on the calendar is the annual Maple Syrup Festival.

Novelist Louis Bromfield’s house and wedding site of Bogie and Bacall

If you do head to Malabar Farm, eat either lunch or dinner at the Malabar Farm Restaurant. The restaurant that is close to the park, offers farm-to-table dining at reasonable prices. I’ve eaten here three times and have never been disappointed. The crab cakes and mushroom soup are particularly splendid.

Along with the rolling rural landscape that surrounds Mansfield, the town itself has its charm. Central to downtown is the Richland Carrousel Park where a magnificent carrousel of 52 hand- carved animals that range from horses to rabbits to ostriches give riders of all ages a spin. Built in 1991, this is the first hand-carved carrousel to be built in the U.S. since the 1930s.

Also impressive is the Renaissance Theatre. This historical landmark building opened in 1928 as a movie house dazzling movie-goers with its leaded glass chandeliers and marble floors. Restored to its glory through the 1980s and 1990s, the building is host to the Mansfield Symphony, as well as various concerts and theatrical performances year-round.

The historical Renaissance Theatre

Mansfield is roughly halfway between Cleveland and Columbus off of I-71

Other area intractions include the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Kingwood Center and Gardens, The Mansfield Fire Museum and the Mansfield Memorial Museum.

The area has several hotels and Bed and Breakfasts.

I’ve stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites and definitely recommend it. Its downtown location, just off of the town square, is perfect for wandering on foot.

I wandered to  Cypress Cellars Winery for wine tasting and to pick up a bottle of the Reformatory Red  which gives another nod to the prison and The Shawshank Redemption.

Photos courtesy of the Mansfield and Richland County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Post courtesy of Jamie Rhein, member of the Midwest Travel Writers Association

*I’ve been to Mansfield, both on my own and as a guest of Mansfield and Richland County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Visiting San Francisco with kids or a romantic escape, my hotel & museum picks.

Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost my entire life, I am often asked about the best things to see and do in “the city.”  My answers to people visiting San Francisco depends on if this is a romantic weekend escape; a girlfriend getaway, a family vacation with kids or perhaps you are interested in where to eat cheap in San Francisco.

San Francisco is not an inexpensive city to live or vacation, yet it is one of my favorite cities. Once you book a flight to San Francisco, you’ll need to find a place to stay. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I review luxury hotel and resort properties. In fact, I just wrote an Insider’s Guide to San Francisco for a Canadian travel search engine.  Below are some of the places I recommended:

Best Luxury  Hotels in San Francisco

Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street, San Francisco

Four Seasons San Francisco, 757 Market Street, San Francisco

Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, One Nob Hill, San Francisco

St. Regis, 125 Third Street, San Francisco

Westin St. Francis, San Francisco

W San Francisco, 181 Third Street, San Francisco

Best Museums in San Francisco

deYoung Museum

California Academy of Sciences

Exploratorium

Legion of Honor

SF Moma

Walt Disney Family Museum

Best Things to See and Do in San Francisco

There’s more to San Francisco than a boat ride to Alcatraz, eating dungeness crab at Fisherman’s Wharf, throwing tortillas in the air and watching runners in crazy costumes at Bay to Breakers or seeing every color of the rainbow at the Gay Pride Parade – although these are all fun things to do in San Francisco.

Do you have a favorite hotel in San Francisco? What are your favorite things to do with or without children in San Francisco?