Where in CA might this be?

This is a photo of my mother, her younger sister, her mother, and a man who was probably her father. He died long before I was born and my grandparents were divorced while my mother was fairly young, so I'm not 100% sure about it being him.

I feel pretty certain the photo was taken in California since they lived there at the time and I don't believe they traveled out of state. My grandfather had a house in Oakland so I think it's likely it's from there or San Francisco, or somewhere else in that general area.

He also had a farm in Merced, but it seems less likely to me that the photo was taken there, especially since there's a large body of water in the background with houses right on it. I'm thinking that's most likely a bay or ocean view?

The photo would have been taken circa 1920.

Can anyone help pin down the location more than that? Thanks!

 

Here's a larger image, in case that will help in viewing the houses in the background.

Oh, and any guesses about what my grandmother was holding? She's wearing a hat, so I assume it isn't a hat.

 

No idea about the "where", but as to the object... could it be a muffler, carried by ladies of the day to warm hands and stash stuff?
Beautiful picture!

 

Could she be resting her hands on a stroller? I see a line extending from near her hand to the ground like a bar you would see on a stroller. Your mother is holding a balloon in front of it, whatever "it" is.

 

I think the cat has it!

 

Loro-rico is on exactly the right track -- looks like a Persian lamb muff.

I'm sure you already knew it, but it's the little girl on the left's balloon which has "floated" in front of the bottom of the muff.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

 

Thanks for all the replies and help!

I think I'm now seeing what you're seeing... my mother, on the left, is holding a darker balloon and that's the shiny round thing.

My grandmother is either holding a baby carriage, or her hands are in a muff. I'm kind of thinking's it's more likely a muff 'cause my mother was 7 and her sister 5 when my grandmother's next child, my uncle, was born. Don't they look a little younger than that in the photo? I was thinking they were maybe 5 and 3 in the photo, or maybe 6 and 4? That would date the photo to 1920 or 1921.

Come to think of it, the man could be my grandmother's second husband, who was my uncle's father. He also died young, so I never met him, either.

 

It looks like a lake front as opposed to the ocean.

 

Nice image! Since the girls have balloons, it looks like a special outing.

 

FWIW, I agree on muff. Below the balloon, I see your mother's skirt and at the very bottom a little bit of her legs or rather her ankles. Have no idea on shoreline. It looks like either a lake or a wide river. Following are a couple of edited pics that helped on seeing below the balloon, but no help on IDing the shoreline for me.

--- Susan



Click this pic for a wide view:

 

I'm guessing a lake because there is little elevation between the structures and the water.

 

Thanks, Fig. It does look like it was a special day, doesn't it?

I found other photos where the clothes and balloons were the same, so assume they're all from the same day. On the back of one of the photos someone wrote that it was taken in a park in Oakland, so I assume the photo I posted was also taken in Oakland.

It could be the water in the background is San Francisco Bay.

 

Oops, I didn't see the replies from Susan or King before I posted. Thanks!

I'm going to do a little Google maps exploring along the SF Bay shoreline if possible to see if anything looks like in the photo. Who knows, I may actually find something!

 

Susan, forgot to say that I agree that my grandmother's legs are showing at the bottom, below my mother's balloon. I think that confirms that my grandmother's holding a muff.

I think I've identified the probable location... Lake Merritt in Oakland. I "walked" all around the lake using Google Maps, but couldn't find any buildings that looked like the ones in the photo. It's been almost 100 years, so I imagine there's been tremendous changes.

 

I had looked at Lake Merritt in Oakland yesterday. I was looking for old photos that might have any building that looked similar, but didn't find anything. That might be it, though.

 

Took me a while to remember, and then to research, but that looks like Adams Point (Lake Merrit) in the background - particularly off to (our) left. It has changed CONSIDERABLY since WWII

 

Found this page with old postcards at Lake Merritt. I looked through all and didn't see this exact view, but some look close. I think it's likely to be it.

http://www.alamedainfo.com/Oakland_CA_pg_2.htm

 

Forgot to mention - its the band stand that jogged the old, seldom used, dormant, memory cells........................