As I often note — it is the basis for my blog, after all — the best way to see a place is on foot. When driving, or even cycling you can often get a quick glimpse of something new or different, but rarely can you stop and really examine what caught your eye. On foot, though, unless you are in a real hurry to get somewhere, you can pause and really study it. And these days, developers like to hide behind mesh-covered chain link fences or papered-over windows, perhaps to establish an air of mystery for whatever it is they are working on. But on occasion, when walking by houses, offices, or retail spaces, I sometimes get lucky and encounter an open door or window that normally is closed. That doesn’t happen often, though, so when passing upcoming restaurants and retail businesses I often stop and spend a bit of time looking for gaps in the fencing or the paper covering the windows.

This week I kinda hit the jackpot with Ocean Oyster Bar & Grill: work was being done to replace the shattered window on the Broadway side of the building, and perhaps to facilitate the work, one of the soon-to-be-open restaurant’s front doors was wide open. I managed to snap a quick photo before someone came along and closed that door:

As you can see, the interior is looking close to done (and looks great!). With that one window now repaired, hopefully the trim around it and the adjoining sidewalk doors can now be applied, finishing the exterior of this new (to Redwood City) restaurant that’s taking The Old Spaghetti Factory’s former space. Ocean’s website still doesn’t indicate just when they think the restaurant might open, but hopefully it can do so soon — perhaps this month.

Speaking of restaurant openings, you may have noticed (or heard) that the Chick-fil-A on Whipple Avenue in Redwood City reopened last Tuesday. I happened to be out walking that day, so I went by and took a couple of pictures. Because it opened relatively quietly, with little fanfare beyond two small clusters of red and white balloons out front, there were very few customers when I went by: just three or four cars in the drive-thru, and two or three more parked in the lot. That enabled me to get a couple of pictures of the revamped drive-thru, like this one which shows how the double drive-thru lanes have been stretched to the very edges of the fast-food restaurant’s property:

Note the blocky trash enclosure that is now located on the inside of the drive-thru lanes; before, it was located at the right edge of the above photograph, up against the back wall of the Arco gas station building.

When I was there the landscapers were still installing plants in front of and along the west side of the property, as people were going through the drive-thru. Normally the landscaping work would have been completed before cars were allowed onto the premises, but I gather that Chick-fil-A wanted to reopen just as soon as humanly possible.

In any case, we can put that project to rest. Hopefully the changes will have the desired effect, and reduce the amount of traffic backing up along Whipple Avenue (and, sometimes, along Veterans Boulevard as well).

From Chick-fil-A I braved the pedestrian crossing at Whipple Avenue (over Highway 101), as it was by far the shortest way out to my next destination, the Century Park 12 Theatres property at 557 E Bayshore Rd. As you may know, that property, which will be getting two large apartment buildings (with a total of 480 for-rent apartments) and a large (just shy of 100,000 square feet) VillaSport athletic club and spa, is in the process of being elevated to combat anticipated sea-level rise. Although the process is relatively simple — the contractors simply bring in a lot of soil and compact it using a variety of heavy equipment, doing so on a site this large — 14.36 acres — makes for an impressive site. The extent of the site raising is often a bit hard to photograph, but this week I noticed several pickup trucks parked on the half of the property that had been raised so far, making it a bit easier to see just how much the site is being elevated:

Getting a good look at the work underway on the former theatre property is hard to do from a car: there is nowhere nearby where one can park, and there is but a single lane in each direction going by the front of the property (I also go around the back, but for that a driver would have no choice but to get out and walk along the path that runs between the property and Bair Island). In contrast, a project that you can see pretty well simply by driving by is the sprucing up of the Sequoia Station Shopping Center, which at the moment mostly consists of repainting the buildings:

The new color certainly makes for a nice change from the dull beige that the center has worn for the last several years. Currently the center seems to be painted in two or three shades of that same beige, whereas in its new incarnation it appears that the store will be painted in pale green with their entrances painted in white, helping to make those entrances and the associated signage stand out more easily:

Back on the east side of the freeway, not having been out there in a while, this week I wandered through Blu Harbor (the large luxury apartment development that replaced the old Pete’s Harbor some years ago). Although little has changed since that place was first built, I was interested to note that the small marina in the center of the complex now appears to be pretty much full:

As a reminder (or as news for those who don’t know about this place), one of the project’s public amenities required by the city was a public ramp for hand-launched watercraft (kayaks, canoes, and the like). Although most of the docks in Blu Harbor’s marina are behind a locked gate, that gate is located past the bottom of the ramp leading to the docks on the north side of the marina. And directly at the bottom of that ramp and before that gate you’ll find the public dock from which we members of the public can launch our small watercraft:

(I say “we,” but I don’t have a kayak or canoe…) I should also note that there are a couple of well-marked public parking spaces quite near this ramp. You’ll find them just in front of the nearby children’s play area.

I find Blu Harbor’s marina an interesting contrast with the one in the middle of the One Marina condominiums, just down the street:

Notice how empty this one is. The big difference, I believe, is that Blu Harbor’s marina is open to anyone willing to pay the fees (and not just to Blu Harbor residents) whereas One Marina’s is only open to those who live in One Marina.

I headed east over the freeway along Whipple Avenue, but I returned using the Highway 101 Pedestrian/Cyclist underpass, which is a far, far safer way to go (it just isn’t as convenient from the Chick-fil-A). I was surprised to see that someone had set up a small homeless encampment right next to the underpass pathway on the freeway’s east side, directly behind Redwood City’s Courtyard by Marriott hotel:

I find it fascinating to see where folks choose to construct these little encampments. Especially when they’ve been moved on from one spot and have to find another. I do have to wonder why they haven’t moved into the county Navigation Center, which is very unlike most other such places. The Navigation Center not only provides secure, single rooms (most with en-suite bathrooms) for residents, it also provides meals and some medical services. And the folks at the Navigation Center aid residents (who can only stay for a couple of months at most) to find more permanent housing. (See my post Navigating the Navigation Center for photos and more information about the center.) Ironically, there is a growing encampment along Maple Street directly behind the Navigation Center itself…

Before I close, in the continuing spirit of the season, while out walking I came across this little display in the 200 block of Iris Street:

Those reindeer (aren’t there supposed to be eight?) are made from wood, and are especially nice. I really appreciate displays like this that are not run-of-the-mill; I’ve never seen one quite like this before. Well done!

Finally, allow me to close with my personal favorite Redwood City holiday decoration, which I passed by on Whipple Avenue early in this week’s walk:

He’s a perennial favorite of mine: he’s been standing atop the entrance to the apartment building at 1141 Whipple Ave. during the holiday seasons for the last several years, at least, and I always keep an eye out for him. There’s something about the idea of a Christmas pig that I find both cute and amusing…