Oakland Bloggers on a Layover

I love the name:  The Layover.  Such a cute name for such a cute place.  Plus, I love to travel, so it's right up my alley.  It's also right around the corner from the store at 1517 Franklin, where there used to be this seedy kinda dive bar called Pat's that I always crossed the street to avoid walking in front of.  (Is that mean?)

I was invited to The Layover for The Blogoaksphere Party (a blogalicious networking event for Oakland bloggers) by a Mystery Person(ette) named V smoothe, who is spearheading the Blogoaksphere Food Drive and who I later met (love her), along with bartendress and co-owner* RaeAnn, Councilmember at Large Rebecca Kaplan (that's us in the picture above that really isn't blurry; it's just that your eyes are bad), her Chief of Staff Andre Jones, Oakland Advocate and Lakeshore's Pamela Drake, and Abel Habtegeorgis of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.  I pulled my friend Kevin Skipper along, a downtown Oakland real estate dude that has a new blog coming out called Mr. Oakland Speaks, ordered a $2 club soda, chit chatted, and took in the fun new vibe at this new local lounge (with a new art gallery next door opening tonight!) that is less than 50 (okay, 100) steps away from my front door.  Ooo chee wah wah!  When you're in the need of a layover, you should definitely check it out.

*Other co-owners of The Layover are Tim, Christi & Zack.