After riding down I-5 to the airport in San Diego and getting this picture instead of the killer picture telling me where cruise ships are supposed to exit, I got on the plane to fly to San Jose. Once in San Jose and then settled in Palo Alto, I ventured out to dinner with the DeMillo family in a bit of a blur which was corrected when I joined their family at least for this picture.

The next morning, I had the first of 3 breakfasts at Hobbee's with Kai Li who ordered this coffee cake to go with my BDBIT all nicely brought by Rey our waiter. After a long breakfast, I made my way past the swimming pool at The Westin and past the falling roof of the building next door to get back to my room and get ready to drive down the peninsula to my next meeting. I was early, so I stopped at the Java Street Cafe where I had this simple meal and then captured this fine hand washing sign (Chineese translates as "maintain public sanitation, please wash hands often") for my collection. Next I drove across the street to Network Appliances where they had the big logo sign and the smaller one to tell me that I was in the right place. Dan Warmenhoven brought his lunch to accompany me with my lunch which was more liquid.

Back at the hotel, I ran into Jacobo and we drove out to Princeton-by-the-Sea where we saw this picture for my collection of MezzaLuna restaurant signs and this close up of the restaurant and this view of the Princeton Inn which is not in New Jersey. We drove down Harvard street past the intersection with Columbia and parked for a walk on the beach by this grafitti of little endorsement. Having no dog, we had no need for Mutt Mitts but appreciated that others were using them. The walk on the beach and view out over the waves breaking near the rocks were so beautiful that I forgot to take pictures which is just as well since the combination of clouds and waves would have made for very white images. After a visit to the facilities which are not being cleaned once per week for 10 employees (thank me for not providing the picture to prove it) we headed back up to Woodside for dinner at the Woodside Bakery and Cafe which is adjacent to Buck's. The menu offered great choices and they brought this nicely baked bread for which Jacobo made an oil and vinegar mixture to help us decide that Jacobo should have the calzone and I should have the pizza nicely delivered by this waitperson team. All this made Jacobo very happy but not nearly as happy as he would be after we went to Fry's and he got to show me all of my options for when I decide to finally build my own machine part by part.

The next day (Tuesday) began with a walk to Hobbee's where we met this man who needed directions and insisted on taking this picture of Marsha and me as we headed off for coffeecake. My coffee cake looked quite good as did this one which Marsha insisted was taller and she used her knife to prove it. After comparing notes at breakfast, I was given my marching orders for the morning and took my mints and directions along with this map and the car keys to get in the car with these plates and head off to see John Little at Portal for a long and serious discussion of what had happened in the advisory committee meeting and directions that the department might take next.

I left John's offices and headed back to Mountain View where the parking lot offered me 2 choices. I saw Marsha in the distance and so knew to take this route into the building where I would be met by the keywords used in the most recent searches their Google cooler full of natural fruit drinks and the ever present lava lamps that define the place. We began by going to lunch where Jim, the sous chef from exit 98 on the parkway, had wonderful offerings all of which are listed on the day's menu for us to enjoy. On the way out of lunch, we ran into Larry Page one of the founders and the guy who built PageRank. Next we went to a conference room with Eric Monika and Rob and traded business cards while discussing topics of mutual interest. Once back at the hotel, I was met by the maid's cart at my room and so had to pass some time admiring this collection of vases and this fireplace and this tapestry that might have come from a John Nash movie in the lobby. Once back in the room, I was able to record my collection of badges and a Snapple label from Portal because they had insisted on taking back my badge while getting a short rest between events.

Next we headed to Los Altos to have dinner with the Goldman's. Sydney was shy as she sat on Susan's lap and read the book that Marsha had brought as Marsha and Phil discussed things. Eventually, she got down from Susan's lap and played on the floor stopping to pose for a few pictures before we sat down to dinner as prepared by Pauline. My meal differed somewhat from this menu but my salad was excellent as was my main course of asparagus and couscous which I forgot to photograph. The dessert brought me back to my senses so that I could capture a memory of a great meal. As we finished dinner, I was able to record Sydney from across the room as she engaged in the family passion after which we headed back to our hotels after a happy meal ending a productive day.

On Wednesday, we began at this Redwood Shores building where Avistar is headquartered. I had an animated discussion with Jerry Burnett Alan Usas who gave us his business card and Marsha about the delivery of video over networks. Before leaving I captured this picture of Jerry's beautiful object d'art made of glass from Murano and these 2 paintings that adorned the lobby of the building.

The next stop was to have this lunch with Matthew from Nuance, a company specializing in speech understanding. After lunch, we drove back to Mountain View to park across the street from Handspring at Pinnacle Systems where we met Tim Heidmann and took him to lunch at this restaurant with the marvelous display of hats.

After a short rest back at the hotels, we headed for Larkspur where we were greeted with a plate of bruschetta as we met J. Michael Mahoney for dinner at Fabrizio where the menu offered wonderful suggestions. We began with this bottle of sparkling water. I began with the insalata mista and as I was taking this picture of the salmon that Mike had this waiter came by with my plate of gnocchi porcini after which he took this picture of the 3 of us. I finished my food photography with this glimpse of the fish Marsha had. The dessert tray required 2 pictures before we could agree to share the white chocolate mousse with 3 spoons. The meal ended with complimentary port after which I went back for some hand washing signs for my collection. The restaurant wasn't done with us still bringing us some complimentary cookies with which to finish our meal. In all, it was a good dinner!