2014 Roadtrip: Our Bay Area Accommodations for June

There is no two ways about it. Finding our Bay Area Accommodations for the Month of June 2014 was challenging, arduous, difficult and almost defeated us. We tried everything and more described in How Dimitri Finds Our Accommodations. Because we were touring the area south of San Francisco (around Monterey and Big Sur) and north of San Francisco (Sonoma and Mendocino), we made three reconnoiter trips into San Francisco and Oakland to visit places we found on Home Away, VRBO and craigslist, etc., etc. They were all very expensive (over $4000 for the month) and various degrees of appalling, depressing, ghastly, dreadful, horrendous or hideous.

Audre's friends from elementary school and junior and senior high school in Bethesda, Marlyand live in San Francisco. We had been asking for help but finally shouted for it and got it! Dru's "motherlawyer" yahoo group came through with a fabulous house in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. The couple who live there were retired and split their time between their Rockridge house and their house in Bend, OR. When they de-camp for Oregon, they rent their Rockridge house. On our third reconnoiter trip to San Francisco, we connected up with Susan and Brian and saw their house. We made a deal then and there and we were thrilled. 

The ad in the Rockridge News decribes the house as follows: "For Rent: Lovely Rockridge 3 BR-1 ½ BA—Light/Bright Craftsman with modern furnishings. 7 blocks from BART and 10 from UC campus. All utilities and cleaning service included. Available for $3450 from 8/15 to 12/15. 510-653-4813."

The living room with an Al Farrow sculptures on the coffee table and one the mantel

Upstairs were three bedrooms and an office for Dimitri.

The master bedroom in Rockridge

You get the idea....we were very happy with this house!

The backyard of our Rockridge house

And we were happy with the yard too.

On our street there was a flowering jacaranda and from the kitchen window, we had a view of beautiful trumpet flowers. The back yard was beautiful, with lots of flowers and plants. It was warm enough for several lunches al fresco.

Throughout the house, there were orchids growing and they were beautiful. We each had a desk area and there was plenty of room to spread out. Our car was parked in the driveway and we had everything we had been looking for and not finding in San Francisco (at an affordable price).

The bonus of our stay in Rockridge, in addition to all of the restaurants on College Avenue, within walking distance, was that we got to know Oakland and some of Berkeley, while living there. That is a huge bonus we would not have had living in San Francisco!