Where am I Now? Palo Alto Again?

Big D was not old enough to understand we were flying on the Disney Plane.

But he loved his Seatbelt

My mom drove a Impala just like this one, just different color.

Bird of Paradise just growing wherever.

A lot of these ground squirrels.The ground squirrels are members of the squirrel family of rodents (the Sciuridae) which generally live on or in the ground, rather than trees. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known as marmots (genus Marmota) or prairie dogs, while the smaller and less bushy-tailed ground squirrels tend to be known as chipmunks. Together, they make up the "marmot tribe" of squirrels, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_squirrel

Drew has seen Canada Geese before but he got really excited about these.

Green Heron

Snowy Egret

Maybe I could rent a sailboat for an hour?

So I went over and you needed a document to show you had a sailing certification before they would allow you to rent a sailboat so I showed them my Boat US insurance card and they took it.

Star of Caddy Shack

One of the local silicon Valley tech company's out doing some team building.

I went down to check out the Catalina 14.2 centerboard sailboats. 

I asked the lady who checked out the boat to me what were the boundaries since I thought the cove was open to San Francisco Bay, but it was not a cove, it is Shoreline Lake.

Just enough wind to be fun.

If this boat comes in a Keel boat model it would be a lot of fun on Corpus Christi Bay.

ShorelineAmohitheatre looks like a lot of fun goes on here. http://www.theshorelineamphitheatre.com/

Google Land

Looks like Google iis having a fun Day, Soccer and lots of other outdoor activities going on this Friday.

19th Avenue San Francisco

Always impressive to drive 

We stopped for some take out tacos at Joe's Taco Lounge in Marin City, this is a must do if you are on this side of the bridge.

Our Destination is the huse just above the home in the foreground, down a 1 lane winding mountain road in Mill Valley

Drew finally gets to visit his Grandparents in Mill Valley

Pappa Tom introduces Drew to Mill Valley and this very special rock.

Resident Red Tail Hawk

Golden Gate Bridge "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world".^[8] It opened in 1937 and had, until 1964, the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet http://goldengatebridge.org/research/ConceptforaBridge.php

One of the most famous sailing waters in the world.

With the big wide sidewalks on each side I think the bridge is wider than I-35 in downtown Austin!

Next time we are gonna take the time to park and walk the bridge.

The Dish Hiking Trail

http://dish.stanford.edu/

It starts up Gradual at first then gets pretty steep, especially if you are pushing a baby stroller up.

Can you hear me know?

Woody

Lots of other types of antennas up there but do not know their purpose.

Thick with Ground squirrels, In west Texas they are called Prairie Dogs

View of the Stanford Campus.

The Dish is a radio telescope in the Stanford foothills. The 150-foot-diameter (46 m) dish was built in 1966 by the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). The cost to construct the telescope was $4.5 million, and was funded by the United States Air Force, with the original purpose of studying the chemical composition of the atmosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dish_(landmark)

Lots of other Antennas, not sure the purpose.

They say on a clear day you can see the entire Silicon Valley The elevation at the top is only 524 feet but it overlooks "The Valley" Silicon Valley is a nickname for the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California in the United States. It is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations, as well as thousands of small startup companies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley

Standford is the engine of the Silicon Valley producing plenty of talented creators who had a great place to get some exercise between the inventing.

Super High End Mall right on the Campus of Stanford, we could Where am I Now?  Palo Alto Again?afford a few bites of Chocolate.

Where am I Now?  Palo Alto Again?

It's our Daughter fault. She had another conference to cover at Stanford so we all packed up and flew the short flight to Palo Alto. This time we stayed in the busy Conference Hotel just across the street from Stanford. The good news is it had a nice pool for Drew so he got a swim in almost every afternoon.
There were a few things that we did not have time to do the last time we were here so we looked forward to taking a few short drives with Drew to explore the area a bit more. The Admiral suggested we go to Shoreline park over in Mountain View (Where Google Headquarters is located) Shoreline is a huge recreational area on the far South end of San Francisco Bay and on the edge of Google Land., We just walked a small bit of it and I had a chance to rent a Catalina 14.2 for a short 1 hour sail on Shoreline Lake.
The other fun day was hiking "The Dish" with Drew. It is a rare thing to see a unfit body anywhere near the Standford Campus, or anywhere in the Silicon Valley. I think part of it is because they have this trail for walking and running, the views are awesome so if you are at all stressed out from your busy day in the Silicon Valley you just stop by here on your way home and all "that" disappears in a hurry. The Dish Loop is 3.3 miles and you run up and then down 524' elevation plus a few shorter ups and downs within the loop. It is written that on a clear day you can see the Silicon valley from San Francisco to the North to San Jose to the South from the top. It was to hazy on our visit but we had some pretty good views for sure.
The downtown Whole Foods was just a 10 minute walk away for lunch or other sustenance and along the way yo get to be immersed in Trendy Town. The street talent is a little more impressive: http://youtu.be/f5x30mgW2lQ . Our trip this time extended from Marin, Ca to San Jose, CA and several points between, I now have a more complete understanding of the boundaries for the "Silicon Valley".