If you like birds, walk the shoreline path at Crown Memorial Beach, watching for ducks, loons and grebes along the way to the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary. Here clapper rails nest in the marsh. In the late 1800s, this broad, natural beach was developed into a series of amusement parks and resort hotels. In 1916, the famed Neptune Gardens took shape with an illuminated boardwalk, an 8,000 seat stadium, and Bayside swimming pools where contestants trained for the annual Around the Island swim-a 14 mile marathon. People still swim at Crown Beach, but there is no lifeguard. Many historical events took place in the stadium at Neptune Gardens, from pre-airplane balloon flights in the 1800s to California’s first professional baseball game. Now Crown Beach is the bay’s largest beach adding a natural respite to the urban scene. Because of dependable breeze, it is popular with kite-flyers and windsurfers. Sausalito Sailboards is a seasonal concessionaire for summer rentals and lessons in the south end of the main parking area (650)331-9463.

Crab Cove is a designated marine reserve with a wheelchair ramp providing access to the tidepools. Though the Crab Cove Visitor Center is now closed for remodeling (re-opening next year with a 700 gallon tank of estuary creatures), the nature center and store will lend you an Adventure Pack with a magnifying glass and cards depicting things you might see, like ghost shrimp processing the bay mud for nutrients, or bat rays who feed here when the tide comes in. Or, you can train for the Crown Beach Sand Castle Contest June 9th. With open registration at 8:30am, castle building begins at 9am, continuing until judging at noon. The sculptures remain on display until the tide comes in at 12:45 to wash them away. Out on Ballena Bay Point at the Encinal Boat Ramp is a great vantage point and good place to watch terns fishing offshore.

Alameda shares Oakland’s vintage and is known for its Victorians. At the Alameda Museum at 2324 Alameda Avenue, you can pick up a copy of Victoria’s Legacy . Written by an Alameda Museum Board member, it lists six walking tours past homes and buildings of Alameda, as well as tours of other Bay area cities. Historical Commercial Buildings of Alameda chronicles the city’s transportation history as well as architecture. The house identifier books put together by the curator, list the city’s old buildings, when, where, in what style, and for whom they were built. You also have the option of a following a walking tour of Park Street, described in a pamphlet available at the museum, to see how things have changed here over the years. The museum also hosts a rotating art gallery that features a local group of Alameda artists each month.

To visit some of Alameda’s famed architecture, take Caroline street toward the bay to San Antonio Street. Off San Antonio are St. Charles, Bay, and Sherman Streets, all with beautiful old homes. Continue to Franklin Park and follow as Morton Street wraps around it. This area, with its stately turn of the century homes, is known as the Gold Coast. Near the museum, the Meyer House is open to the public the 4th Saturday of each month from 1-4pm, displaying furnishings from the four generations who lived here, and its’ beautiful grounds. In September you can check out the legacy Home Tour which opens a handful of Alameda’s older homes to the public.

The museum puts you in a good position for restaurants. Explore the establishments along Park Street for a deli that suits your taste for a picnic on Crown Beach. Around corner from museum at 1349 Park Street is Tuckers Ice Cream, an Alameda institution in a historic building with an outdoor eating area. For dinner, Alameda family-owned and run Luciano’s, at 2319 Santa Clara, serves everything from veal in champagne sauce to brick oven pizza, with a mezzanine area overlooking the kitchen. Or, on the water, Aroma’s, at 2337 Blanding, has indoor and outdoor dining at foot of the Park Street bridge overlooking the estuary. Mariners Square also promotes waterfront dining at Chevy’s.

5. Oakland Museum of California and Lake Merritt

The Oakland Museum of California is an incredible introduction to California art, history and Natural History. One floor is dedicated to each, so you get the feeling of being immersed into the world of each. Particularly strong in Bay Area art, the Gallery of California presents works of California artists chronologically from early 1800s, to the traveling exhibits like the Art of Gordon Parks June 23-September 23, 2001. There is a special area of dedicated to Oakland’s Society of Six, a group of Oakland artists who painted, socialized and exhibited together in the 1920s. Prompted by French Impressionism, society members used vibrant colors to depict the landscapes and neighborhoods of Oakland. You can view William Clapp’s Houses along the Estuary, Seldon Gile’s Boat and Yellow Hills, and Maurice Logan’s Alaska Packers Yard. The Cowell Hall of California chronicles everything from Native Californians with an incredible basketry exhibit, to the present. Look for the ballot box from 1882 when Oakland’s Marietta Stowe ran for vice president of the United States alongside Belva Lockwood on the ticket of the national Social Science Sisterhood. An exhibit on farm labor and the resurgence of the of the United Farm Workers is in the History Special Gallery through August 26. The Gallery of Natural Sciences depicts the ecology of California in a walk through representative biotic zones. At the Rustler Ranch Mastodon Project, in the Natural Sciences side bay, they are excavating the bones of a prehistoric California mastodon, delivered still encased in earth from northern California. You can watch as they prepare the mastodon for exhibit. Almost every weekend the museum hosts some event, or festival. Check the web site for things like the annual Wildflower Show, where botanists with permits collect and identify for you several hundred flowers from the field each year around Mothers Day.

The museum also operates the Alice Arts Center at 1428 Alice Street- home of the Oakland Ballet, located on the 3rd floor in a glass studio. The Ballet is rehearing now for their season opens in fall, and you can watch rehearsals. The center also hosts other dance and performing arts companies, all with programming in the evening. Check out the Windows Exhibition Series II, displaying visual art of three local artists each month. Also owned by the museum, downtown at 1111 Broadway, is the Oakland Museum Sculpture Court with changing exhibits featuring local artists.

A block from the museum is Lake Merritt. Many walk along the lake, but you can also bike along a 3-mile loop and check out all of the offerings. Technically (historically) part of the estuary, you can boat here, but you can’t get your kayak to Lake Meritt from the estuary because there is a dam at 12th Street. Put in by Oakland Mayor (and shoreline landowner) Merritt in 1869, the Lake Merritt dam created an oasis for both Oakland residents and birds. Mayor Merritt had the lake declared a wildlife refuge in 1870. You can feed the birds at the Rotary Nature Center in Lakeside Park, which also houses Children’s Fairyland, Lakeside Park Garden Center, and Gondola Servizio- where you can take a ride in a gondola with a serenading gondolier. Or rent and pilot your own boat at the Lake Merritt Boating Center. Or you might tour the historic Cameron Stanford home. Of all the things to do here, the main attraction is the pretty setting. If you get hungry, you can leave the lake for a quick jaunt up Lakeshore or Grand to you choice of sidewalk cafes. (Watch for the murals at the 580 underpass on Lakeshore, yet another example of the Oakland Art scene.) Arizmendi, at 3265 Lakeshore, is known for its morning bakery items, breads and pizza. Here, you can get goodies for a picnic by the lake, or eat at tables on the sidewalk. Built in 1927, the art deco Clarion Lake Merritt Hotel is an elegant old place overlooking the lake, where Madison’s serves lunch and dinner.