10 years on this great little island called Alameda

I just realized that it has been about 10 years since we moved to Alameda in 2003 and we have never regretted it once! So hard to believe that much time has passed and that we are on our 5th, and hopefully final, apartment here. I may have grown up less than a half an hour from here but really never knew anything about it until the late 90s. When we were deciding where we wanted to live when we moved in together I had remembered coming to Alameda once before to go to Lucky 13. We decided to come back and check it out and knew right away we had to live here. Alameda has got everything: a movie theatre, great restaurants and bars (Lucky 13, Swell Bar, Forbidden Island to name just a few), a pinball museum, wineries, a distillery, monthly antique faire, vintage shops, and more including a rich history such as the long gone Neptune Beach amusement park. Thankfully a ton of buildings and homes have been protected here rather than torn down so there are loads of Victorians, bungalows, cottages, Mediterranean style homes, and great old apartments buildings as well as many other architectural styles and historical buildings.

So much has changed in these past 10 years. There are so many more restaurants (before it seemed the only choices were La Piñata, Ole’s or Linguini’s - I love all three but it’s nice to have more variety). One of the best changes in my opinion is that the theatre from 1932 stopped being a gymnastics studio as it was when we first arrived and has been beautifully restored. I never thought we would live in a place where we could ride bikes or walk to an amazing movie theatre. I sure do not miss having to go over to Jack London Square in Oakland to catch a movie.

In all this time there are still some things I cannot believe we have not done here yet such as go to Hangar 1 for a vodka tasting or go to the Pacific Pinball Museum. Soon we shall make it to both, I swear!

The first set of photos are from an Alameda postcard book that I own.

Still looks the same today...

This hotel is now apartments...

The stained glass at this church is beautiful at night

This whole neighborhood is filled with amazing homes

Ole’s Waffle Shop

(photo courtesy of this site)

Alameda Theatre

interior photo EverGreene

Pacific Pinball Museum

(photo from their website)

Neptune Beach (closed in 1939)

Also home to the best 4th of July parade!

This is the float for Swell Bar (I'm the 5th sailor from the left)