The Redwood Heights district of Oakland is located in the Oakland foothills between Highway 13 and Highway 580, and recently has been overlooked by many buyers. This neighborhood is comprised of Tudor, Mid-Century, and Meditterean homes, with a great group of homeowners ranging from people who have lived here from the 1950's to people just moving in. Being that I live in this community, I love walking my neighborhood and waiving at the familiar faces. One of the big assets of my neighborhood is the public elementary school, Redwood Heights. At this school parents are active, the school is beautiful and I personally enjoy sending my children to the school that both my mother, aunt and I attended. Every year the PTA hosts, The Harvest For Learning Auction, the biggest fundraiser for the school. The beauty of this auction is the parent participation. Parents host all sorts of parties and folks who attend the auction can purchase tickets on a first come first serve basis. This past auction, I purchased tickets to the second annual Redwood Heights Oaktown Scavenger Hunt. This was a well organized scavenger hunt in which participants where divided into teams of 4 members each. Each group was given the same list of approximately 40 clues or tasks, (For example, one of the tasks was to take a picture of a couple kissing. We thought it would be fun to get Bakesale Betty's proprietors, Betty and Michael to kiss, as Bakesale Betty is an Oakland icon. See the photo above and remember we have to be in the picture!) Each team had one digital camera and two hours to obtain photos at as many locations as possible from the list of tasks. There were strict rules, points would be deducted if you returned beyond the designated two hours, absolutely no cell phones or internet access to give you aid in finding obscure locations, and each photo had to have at least 3 out of the 4 team members in the photograph. Teams would get extra credit if all four members were in the picture, so aggressive teams asked strangers to take their photo.
Equipped with sneakers, a water bottle and my three teammates, Lili, Kimberly and Tim, we were driven to win this competition. We had such a great time, saw many places in Oakland and were crowned the champions!
