Construction

A ubiquitous site: new home construction. This one caused quite a hullabaloo because the home that was demolished was an Eichler, and the neighbors didn't want a new home built that was out of character with the neighborhood that's full of mid-Century modern homes. As far as I know, the owners changed the design to appease the neighbors. We'll see how it looks in a few months when the construction is complete.

Dish Loop Start

I walked the Stanford Dish Loop trail yesterday and the views were characteristically stunning. I'm sure more shots will show up on this blog in the future, but for today, here's one from the beginning of the trail.

GBikes

A nice collection of colorful Google bikes (and one unicycle) at Googleplex.

"Bliss in the Moment"

I've ridden by this piece of art dozens of times since last year's move to the Peninsula rekindled my long-lost love of cycling. Yesterday I stopped to take a picture. In researching what it was all about, I found the wonderful and sad story of bicycling enthusiast and Bay Trail activist Bill Bliss for whom this memorial was erected in 2011.

Stone River

Andy Goldsworthy's Stone River, outside the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, was apparently built with sandstone from university buildings that were destroyed in the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989.

Matadero Creek

Coming from a part of California even more stricken by the drought, I love seeing all the creeks running through the towns here. Of course, I love them most just after a big rain when they are raging with much needed water. This one, Matadero Creek, often looks about like this; I took this picture about a week after the last rainy days. My favorite part is the little group of ducks hanging out in the lower right corner.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Biking on the Peninsula is easy and popular. Here's one of the many signs helping cyclists get where they need to be.

NASA Ames Wind Tunnel

From the NASA Ames open house in October, a panoramic shot of their largest wind tunnel for testing aircraft of all sorts.

Little Free Library

Little Free Libraries are certainly not unique to the Peninsula (there are over 20,000 worldwide), but there are dozens in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and the surrounding areas. While I could have chosen any of them for my daily photo, I chose this one -- number 2397 -- because it's mine! A labor of love, it was featured in its old home on the blog that is my inspiration, Pasadena Daily Photo.

Monterey

From a November road trip to Monterey, I took this during an early morning walk with a good friend.

Wunderlich Redwood

While hiking at Wunderlich County Park in Woodside over the weekend, we came upon this burned out remnant of what we assume used to be a massive redwood.

Giant Antenna

I don't know what people have these for, but I've run into a few of them and I'm always a bit awestruck. I wonder if the owners have a tinfoil hat collection, too.

Edgewood County Park

I am lucky enough to have a neighbor who organizes weekly hikes in the Bay Area, a wonderful resource when you're new to a place. In November, we went to Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve in Redwood City for a 3.75-mile hike through some lovely terrain. I took this photo of our wonderful view when we stopped for a snack.

It's Going To Be OK

I saw this taped to a light post on my morning walk in Palo Alto yesterday. We can all use this reminder sometimes.

Cañada Road

On Sundays (except those in December and January) Cañada Road in San Mateo County is closed to cars so that bicyclists, joggers, roller skaters, and users of other non-motorized forms of transportation can enjoy a nice route with great views, like the one above of the Crystal Springs Reservoir. We were there in the late afternoon which provided some interesting light for my photos.

Just Amps

I'll admit it. I have a thing for license plates. Couple that with the fact that this area is overrun with Teslas and other electric cars, many of which have personalized plates, and I'm in heaven. This red Model S was parked in front of my house shortly after we moved here.

Sempervirens Falls

From our tent cabin camping trip to Big Basin State Park. We were, frankly, surprised there was any water!

Guadalupe River Trail

While San Jose is technically the South Bay and not the Peninsula, I'm starting here because, well, that's where we started! Our stint in temporary housing in San Jose lasted about five weeks and each morning that it wasn't pouring rain I walked on this trail. On this morning, the fog and sunrise painted a beautiful picture that started my day off right.