Stanford & Museum of Computer History

We also went to Stanford University a few times while Alex's mum was here. In fact we got quite into it, with tours of the Rodin sculptures at the Art centre, a student-led tour of the university highlights and lunches at the campus coffee house. It's a really beautiful campus, with lots of sandstone buildings with terracotta roofs (I've since been lucky enough to fly over the university and it looks like a lovely old mediterranean village from above). It has a very sad history - the wealthy Stanford family founded the university over a hundred years ago (making it a pretty historic place by American standards) to honour their son who died aged fifteen on a european tour. Stanford University is very wealthy and influential in the area, it owns over 8,000 acres adjacent to Palo Alto including a shopping mall.

We also went to the Museum of Computer History which was absolutely awesome. Lots of old computers and alpha geeks.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/12StanfordTrips#

Trip to Carmel and Monteray

Finally catching up on posts from the end of last year...

We took a trip to Carmel in December with Alex's mum Carol. We had a wonderful time, we stayed in a place that looked like somewhere Snow White would honeymoon, and to boot it had a free wine and cheese reception, so Alex was happy too. We stumbled across the most amazing Italian restaurant, and Ruth was a very good baby who slept in her pram despite the raucous surroundings. The highlight was a visit to the Monteray aquarium, which was just the most lovely place. We loved the jellyfish room, which had huge backlit tanks and ambient music.


More photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/viewAlbum?uname=gawley&aid=5413817583678096593&pli=1

Happy New Year!

More Christmas photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/Christmas2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnyqYyqubvgwgE#

Hello all

We've now moved into our new place and have mostly unpacked.  We really love the house and the area, we've been enjoying walking around finding nice little cafes and parks.

Our first Christmas out here has been great - our first Christmas together just the three of us, starting our own traditions.  We started off with a big breakfast and marathon Skyping, followed by a long walk around the Baylands park near our house.  This is a big marshy flatland at the south end of San Francisco bay, which looks a lot like Chichester Harbour in places and even has Brent geese.  The weather was incredible, very bright sunshine, there were people (braver than us) walking along in shorts and t-shirts.  Then Ruth had her nap while we got started on the champagne and grown-up presents, so we could focus on her presents when she woke up.  She has got a little play room in our new place, which is now filled with all her new toys - thank you everyone.   We had our big meal in the evening - chicken with lots of pigs-in-blankets, Paxo stuffing (from the British shop) followed by Pippa's yule log.

On Boxing day we set off to Tahoe, the nearest big mountains and ski resort about four hours away.  We stayed with some friends in a little chalet, where we ate lots and played silly games, and had a hot tub under the stars (not so good for the carbon footprint really).

We've just celebrated New Year's Eve at home, and we are looking forward to all that 2010 has to offer (first flying lesson tomorrow! :D ).  Here's wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year - looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love

Pippa, Alex and Ruth xxx

In case you wondered what Alex did all day...

Today Alex had a product launch which made it onto the official Google blog, which is a big deal:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/11/get-mobile-coupons-through-local-search.html

Tomorrow, the world....

Our new home

After two weekends of traipsing around the Valley getting more and more disillusioned about property prices (makes London seem quite reasonable!), we have finally found a lovely home in Palo Alto.

It is a late example an Eichler, a type of modernist-style 60s building with lots of plate glass and wood, which we swore we would avoid last weekend having decided they were "just weird". However, although this one looks like something the Thunderbirds would use a base from the outside:


View Larger Map

... on the inside it is big and filled with light.


There are two main living spaces which open out onto a central paved area a.k.a. the "barbeque zone", which leads to the garden which has plenty of room for climbing frames.






The kitchen is really big, with a gas stove (yipee - this is unusual in rentals, which have often featured the original 60s electric bakelite stove and oven), and room for the dining table.




Our bedroom also opens out onto the central courtyard. There are three more bedrooms, which are all rather tiny, but fine for little Ruth and visitors. The bathrooms and fittings are all a bit dated, but perfectly functional.

The house is on a quiet tree-lined street in Palo Alto, half-an-hour's walk from both the downtown and midtown areas with nice cafes and shops, and it is close to all the classes and playgroups I have found this last week with Ruth. It is just under four miles cycle to Google along quiet back streets for Alex's commute.

So. We are looking forward welcoming you all there over the next two years!

Pippa, Alex & Ruth xxx

Moving day

Finally worked out how to get the photos off the camera without the card reader - so here are the promised photos of moving day.



The packers were incredibly efficient, and had our entire house packed up and onto various vehicles for the air & sea shipments, and UK storage as well, all by 2pm.

It think the highlight was the 20' container being reversed down Grove Avenue, with centimetres spare on either side to the parked cars, particularly when is squeaked past Jof's BMW.

We have now been safely reunited with the air shipment in the US - Ruth is incredibly happy to see all her toys again and spent an entire morning singing "ee-i-ee-i-ooo" non-stop whilst walking up and down with Mr Doggy. The sea shipment is crossing the atlantic somewhere and we should see it towards the end of December.

Settling in

We thought we had this moving lark licked yesterday when we all slept through til 7.30am, but Ruth got us up at 5.30am again today... guess it will be a while longer! Today is Alex's first day at work, apparently he has been busy but everyone is being nice to him so far. Ruth and I drove him in and tried not to embarrass him at the school gate.

Ruth is having long day time naps at the moment - I actually found time to iron Alex's shirts this morning! I know, I couldn't believe it myself. We went to Gymboree (like the Little Gym) this afternoon, which Ruth really loved. She managed to get a play date booked with a little boy she pursued shamelessly.

More cultural differences:
- can't work out what bread to buy. Bewildering range.
- Managed to buy a tiny travel kettle, which was the ONLY one on sale at Walmart. A whole aisle of coffee makers though.
- They didn't sell clothes horses. 4 different laundry baskets, no racks at all.
- You can turn right on at a red light!