We spent one afternoon walking around the Stanford campus which is as gorgeous as advertised! We met some graduating seniors who were playing campus golf, which means walking around campus with a shopping cart full of booze, and tennis balls to hit around with golf clubs. We took their picture, they took our picture, we got to talking and joined them for a while. They were so friendly and welcoming to us and everyone else passing by, and it was the most random fun party with strangers who felt like new friends.
We had the best time catching up with friends who we are so looking forward to seeing more of! We got to have pho and ice cream with Anjuli, James, Andrew and Kalinda, who is exactly Valerie's age (they were born one day apart!), get bedtime hugs from Kalinda, drink the tartest, most amazing lemonade made from the lemons on Brett and Ali's lemon tree, meet sweet tiny baby Amanda, grill out and play cornhole, meet Tushar and get pumped for the upcoming #tushela nuptials!
I can't wait to return with Valerie, spend more time with these friends and hopefully meet new friends! There is so much I love about it here. There is recycling everywhere, including in our hotel room. I just feel like these are my people. There are tons of places to get fresh juice, acai bowls, vegan and organic and crunchy hippie food, and everything grows here! Citrus, all kinds of fruits, grapes for wine, olives, avocados... it's an incredible, sun-drenched oasis. Everyone rides bikes around town. The weather is the same every day - cool in the morning, then the sun comes out and it warms up to 70 in the hot sun, and then quickly cools back down in the evening. The lack of rain is causing some terrible problems but selfishly I love the dry sunny weather.
The purpose of our trip was to find housing for our arrival at the end of July and we are super excited about the lovely home we have found which is slightly bigger than a breadbox - in the nick of time on the last day. At first we got discouraged by the cray-cray rental market out here but after going to see 8-10 options we did find a few that we could get excited about.
Our new home is small but new and lovely, bright and open, with room for Valerie to run and play, a bedroom for guests to visit, and out back, a porch and a beautiful garden under a Japanese maple with lemon, mandarin orange, fig, peach and plum trees. It's going to be perfect for us and we can't wait to have friends over and visitors to share the lovely space.
Coming out here feels like a dream... the only things bringing me back to reality are the stresses of finding a job and daycare... this is still real life and not a vacation! But I have a good feeling it's going to work out. I can't wait to see what this adventure holds for us. Everything is so much fun with Valerie at two and a half years old - ok not everything - we have our moments. But I still have the feeling we'll always remember these days as some of the best times of our lives.
