There's a lot to love about Lake Merritt

OK. It's not really a "lake."
It's called LAKE MERRITT, but the big body of water at the heart of OAKLAND, CALIF., is really a large tidal estuary.
I spent the morning in Oakland -- my birthplace -- after taking BART from San Francisco.
Once arriving in Oakland, I did something for the first time: I walked the complete, 3.5-mile trail around Lake Merritt.
There's a lot of love about Lake Merritt, including the large number of birds that call the lake home (including Canada Geese, herons, cormorants, gulls and the ever-popular American Coot).
It was fun watching toddlers chase the geese while the birds flocked to older folks tossing bread crumbs.
I also spied rowers in the waters during my walk this morning.
Both my parents and my step-father lived near the lake in the years before I came along, and great-looking homes and apartment complexes ring the shore.
When I was a kid, my parents would take me to CHILDREN'S FAIRYLAND, a lakeside park featuring playgrounds, animals and the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States.
I snapped photos of the Children's Fairyland sign and other reminders of my distant past -- and reminders of my love for Lake Merritt -- as I strolled along the trail.