Penka's place at Rains, on the Stanford campus.
Penka, out the front of her place.
We set out in the early afternoon in an attempt to see a bit more of northern California. Penka had heard good things about one of the beaches, so we headed for it via La Honda, a tiny place in the middle of a forest, where we stopped off for lunch. We ran across Sam McDonald County Park (named after a guy who did the grounds at Stanford for fifty years) and went for a bit of a wander.
If you look closely you'll spot an incredibly quick bird.
Most of La Honda.
Some redwoods.
San Gregorio Beach was interesting. They charge $US5 to use the carpark, so there's an illicit spot on the junction of Highway 1 and Highway 84. It was foggy as all hell, and I had a lot of trouble believing this was the same Pacific Ocean that Sydney is on.
Illicit carpark.
That's real fog, people.
Looking north.
We headed down to Santa Cruz on Highway 1 after this. It's a really pretty drive, and if I had the time and money and company and all that I'd love to do it from end to end. The city is also great, very relaxed and quite small. The Lonely Planet really let me down here, though, in suggesting all these streets that weren't that splash. All you need as a tourist is on Pacific Avenue, and it's great. We went to the King and I Thai for dinner, and it was as good as everything else I've had this week. Makes me want to look into who's working at UCSC…
Drove back to Stanford and headed out for some drinks with Penka's mates: a couple of Indian guys, a Serbian girl and Andrew, the token American. We started (and ended) at The Rose and Crown, which I'm told is one of the better bars in Palo Alto. The bar service was excruciatingly slow but they have a good range of beers to make up for it (I can tell you Fat Tire Amber is good). The pubs close at 2am here, a mixed blessing.
We all headed back to Rains afterwards. Penka, Rajat and I didn't sleep so that I could make it to SFO to catch my flight. These two thoughtfully gave me a lift, which allowed me to space out a bit earlier than I had in mind. I have decided that America West sucks pretty hard, even more than Ryan Air.
