Oakland Esturary Watermelon Rock for stripers at high tide 12 noon

Frank when you want to keep it secret change the name.
Watermelon Rock
   
    It is a most unlikely piece of public art, a generous slice of watermelon, just lying there on the shoreline of San Leandro Bay, lapped by the tidal waters. Sometimes it is nearly submerged. Other times, it is perched high and dry above the bay.
    Painted on a large half-round piece of concrete that was dumped there to bolster the shoreline sometime after World War II, the watermelon rock has been a fixture on the waterway between the Oakland International Airport and Alameda for at least 30 years now.
    It’s a folksy reminder that you’re almost home to Alameda, if you’re coming back from Costco or San Leandro. Kids like to make a game of it: Who’s the first in the car to spot the watermelon rock?
But the rock is a mystery, too. Who painted it? Who has repainted it over the past three decades? Why don’t you ever see anyone in the act of painting it? And why a watermelon, for Pete’s sake?
    Joan Suzio, supervisor of the East Bay Regional Park District’s Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park, which includes the watermelon rock, laughs when she is asked about it.
    “I actually don’t know who painted it,” she says. “I never see anybody out there.”
The artists at Frank Bette Center for the Arts have a similar reaction. “We’re stumped,” says one. “Big mystery.”
    Some remember that the watermelon rock was once accompanied by the Swiss cheese rock, a rock painted to look like—you guessed it—Swiss cheese. That rock, however, disappeared during the widening of Doolittle Drive several years ago.
    The watermelon rock has its naysayers, however. Last summer, someone called Suzio to complain that it looked like garbage and marred the beauty of the shoreline. Suzio refused to remove it, and soon after, she noticed the rock had been painted black.
    That could have been the end of the story, but it’s not. Within days, the rock had been repainted as a lovely orange wedge (or lemon wedge, some people thought). Drivers on Doolittle Drive noted the change in fruit, smiled to think the watermelon rock was now a citrus rock and kept going.
    But that’s not the end of the story, either.
    Within days of being painted as an orange (or lemon) wedge, the rock showed up one morning sporting its historic colors: red fruit, black seeds and a blackish-greenish rind. The watermelon rock was back.
    And as far as Suzio is concerned, the watermelon rock stays. “It’s part of the shoreline. I wouldn’t undo it. It just speaks to the past.”                 
 

                                             


 That's good Knowledge..... Amen

dam, i need to visit this internet place more often....had i known of this trip, i woulda brought the beer, just to have some company and to sponge up some local knowledge. Ilive a stones throw from the Fruitvale bridge(sticking with the Theme).btw, there are many artist/urban hippy types inhabiting "warehouse/loft space/communes, such as the Vulcan, the Dutch Boy and the Cannery, very near this sacred altar. many of these stoners are dedicated to urban art. these my be the "keepers of the Rock"

There is a small lagoon at the base of Mt Trashmore that has two outlets into the Estuary that can be pretty good when the current is running out especially at nite.

Could this be some kind of East Bay Stonehenge??? 

Nice article you found there, Mike.  I could remember that the rock had a companion (the cheese), but for the life of me could not recall what it was.   

HaHa, you called it mount trashmore.  No offense, but you're the oldest person I've ever heard use that name.  I vaugely remember trips to that dump when I was just a wee sprout.

Okay, enough of this.  Anymore and I might get all  .   

Hey Nate ghfuah blal he chaduduh chee hugh weh chee keh xooo hee hoh
I remember about 20 years ago when they rebuilt the BFI Bridge they uncovered part of the old dump and we dug for bottles we were filling boxes everynite after work with bottles from the 1800s. I hooked up with a dealer and made enough for the down on my first house on Clinton St. 1 block south of the Hosp. right on the lagoon was fishing Stripers in my back yard.
hrrea kcun bahg bumpt

Frank, ye of great stones with the likeness of watermelons,
come forth with your knowledge gained from this sacred pilgrimage to seas near the Land of Oak.
Hath your journey been fruitful with the great watery fruit spilling forth its striped treasure upon your ark?

ghfuah blal he chaduduh chee hugh weh chee keh xooo hee hoh

  Yeah, like that.

The area of the almighty watermelon produced two flashes of the ray variety in the 40 lb class. May try again today with a 4.6 tide GG at 1306hrs. Will be warshipping at least two hours before tide comes in. Frank

You need to burn some homage to the FishGods!     before even baiting up.
DIDN'TyouLEARNanythingONourTRIP!