Saturday, April 9, 2022. Los Altos/Stanford Area
We slept quite well in Eileen’s driveway as the temperatures had dropped into the upper 50’s by morning. There was no need for AC or heating with the windows opened.
Tony and Sharlene had prior engagements and Carrie was feeling a bit under the weather, so Eileen, Dave, Ben, Janet, George, and Beth took a morning hike at the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, which is a huge park. Is very popular with several parking lots that were filled like the busiest Costco parking lot. We had to loiter and wait for people finishing their morning hikes to pull out so that we could park. Dave said we had timed it pretty well to be at the start of the second shift. The foothills were lush and green. We were greeted at the trail head by a pair of male wild turkeys who were having a gobble-gobble shouting match. They seemed not the least bit bothered by all the walkers, hikers and bicyclists on the trail within 25 feet of their little squabble.
There is a huge Bay tree near the trail head as well. This is the tree that bay leaves that are used for cooking come from. There are informative signs scattered, and there are many different trails going off into the woods, hills and ravines. Dave lead us on a trail that was about a mile long, ending up at a very cute farm with sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and ducks. There were baby goats and lambs that were just 2 weeks old. There were also some historic buildings and a collection of antique farm equipment. The trail was nicely shaded by trees, and the temperature was in the low 60’s so perfect for the hike. Although there are lots of people, the trails were more like gravel roads and although it was a lot more crowded than our local Whidbey Island state parks, it was not at all unpleasant, and most of the people were courteous and well behaved. Dave and Eileen, despite recent health issues, lead the hike at a pace that kept me and Janet scampering along to keep up.
Tony and Carrie joined us after the hike for lunch at In-N-Out; the novelty hasn’t worn out as of yet for us.
Stanford had an event at the stadium that was like an annual open house with a Stanford college scrimmage in the stadium. It was Ben and Janet’s first time inside that stadium. The weather was perfect and comfortable. It was interesting to see the collegiate football players scrimmaging on the field with lots of Stanford students and alumnus watching.
We then walked around campus a bit, visiting the campus book store and seeing a wedding party exiting out of the Stanford Chapel.
George had a meeting that afternoon with a student alumnus so we split up at that point. The Stanford campus is quite beautiful and clean, but there is a long line of derelict looking RV’s parked along the main road that runs past the stadium that showed that the homeless problem isn’t just limited to downtown San Francisco or Seattle.
We rested up a bit back at Eileen’s home, and then got everyone back together at a nearby Vietnamese Pho shop for dinner. It was very nice to have a mini-reunion among Ben’s 4 siblings. George’s family was going to have to leave for the airport at 3am to catch their flights back to Seattle, and we plan on heading out to Death Valley tomorrow morning.
