love that graveyard

I've been back to Mountain View Cemetery every day since Saturday. I do believe it's the best park in the East Bay. It's definitely the nicest cemetery I've seen on the West Coast.

Some tidbits I learned:

• It has a separate section for the First Hebrew Congregation, with some of the oldest gravestones in the yard. Catholics are stored in adjacent St. Mary's.
• Mountain View Cemetery was established in 1863, although some of the tombstones list earlier dates of death. Presumably, they dug up the bodies and buried them again.
• The cemetery was designed by Frederick Law Olsted (of Central Park and Stanford University fame), which begins to explain why it's so beautiful.
• Several local celebrities are buried there, among them Charles Crocker, Robber Baron, and Dr. Samuel Merritt, a 19th-Century Oakland mayor, UC Regent, and philanthropist, who donated the land that became Lake Merritt.

You have to see it yourself next time you're in Oakland. Let me know, and I'll give you a tour.