the wild west

Last Saturday, one of my former professors Jane Woodward hosted a reunion at her gorgeous beach house in Pescadero. Pescadero is a town on the Pacific Coast, just over the Santa Cruz Mountains from Palo Alto. The reunion was to celebrate the anniversary of a class trip to China. Jane and her company MAP were extremely generous and subsidized the cost of a two week educational trip to China for more than 25 students. The trip had an energy focus and we visited the 3 Gorges Dam, a CFL light bulb factory, a coal plant, a solar PV plant, a wind farm - to name just a few of the sites we saw. Over the two weeks we visited 6 cities all across China and it was an incredible experience.

I took these photos at Jane's beach house last Saturday. According to John TH (aka the weatherman), Pescadero is usually socked in with clouds at this time of year. As you can see - it was absolutely gorgeous. At only ~50 minutes from the Palo Alto area, it is an escape that is close enough to feel convenient, and far enough to feel remote - the perfect combination.

Thanks again to Jane for hosting us! I had a wonderful time.