alameda point antiques faire: antiquing by the bay in nor cal

happy monday and greetings again from san fran! i’ve got a nice window before changing hotels and have a little time to post about yesterday’s shopping extravaganza.

my girl lynn picked me up at 5:30 am to hit the once monthly alameda flea market, (aka, antiques by the bay), touted as the largest antique market  in cali. the rumors were not greatly exaggerated, it was staggering! it’s held in a vacant, sprawling (like miles big) abandoned naval ship yard. it’s organized in alphabetical rows and each dealer has a number. it’s probably a 1/2 mile wide and goes into double letters. if that’s not enough, there are two michaan’s auctions happening down the road once you leave!

i do find everything in california to be big. the people are larger than life, the foliage, the fleas! my college roomie, mb (above left) and her girl kim knew the drill and met up with us. we were about 10 rows apart for most of the morning they finally caught up to us when lynn and i got sucked into a time warp for at least an hour.

we stumbled onto a stack of the new york times from an old library. they were enormou volumes of the actual papers from the 1920s through 40s. the were so heavy and beautiful, bound in canvas. leafing through them was true time travel.

how approps

you can click to enlarge

quel vie! the stars of broadway: charlie chaplin, clara bow and john barrymore

i could have stayed forever.  it was just an eye opener to see in the flesh, in such a tangible way, that some things don’t change.

especially black and white fashions from paris!

the want ads were all consuming!

the empire state building was almost ready for occupancy!

we finally made it out of and back into the light of day.  it’s a great market for sellers cause it’s only one day and everyone knows it’s now or never. there’s no contemplation. if you want it, gotta get it cause someone else will if you don’t! going early, everyone was really negotiable and the prices were great. i’ll do another post featuring some of the vendors cause this is a market to visit if the stars are aligned when you’re here.

lynn says there’s an influx of french influence in sf lately and we did see a lot from france.

it’s wild how an entire event is set up in a day and broken down. it’s like magic.

lisa goligtly down in row x sure contributes to the magic. below is her pretty glowing booth. (she turned the lights on but i didn’t take a pic, duh)!

and it’s incredibly organized.  you write down your aisle and booth number, pay for your stash and then go get a cart to gather it all up. then someone gets the car and you load up.  ikea style.

we decided it’s the ultimate recycling program  and it was so much fun to do it with someone so in the know. thanks for the day girl, i’ll treasure it!

by the by, lynn bought the ny times books, (the best ones at that)! so check her site out for them.

ok gotta switch hotels and clients coming in, more soon!