(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

(Andrew Jorgensen / Oakland Museum of California)

(Momo Chang/For The Times)

(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)

(David M. Barreda / Los Angeles Times)

A treasure trove of works and exhibitions focusing on the Golden State, the Oakland Museum of California near Lake Merritt is a beloved local space. Its interactive exhibits are both thought-provoking and hyperlocal. “You Are Here: California Stories on the Map” extrapolates the stories that can be found with maps, including one made by community members of Little Tokyo Los Angeles at a time when many residents were being displaced. “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” celebrates the work of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard with a landmark retrospective. And don’t miss the exhibit on the Ohlone people in OMCA’s Gallery of California History.

The museum is popular among families — there’s a “nature playspace” where the littlest guests can walk through a metal culvert and play with pretend food, along with outdoor spaces like a California native garden that represents the biodiversity of the state. Save time to indulge in the 24-hour-brined Southern fried chicken at the museum’s award-winning restaurant,

helmed by chef Michele McQueen, and for some pre-weekend fun, Friday Nights at OMCA is a chill event featuring local musicians, food trucks and live performances.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu is Oakland’s hometown hero — and the city now has three murals to prove it. The newest is outside the Oakland Ice Center, her home practice facility, and across the street from Oakland School for the Arts, where she briefly attended school. The sprawling work of art, completed in April by by Half Moon Bay artist Julie Engelmann (who honed her craft in an Oakland studio herself), celebrates both Liu and fellow Bay Area figure skating star Kristi Yamaguchi. It depicts the two skaters in motion during their Olympic gold medal performances — Yamaguchi’s in 1992 in Albertville, France; Liu’s at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games — both embraced by gold glimmers of light that make the mural seem like it’s illuminated.

Engelmann, known for her realistic, historical murals across Bay Area cities, writes that the wall represents “more than gold.”

“It’s about where greatness begins, on neighborhood rinks, in community, in the belief that something bigger is possible,” she says. “This piece is for the next generation, with the hope that this wall stands as a reminder that excellence can rise from anywhere.”

If you’re now inspired to take an Alysa Liu Oakland mural tour, there’s one by the Illuminaries street art crew in the Temescal neighborhood and another by Tre Sorensen along Providence Athletic Club.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

While most out-of-towners visit Muir Woods in Marin County, Oakland has its own majestic redwood forests in the hills. Make time for some forest bathing in one of the Bay Area’s most stunning parks, home to native coast redwoods. A favorite path is Stream Trail, a flat 4-mile walk that passes by the fascinating ladybug migration from late October through February. That’s when thousands, if not millions, of ladybugs congregate on leaves and fence posts (be sure not to touch or collect any).

When visiting the park after it rains, look for the running Redwood Creek and small, seasonal waterfalls throughout the trails. Use the community science app iNaturalist developed by UC Berkeley alum, to help ID plants as you explore. While the area has paved paths, beware of poison oak and ticks.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

Learn the history of a political organization born in Oakland and that inspired lasting structural changes. The free and compact Black Panther Party Museum, located in downtown Oakland, goes beyond the headlines, highlighting lesser-known information about the Black Panthers, like how their efforts helped start the national school breakfast program and prompted research on sickle cell anemia. For the community, it’s become a gathering space — events this year have included a communal reflection on “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” by Audre Lorde and a gathering for what would have been the 40th birthday of Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by a BART police officer in 2009.

What makes the museum stand out is that it is made by members of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party Museum was founded by the Huey P. Newton Foundation with a goal of ensuring that the legacy of its founders and history lives on “despite COINTELPRO, the FBI’s program to discredit, disrupt, and destroy, Black leaders.” The museum is closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

(Clay Williams / Wahpepah’s Kitchen)

Chef Crystal Wahpepah has brought one of the best Native American-owned restaurants to the West Coast. Nestled in Oakland’s Fruitvale, a historically Latinx neighborhood, Wahpepah’s Kitchen beckons with bright yellow and teal walls, a mural that depicts “Indigenous Food Warriors” and the Kickapoo phrase “A ho pi ti ke no” — welcome — written on a board above the counter. Wahpepah serves up traditional fare like deer sticks, purple blue corn bread, seasonal Native salads dressed with fiddleheads and edible flowers, while sharing the history of Oakland’s Native American communities. Earlier this year, the chef released a cookbook, “

,” a project that “belongs to the beautiful community that raised me and the ones who believe in indigenous food, storytelling and food sovereignty,” she

.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

Though Oakland has several significant live entertainment venues — the revived Oakland Arena, the Art Deco stunner Paramount Theatre and the 1920s movie house-turned-creative hub Fox Theater — Yoshi’s takes the cake as far as comfort and acoustics in an intimate setting. One of the premier jazz clubs in the Bay Area, Yoshi’s opened in 1972 as a Berkeley sushi bar and eventually moved to this location in Oakland’s Jack London Square in 1997. Wynton Marsalis, Norah Jones, Tony! Toni! Toné! and Goapele are just a few to have graced its stage.

One thing that sets Yoshi’s apart is its merging of music and Japanese cuisine. Its attached restaurant features traditional Japanese seating with tatami floors (where shoes must be removed), as well as regular tables and bar seating. Opt for hearty dishes like the edamame risotto with seared scallops or spicy miso chicken or sushi rolls ranging from classic to inventive (like the “49ers” with snow crab, avocado and salmon). After dinner, make your way to your seats in the club as you listen to the grooves of Rose Royce, Kamasi Washington or any other artists on Yoshi’s stacked lineup.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

The nation’s largest saltwater tidal lake and the crown jewel of Oakland has cleaned up in recent years, thanks in part to a city bond measure. Lake Merritt is now an active science lab with volunteers and staff constantly measuring its oxygen and pollution levels, salinity and other markers of health.

That’s great news for all who gather here — and that’s a big chunk of Oakland. Around the lake, you’ll see people from all walks of life: folks in a drum circle, Gen Zers having a dance party, local artists and
street vendors hawking snacks, jewelry, crystals and fresh-squeezed juices.

Lake Merritt is perfect for a stroll, jog or bird-watching adventure around its 3.4-mile circumference (the lake is home to the country’s first designated wildlife refuge, with over 100 species of birds). Stop by the thriving community garden and bonsai exhibit (one bonsai is estimated to be over 1,600 years old). For spectacular views of the Oakland skyline, including the iconic Tribune Tower, visit the Lake Chalet restaurant’s deck. And for those who prefer to be on the water, the

offers kayak and pedal boat rentals.

(Momo Chang / For The Times)

(Soba Ichi)

(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)

This 10-acre garden wonderland, nestled around Oakland’s urban sanctuary of Lake Merritt, has maintained one core rule since it opened its gates on Sept. 2, 1950: “No child without an adult, and no adult without a child.” For Children’s Fairyland aims to show the world through the eyes of a young’un — a place filled with curiosity but also perhaps a bit off-kilter, where one can walk into a whale and find a fishbowl, slide down a dragon and get lost in an “Alice in Wonderland” maze of cards.

And yet, for more than 75 years now, Fairyland has had a grown-up-sized influence. Fairyland is considered the first “storybook”-style park in the country, launching a national fad. Legend has it that Walt Disney visited Fairyland while Disneyland was in the planning stages and was so taken with it that he poached some staff.

Decades later, you can still enjoy the hand-painted delights. Stroll a path and look down and spy some smiling sunflowers hidden in the bushes. There are fun house mirrors, a whimsical train and a mechanical Geppetto waving in a workshop. To enter Fairyland, and it’s estimated that about 150,000 people do each year, is to not just set foot into an artful fantasyland but to also step back in time.