Richmond Community Events | San Francisco on the Bay

Pixar Animates Cities on San Francisco Bay

Pixar & The Incredibles Partner with Emeryville Unified School District -Debby Coleman, Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar & The Incredibles Partner with Emery Unified School District in 2006 in Emeryville -Debby Coleman, Pixar Animation Studios

You can’t help but thank Pixar for its gift to kids and our entertainment world, as well as waking up our lives. This summer you can revisit their animated films and then tour locations around the San Francisco Bay visiting landmarks that for specific reasons are included in Pixar’s productions. Seeing an icon from your hometown really personalizes the company and the film for those of us who live in shoreline cities.

Here are a few locations:

Emeryville and Pixar University – in Cars, Toy Story 3 and The Incredibles with many Emeryville streets in the opening scene;
Fenton’s Creamery on Piedmont Ave in Oakland – in Up;
Grand Lake Theater in Oakland – in Up;
Hidden City Cafe in Point Richmond – in Monsters, Inc. and in trailers for WALL-E! and Toy Story 2; and
West Cutting Blvd in Richmond – in both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3

Find out why these locations are included in the productions!

Windsurfing evolves as Kiteboarding on San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay – Courtesy of Scuttlebutt Sailing News

In the 1980s, many of us poured onto local beaches in the early misty morning fog to try our hand at windsurfing lessons. I found myself caught up in a wind off the Alameda shore at Crown Beach, dangerously surfing to San Francisco solo – the rest of my class far behind and clustered close to the shore. After the rescue, I gained more control and stayed in sight of my instructor, finally passing all the tests for certification. The next day I went out in the same water and was hit by such horrific winds that I could not maneuver my board, even though I was certified! That was the beginning and end of the sport for me. Since then, Windsurfing, its gear and competitions evolved, and many experts moved on to hydrofoil Kiteboarding or Sailboarding.

Keeping pace with the changes, a local San Francisco Bay windsurfer turned kiter, who is gaining proficiency at “foiling” on SF Bay, tells his story of the evolution.