Jack London Aquatic Center Landmark

I was visiting Oakland in January of 2023 and visited Jack London Aquatic Park in Oakland. Me and my husband were pleasantly surprised by a young lady who seem to be taken care of some wild birds in the park. She was hand feeding a couple of these injured seagulls and pigeons. She's a young lady named Amanda and we inquired about her care with these birds and wasn't she afraid of getting bitten or hurt by them and she replied not really. She seemed to be living on her cabin cruiser at the time that was parked at one of the docks at Jack London aquatic center. It was just refreshing to see this type of behavior when we've heard all of the bad stories about Oakland online and in the newspapers. She had a deep understanding and care for these animals who seem to love her attention and actually we saw them eating out of her hand. I just thought I would share this story with everybody because you don't see this everyday. Also the rowing teams were practicing it just seemed like a nice atmosphere and it was the opposite of what I've heard about the city of Oakland. Sincerely Mary & Tom Roberts

My wife, 3 teenage kids and I visited my family in Oakland in the spring of 2023. The family had wanted to hang out at Jack London Square in Oakland, so we had a beautiful lunch at Scott's Seafood restaurant on the water. It was one of the best dining out experiences we ever had as a family. After eating we searched for a park and saw that Jack London Aquatic Center was less than 1/2 mile away, so we decided to visit. I was impressed with Jack London Aquatic Center/Park. There were rowing teams setting up for practice and Bob, one of the directors, showed our family the rowing boats and how the art of rowing was much more athletic than we had imagined. The park was clean and there was a team practing soccer on the field, people fishing on the pier. Our best experience was unexpected. There was a retired gentleman named Michael and he built this houseboat that looked like a actual house on land. He told us he was a carpenter by trade. Beautiful blue houseboat with solar panels that provided him with all the power he needed to run everything on his boat. My kids were fascinated with this floating home, that they were having a conversation with Michael before my wife and I even noticed. Michael told the kids to ask us if he could take the family on a tour of the Oakland Estuary. My wife and I were wary, but agreed after the kids wouldn't take any but yes as an awnser. It was amazing, Michael gave us a view of Oakland that I believe everyone should see once! It was only about 1 hour, but Michael explained the Estuary and how it worked and all the aquatic animals, fish and plants that relie on the estuary to survive. We didn't realize until Michael told us that he was asked to leave a Marina in Oakland, when the Marina changed harbormasters. The Jack London Aquatic Center guest dock was his only option to safely dock his 40' houseboat. Michael is 62 years old and told us he just retired early and was counting on the live a board slip to be his home. My family was hunbled by this experience. Here you have a retired senior citizen, who is also Vietnam Veteran, who is obviously facing an uncertain future. Who took the time to make one of of families best experiences happen and wouldn't take a dime from us! All the crime our family members warned us about and that is reported on the news about Oakland. I can report that those of you reading this review could only hope you have an experience that my entire family experienced. You won't hear about this day, that Michael provided for us on the news or newspaper and that's a shame. The next night we had dinner with the whole family and explained our day and showed them pictures and they were stunned. Except Isabella, she is my 9 year old niece, she started crying. When asked why, she replied, "why didn't you invite Michael to dinner tonight". OMG, everyone looked at each other in shock! So, the adults dried our tears and had a brief discussion, we called Michael and asked if he was up for a cook meal and some guest, he said "absolutely". All 16 of us headed to the Jack London Aquatic Center, a park in Oakland at 6:30pm on a Saturday night. We had our second best experience, this time as a entire family and Michael and the City of Oakland blew our minds!! Thank you Uncle Michael, as he is now referred to by the entire family. Michael has been over several times since our first meeting.The last dinner we had Michael over he brought his daughter Christina and husband Dan, his Son, Michael Jr. and his wife and 3 beautiful grandchildren. This story needed to be told and cherished.