Dunsmuir Estate

I haven't done much exploring in the southern region of Oakland, but today I got a chance to head down to the Dunsmuir Estate. It's tucked away on the border of Oakland and San Leandro, about 20 minutes away from Berkeley. I was invited by my best friend Emily and her family, who had an extra ticket to tour the house and have afternoon tea. I guess the tea is a special holiday event only held during weekends in December. It was really cute, endless pots of tea with scones, cookies, cucumber sandwiches, lemon tarts, plenty of butter, jam, and even lemon curd.










After tea, we toured the mansion with tons of rooms, lavishly decorated xmas trees in every one. My favorite part was the kitchen: A well-worn floor, humongous wood burning stove complete with gas broiler, and a separate pastry room for baking. It doesn't look large in the picture, but the cast iron skilled and dutch oven look like they would have been weilded by someone very intimidating.
It was a nice day, I even managed to get a little knitting done when we sat down for a bit while chatting. I don't normally go for hoity-toity outings, but the company and pleasant atmosphere was nice for a change.