Second Stop in CA - Palo Alto

As Dena mentioned, we got a little behind in our posting, so in an effort to catch up, we're posting multiple times today. From Napa we drove down to Palo Alto (a.k.a. home of Stanford University, a.k.a. Silicon Valley), taking the scenic route across the Golden Gate Bridge and down the pacific coast highway. In addition to the stunning scenery, we also saw what may be the world's snazziest Taco Bell. The primary purpose of our visit to Palo Alto was to see my cousins from Israel, Ziv and Eynat, and their four adorable children (Omer, Shira, Ella, and Yonatan). We had a wonderful time, playing games like Guillotine (see here), Cro-Magnon (Cranium for kids), Karaoke Revolution, and Taboo. The girls wowed us with their artistic and performing abilities, and most impressively, their new-found command of English! While in town we also visited Heather (my sister's sister-in-law), who is currently 6 months pregant, and her husband Dave, who is currently attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He generously offered to take us on a tour, and so we walked around the GSB facilities for a while. The architecture of the main GSB building was clearly from the 70s, but the school recently broke ground on a brand new business school building that should be spectacular. Stanford is the last school we hear back from, so everybody keep your fingers crossed! While in Palo Alto, we also took a day trip to the Monterrey Peninsula, and more specifically Carmel-by-the-Sea, a very quaint artist's colony on the California coast. We visited a very nice Thomas Kinkade gallery, as well as Carmel Plaza and Carmel Beach (see embedded pictures). This is definitely a beautiful place, and a must stop for anyone in the area! From Carmel we drove to Point Lobos State Park, which had breathtaking views of the Pacific Coast as well as a some pretty awesome marine life, including a colony of sea lions (hard to see but very easy to hear), a couple of dozen harbor seals (easy to sea, but kind of like Koalas, difficult to spot in motion), and a handful of sea otters (i.e., small feet sticking out of the water). That's all for now. The next post will be about our trip down the Pacific Coast Highway and our quick visit to LA.