(I think our recent excellent weather — which has my wife and I spending more and more time outdoors — is putting Beach Boys songs in my head. Thus this week’s title.)

This week I bounced around the city, checking in on some of the usual spots as well as (thanks to my car, I must admit) taking a look at some parts of the city I don’t get to nearly as often. But first, this week I noticed that Redwood City’s Argentinian bakery, Baires Bakery — in the old Brick Monkey space downtown at the corner of Broadway and Winslow Street — has closed. It may have closed a week or two ago, but just today I noticed the rather prominent “for lease” signs in its windows:

Baires opened its doors on October 7 of last year, so the venture didn’t last more than about six months. Whatever the reason for its rather swift closure, I truly regret that Baires didn’t make it; I certainly enjoyed the items I purchased there. But Baires may have had a tough time competing with Mademoiselle Colette, the French patisserie located directly across the street. And as my wife pointed out, Baires suffered from a lack of outdoor seating; it had some nice tables inside, but those of us who prefer to sit outdoors on a nice sunny day (like we’ve been experiencing lately) had no good options.

On the subject of closures, last month Google, who owns the majority of the Pacific Shores office complex at the end of Seaport Boulevard, announced that it is putting three of its buildings — 1500 Seaport, 1700 Seaport and 1800 Seaport — up for lease. Google has been freeing up excess office space all around the city, and these three buildings are just the latest, it seems. At one time Google occupied six of the buildings at Pacific Shores. It isn’t clear whether they now occupy any space at all in the complex.

On a somewhat cheerier note, I spent a little time the other day walking around the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center project (along Madison Avenue in Red Morton Park) and continue to see good progress being made. The “promenade” along the southwestern side of the building looks pretty much done, with landscaping and lighting now in place:

The steel frame for the pergola-like structure that will stand between this building and the upcoming next-door YMCA building was being welded up while I was there (it is visible in the center of the above photograph), so that part is not yet done. Nor is the landscaping along the Madison Avenue side of the building, or the surface parking lot that will be located on the northeast side of the Senior Center — although that lot appears to be otherwise ready for its final surface (asphalt, I presume):

With some of the building’s large window/doors open to allow some fresh air inside, I was able to get a nice glimpse of the ground-floor multi-purpose/dining room, which looks about ready for use:

That’s going to be a lovely space, especially when the windows are wide open like this and people are enjoying meals at both indoor and outdoor tables.

Over on the east side of Highway 101, the project to rebuild Redwood City’s sewer conveyance pump station at the end of Maple Street has apparently been completed. The portable crane and the other pieces of heavy equipment that were being used over the past year or so to completely rebuild this vital component of the city’s infrastructure are all gone, and except for one or two bits of temporary construction fencing, you’d never know that a project had been underway there recently:

Just across Maple Street, the city-owned parcel that had been used by the project’s contractors for the staging of materials and equipment has similarly been cleaned up, and shows no signs of the project:

This now-empty parcel at 1580 Maple St., if you don’t know (or simply don’t recall), used to be home to the women’s jail (and, later, was a LifeMoves transitional housing facility). It is slated to become the site of a new 110-unit affordable housing project, to be developed and run by MidPen Housing. That project is still in the application phase, though; it has yet to be considered for approval by the city.

Likely related to the conveyance pump station rebuild projects (there have been a handful, going on in various communities served by Silicon Valley Clean Water), there is a large project underway out at SVCW’s wastewater treatment facility at the end of Radio Road in Redwood Shores:

I can’t get any closer to this one than you can see in the above photo, but I believe it is part of the project to replace the facility’s entire “conveyance system,” a major component of which was the installation of a new main supply pipe beneath (and for nearly the entire length of) Redwood Shores Parkway.

Returning to the subject of affordable housing, the former hotel-turned-affordable-senior-housing facility at 1000 Twin Dolphin Dr. (a Project Homekey success that is being run by MidPen Housing) is undergoing a bit of an upgrade. A new community center has just been built on part of the parking lot right in front of the main building:

And a former planting area that ran down the center of the parking lot has been widened, apparently to be turned into an outdoor rest and relaxation space for the building’s residents. In the middle of this new space, though, a rather odd-looking structure is being constructed:

At first I thought perhaps it would be a bathroom, but I can see no evidence of the necessary plumbing. Now I’m thinking it is a storage shed, perhaps for a barbecue? I would have said it is a transit stop, except for the fact that it is located in an area where vehicles will not be able to go. Regrettably, the building permit for the entire project doesn’t go into sufficient detail for me to know for sure. In any case, I’ll know soon enough: I’m at this site every week, delivering for Meals on Wheels.

Sticking with Redwood Shores, some time ago I had noticed some work being done at the northern end of the parking lot for the Redwood Shores branch of the Redwood City Public Library (at the corner of Marine Parkway and Bridge Parkway). This week I checked back, and it turns out that the work was being done to install a terrific new outdoor “fitness court”:

The court consists of seven separate “stations,” each consisting of a couple of static, stationary pieces of equipment that one uses to do prescribed exercises. A sign adjacent to the court illustrates the exercises one is to do at each station:

But of course, there is a smartphone app that not only shows you how to do each exercise, but tracks your activity. So check it out! I know I plan to (I wasn’t prepared to do a workout when I discovered this, but I intend to return after preparing appropriately).

Lastly, some stickers have started appearing on the ground in downtown Redwood City (these two can be found at either end of the crosswalk across Main Street close to The Baker Next Door). One has a QR code that enables your phone to pull up a map of downtown Redwood City’s dining establishments:

It takes you here. The other helps you install the RWC Tours app, with which you can explore downtown Redwood City’s wealth of public art as well as see and learn about Redwood City’s fascinating history:

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On Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Belmont Senior & Community Center in Twin Pines Park, the county is holding an “ADU Fair” to introduce interested homeowners to the idea of adding an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to their property. In attendance will be some two dozen vendors with whom you can talk, and there will be some brief presentations on what you can build, on ADU designs, and on financing. Finally, locations of some ADUs that attendees can then tour (in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, San Jose, and Campbell) will be provided. The event is free, but you need to obtain advance tickets (numbers are limited). Go to this EventBrite page for details and a link to obtain those tickets.

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The Redwood City Education Foundation is holding its Redwood City Wine Walk on Wednesday, May 14. This event allows participants to “sip, stroll, and support education!” The event lasts four hours, and runs from 5 – 9 p.m. (check-in — in front of the downtown public library — runs from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m., so there seems to be a lot of flexibility regarding times). Additional details and tickets (which cost $40 each) are available from this EventBrite page.