Early October we spent a night in Palo Alto so Tim could fit in all his Stanford meetings as well as enjoy a fun social evening with visiting Centre Directors - Santy from Madrid and Karen from Berlin at the home of Bob Sinclair, Executive Director here on the home campus, and his partner, Ai Leen.
Two days later we were having lunch at Kenwood in Sonona followed by a tour of White Rock, one of Napa Valley's wineries, with Andrew from Kyoto.
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| White Rock founding owner Henri behind the wines, Tim in the middle and Andrew on the right - time to buy some wine |
The following Sunday we hiked to Arch Rock with Cape Town Stanford students Claire Gibson (2008), Bridget Connolly and Lucy Litvak (Spring 2010). Photo thanks to passing hiker.
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| Tim, Lucy, Sherry, Claire, Bridget |
And the following weekend we did our annual 13 mile trek from Bear Valley to Bolinas on a beautiful warm autumn day. Lots of photos here.
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| From left, Doree, Anne, Chris, Bill, Tim, Lori, Sherry - Megan met us at Bass Lake |
In between the fun of hiking we actually did get some planning work done for courses in Cape Town in 2012. And we booked some flights, not for the 6 months in Cape Town yet, but first things first. Tim will go to Cape Town Nov 12 for a week of meetings and will meet me in Madrid for the conference Islam in Europe hosted by the Madrid Centre taking place in Cordoba over Thanksgiving. Stanford students abroad will deliver papers relating to their courses on Islam in the country of their residence this quarter. We'll have side trips to Seville and Granada with expert guides. Sounds amazing and I just had to join this adventure.
I guess I should end on a birthday note because Saturday 29th October was a pretty magical day on the San Francisco Bay. Tim and I had lunch in Sausalito with Steve James, Tony Bucknall and Tim Jacques who were on a 9 hour layover in San Francisco travelling from Auckland to London. Added to the party was an Aussie friend of Steve's and the Brazilian girlfriend of his nephew, both living here in the Bay Area. We had a perfect window table that seemed to dangle over the water. The cosmopolitan company and lively conversation interspersed between ferries and yachts and water sports and stunning views seemed quite other-worldly.
A birthday to remember, but I forgot to take my camera ...
