Dinah's Garden Hotel & Trader Vic's Palo Alto

Sunday found us having to change campgrounds. Here's a little run down on how we 'work' our bay area visits. We belong to Thousand Trails Naco (TTN) , which is a membership camping organization. The main reason we belong is because they operate one of the closest campgrounds to our old home in Livermore. This 'close' campground is in Manteca. We are able to stay in each TTN park for 3 weeks ...

Wednesday 22 October - Los Altos & Palo Alto Our next port of call was Los Altos (the posh area next to Mountain View) to see Jane & her family. We have known Jane since I worked for Nestar Inc. in Palo Alto back in 1984. The weather was fabulous for October - a real Indian summer (or should that be "Native American Summer" to be politically correct?) so we hiked a bit, but mainly chatted & did breakfasts in the sun. Jane organized a get ...

Blog Hello, So I realise that this blog hasnīt really kicked off. Iīm feeling a bit like I should be working a lot of the time, so there is more guilt than usual associated with writing. But hereīs a wee update. Iīve had an interesting week as far as getting the final stuff put together for data collection, itīs a lot of stuff thatīs totally new to me so Iīm learning more than just the science for sure. As much as Stanford feel a bit like a holiday camp (in the vain of ...

... operate more efficiently and effectively. Perhaps my sentiments are a little magnified by the fact that I listened to our retard of a president's speach on the way to the city on NPR. That man is such a poor speaker, it's simply embarassing. Anyway, enough *****ing. I had a lovely dinner and evening with Devon last night, which made up for the poor morning. Weird that it's my last day in this country for a while. Bring it on, 20 hours of travel!

the morning is still among the city buzz. But within the hour, the stampeding feet of excited children will fill each room, hockey pucks will blaze by faces, games will be scattered across the floor and lego fortresses will be proudly built. But now the building hangs as silent as the morning fog that lingers through the city streets. In these moments I have learned the power of silence and centering prayer. That in even these five minutes, my mind is re-focused ...

... Down along Mission a street preacher and his congregation are proselytising in Spanish and English, in that order. It is an older poorer community and evangelism down here is still of the roaring soapbox variety. The menus are all in Spanish by default and the burritos are immense, the football visible on screens in every corner of the restaurant. This is the closest SF gets to inexpensive, but even there in the very heart of it on Valencia a community of ...

... your best interest to investigate Priceline & Hotwire. We got a little car from Budget for half the price ($15) and then headed for downtown to see the sights. Our day was pretty typical of most tourists to San Fran. We hit Fisherman's Wharf, ate some sourdough bread with red clam chowder, drove through Golden Gate Park and took a cruise of the Golden Gate Bridge & Alcatraz. That ...

... I felt bad for him, but I also knew that all I could give was some attention by listening to him. I am not the kind of person to give stupid advice if I don't know what I am dealing with. Obviously I didn't know yet what it was to deal with someone's suicide, so I decided to shut up but listen to him and show him my support in the saddest days. When I left he told me that he was glad he could talk to me 'cause I was not commenting every three words, and he was ...

... and the Streetcar and some famous winding street and Union Square again... But I can feel the hard bus stop seat under my bum. I can feel the sun try and chase away the chill of the wind as I pet a poor blind dog stationed at a makeshift tour booth. Coming out of the chocolate shops, I see peppermint striped candy wrappers collecting at the base of a fountain. I see an old woman fumbling with her keys under the rusted fire escape as she lets ...

... He laughed and took one with us and then a few more. His name was Christophe, he wore glasses and liked to work on computers. We had a good time with him and at some point our tylenol pm kicked in and we were out for the rest of the flight.