October 1, 2010

The kids started wriggling at around 4 am but didn’t get out of bed until 6:30. Iseline was very hungry and had breakfast with the leftovers from yesterday’s dinner at 6:30

and then joined our common breakfast at 08:30. Impressive.

We started having a closer look at our home for the next week. We’ve got 2 sleeping rooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice well equipped kitchen, a small dining room and a quite large living room.



There is also a very nive back yard with a patio, a pool and a bonzai garden

As soon as I get the photo album on this site working I will put up some more photos of the house and the garden.

After breakfast the kids did not waste much time getting into the pool.

After a long morning in the pool Hélène started to get restless and wanted to have a look around the local area. I have spent a lot of time during the last 2-3 months on planning the voyage and booking everything, but I really haven’t spent much time planning for the bay area. I used to go here very often (about 6 times a year) as part of my work. However, I now quickly realized that I am not at all used to being a tourist here.

All this planning and the feeling of being extremely prepared … and I had no idea how to use our first day here.

There is a guest book in the house and we had a look there to see what other guests here recommend. We were starting to get hungry and found a recommendation for a diner not too far from the house. We ventured out and found a classical American diner.

I know from my previous stays in the states how difficult it is to not gain weight here. The major reason for that is the monstrous portions coupled with the Norwegian lutheran attitude of always finishing what is on your plate. Judging from the meal we had for lunch I’m going to have to really watch out during our 6 weeks here.

OK, time to introduce the kids to US culture. Large portions, ketchup on everything:

Viktor enjoyed his pancakes

After lunch we headed over to Stanford and took a stroll in the university park.

There are some statues of Rodin at the entrance to the university depicting “The Burghers of Calais.” Some dudes who sacrificed their own lives to save a city. The faces were extremely well done and fascinating to study.

In our random stroll around Stanford we ended up at the Hoover Tower and got a very nice view of the campus. There is a cool exhibition of some of Hoover’s belongings at the base of the tower. It turns out that Herbert Hoover was a fisherman and I couldn’t have said it better myself:

After Stanford I had an appointment with some former colleagues (trolls) at a bar. I had jotted down the address just before leaving and was stumped when the GPS app on the iPhone asked if it was “N California Av” or “S California Av”.  I had only noted “California Av”. I picked N and off we went. We arrived at a Baptist Church! Either my former colleagues were trying to send me a message or we had gone to the wrong place. 🙂

So, I went drinking while the rest of the family took an expedition to yet another American cultural icon: the shopping mall.

Our first day in the area was really good, but I promised myself to prepare better for later locations. I spent parts of the evening getting ready for the next days trip up to San Francisco.

Eirik

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