Palo Alto Architecture

NOTE: The report of the Palo Alto trip is the previous post.

Palo Alto has many wonderfully designed homes from several periods. In our wanderings, we were particularly focused on the Eichler homes from the middle of the last century. These were affordable homes built by Eichler, but designed by a number of architects. They are now highly esteemed and sought after, though many have, sadly, been grossly remuddled or neglected. They are classic 1950s, mid-century modern houses.

I was also interested in the number of fine Monterey-style houses in Palo Alto. There are also many great Craftsman-style houses there, although, because there are good examples everywhere (including Provo), I didn't get any photos. We did see a fantastic Beaux-Arts era, late-medieval style house that really made us happy.

A flat roofed Eichler

Flat roof with a Japanese-inspired cover over the courtyard

A very pleasant Eichler neighborhood

Low pitched roof with clerestory windows

Central court entry

Monterey-style house

Very fine Spanish style with a great old tile roof

Spanish/Monterey hybrid

My favorite of this type

A slight Spanish-Baroque influence in the shape of the entry

This could be plopped down quite comfortably in England

What could be more fun than looking at houses? O.K. Not everyone's cup of tea, but Stephen and I were in heaven.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

A Weekend in Palo Alto

Last Thursday, 24 February Uncle Stephen and I headed for Palo Alto to help celebrate Uncle Hank's 8oth birthday. Colette sent an invitation for an evening of really good music at the church, followed by birthday cake in the cultural hall. We couldn't resist and flew over for the event. Amy and Nicole secured tickets for our flight and Jeff drove us to the airport. We landed at Mineta San Jose International, which was recently expanded. It is a fantastic airport and an architectural highlight of the trip. We picked up a car, checked into our hotel, and spent the evening at 745 Christine Drive with the HDT Jr. family. We surprised Hank who did not know we were coming. Colette made soup and we were well-fed. Except for Rachel, who came with her little family to the Friday concert, none of the grandkids came, and several of the cousins were without spouses. It was a jolly and good-sized group, nonetheless.

Friday SKT and I spent the day with Hank while Colette and the kids got everything ready at the church for the evening celebration. After breakfast we three had a great walking tour of the neighborhood and particularly studied the Eichler houses in which Palo Alto abounds. (Eichler photos in the next post above this) We were to go out for lunch, but the Uncle-Hank frugality kicked in and he fed us left over pot roast instead: delicious. That afternoon SKT and I went to Oakland with him to pick up Marian at the airport. After that we took Hank to the hardware store to choose a birthday present, and since Tommy's studio warehouse was nearby Hank gave us a tour. That evening was the concert, which was really excellent. All their friends and neighbors attended and lingered late to visit and eat cake. I reconnected with Jim Welch who was a missionary to whom I taught Portuguese many years ago. He is a fantastic organist and was an important participant in Colette's program.

Saturday morning Stephen and I continued our architectural exploration, discovering hundreds of fantastic homes scattered through various neighborhoods in Palo Alto. It was exciting, but made me sad that we can't have that level of taste in our fair city. We hooked up with family again for the BYU/San Diego State basketball game. (I am a freak and can't watch.) After some snacking we headed to the Stanford campus with the group. We visited the Memorial Church, which is a fantastic building with exquisite details and beautiful stained-glass windows. We spent the last part of the afternoon in the Stanford Art Museum, where there was a fantastic photography show featuring wonderful work by Helen Levitt with whom I was previously unfamiliar. That evening the HDT Jr. family went to the church for a fundraiser supper and Stephen and I opted for a delicious dinner at the Fish Market instead.

Sunday we packed up, transfered to that great airport, and flew home without a hitch.

SKT, DAT, Nicole, and Amy in SLC

San Jose Mineta International Airport

745 Christine Drive

Nicole and Amy admiring the book Brad made for Hank

We surprised him

Hank, David, Stephen, Brad, and Brigham

Colette rehearsing her choir before the concert

Stephen reconnected with Jean Char Gong, his
second-grade teacher

Marian, Ann, Amy, Nicole, Michelle, Megan, Rachel, Denise, CGT
SKT, George, Brad, Hank, Brig, DAT, Brad
Cole and Drew

Hoover Tower at Stanford on a heavenly afternoon

The hostess and the birthday boy

Stanford Memorial Church

Stephen and Hank at the Stanford Museum

Since we were on the coast, we chose fresh fish: excellent

It was a great trip: good food, good company, great party, fun family time, tons of good art and architecture, and spectacularly beautiful cool weather.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Iceberg

FYI: There's an iceberg in Utah Lake. It apparently was whipped into place by strong winds that pushed surface ice toward Bird Island where it formed an iceberg of sorts. There are also huge piles of ice on the west side of the lake near West Mountain. Who would have thought?

Perhaps Emily and Anna remember an outing at the lake in early spring many years ago to watch the ice break up. I don't believe I have given any thought to the ice on the lake since then, but this iceberg sent me straight down memory lane.

That's the Mount Timpanogos Temple in the backgorund

Ice piles near West Mountain

Utah Lake early spring 1977: Emily, Will, and Anna

Young Anna with a yummy mug

Uncle Stephen and myself. (If you don't like the hyperurbanism,
you may write to myself and let me know)

Stephen, Lorna, and Kris holding Anna: good times

Uncle and I are off to CA tomorrow for Uncle Hank's birthday celebration. I will report later. This, then, is all for now.

OXO

D.

For Anna

In response to Anna's recent post, and after a phone conversation with her earlier today, I am posting a review of my latest reads, totaling just under 3,000 pages. I am not sure what started the reading of this string of presidential biographies, but it has been most enjoyable and enlightening. I have to say that I rate them all as excellent and worthy of the time it took to plow through them.

Just minutes ago, I finished Pulitzer-Prize-winning American Lion by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had no idea who Jackson was or how important he was in shaping the power of the presidency. Like each of the men (with the exception of Lincoln -- who was near perfect) about whom I have read, Jackson had his faults, but he also had an undeniable force of will and ferocity that saved the Union and set the presidency at the heart of the government.

This was my second time through John Adams by David McCullough, and as a result of old age or a brain like a sieve (which is not attributable to old age: it was ever thus), it was all new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it again this time. I was motivated by the Washington biography to read it again. Chernow's biography was not always kind to Adams, as it rightly should not have been. Adams had his problems. Although, Anna, he was not a racist.

Washington, by Ron Chernow was fascinating. I have been jaded since grade school by the mythical Washington and it was wonderful to meet the real man. Far from the god depicted in the dome of the capitol at Washington D.C., he was a very human man who was blessed to establish and hold together a fragile Union that was preserved so tenaciously by Adams, Jackson, and Lincoln.

The Abraham Lincoln biography, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is, to me, the best book of the lot, as is the man himself: he was essentially flawless in my book. What a genuinely good person and masterful politician he was. Kris said (and I concur) that he must have been placed by the hand of God. And, Anna, although he was not a racist of the Jefferson and Jackson mold, it took him a while to arrive at the idea of total emancipation. I liked this book best of all.


My reading of The River of Doubt by Candice Millard was unrelated to the other biographies. Kris simply thought I would enjoy it, which I did, and it happened to be the first in the string. The story is a small slice of Theodore Roosevelt's life, not a complete biography. But what a tasty slice it was! Kris thinks that men will like it better than women because it is a rough-and-tumble story of Roosevelt's exploration and mapping of the Rio da Dúvida (River of Doubt), renamed Rio Roosevelt, in Brazil. The river is one of the headwaters of the Amazon and was filled with dangers and difficulties that, in a way, killed Roosevelt. Having traveled up the Amazon and Rio Negro with Kris and Phillip, and having a very personal interest in Brazil, I was quickly hooked. I passed the book on to Phillip who also enjoyed it. I want to know how well Bill liked the more complete biography of TR that he read recently.

In all these reads, one thing has become quite clear to me: nothing has changed in American politics since the time of Washington. Partisan politics, so hated by Adams, has been a persistent fact of life, and yellow journalism practiced so freely today has always been with us. Presidents have always been hated by many and loved by the rest. It makes me feel much calmer about the political climate today: this too will pass and the Union and our "freedoms" will not disappear even though folks with a predilection for tea wouldn't stand for that notion.

Another thing that has been pervasive in these reads is that Thomas Jefferson was a bit of a noodle. Does anyone know of a well-written biography of TJ?

Well, I am off to read McCullough's Truman, with a possible break to read Bill Bryson's At Home.

I will post my current read, as always, at the top of the blog.

OXO

D.

Heppy Valentimes 2010

We hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day. We celebrated in typical fashion with a nice compound dinner at our house. We made reubens, sweet potato fries, and coleslaw. Millie made some tasty cookies and Tom and Katy brought some sparkling pomegranate juice. Yes, we were joined by Tom and Katy who are here for a few days from Shanghai. They return Thursday, but it has been nice to see them again. John Woolf also ate with us because, as some of you may know, Jeannette had a stroke about a month ago and is recuperating at a care center in Orem.

Yesterday the family gathered here for Sunday dinner. We celebrated Meagan's birthday one day late and, as per her request, I made bread pudding and Bird's Custard.

Last week we finally got inspired and had the B.F. Larsen painting in the family room reframed. The black frame looks quite snappy and works well with the other black bits in the room.

Lovely spring-like weather: 55 degrees today

The new frame

It feels like a different painting

Valentine's flowers for Kris

Bread pudding for Meags

The birthday girl

Johnny and Tom

Ann, Zoe, and Katy

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Winter Visitors

Rob, Anna, and family have been in Provo for about 12 days to ski and spend time with the extended family. We dropped them off at the airport this afternoon and they are on their way back to Virginia as I type (actually delayed in Denver). We had a great time. The house was bursting at the seams with cousins from morning until night. We cooked and ate tons of food, went to the movies, ate out a couple of times, always with the whole gang. Rob, Anna, and I walked and hiked many miles for the sheer pleasure of it, and to try to balance all the good food we were consuming with some calorie burning. We sledded and most of the Hastings skied (you will see photos and videos on Anna's blog). Rob was a trooper: he took the Ensign cousins and Lucy's friend Malia (sp.?), none of whom had ever skied before. All in all, it was a great week and a half. We are suffering, as we always do after family visits, from empty-house syndrome.

A long walk "up and over"

Revisiting the scene of the kickoff

Auntie Em reading to the cousins

Pasta dinner on MLK Day

Clara eschews the crusts

Another day, another family dinner: quinoa stew

A morning of sledding by the South Fork of the Provo River

Catching some air

Tunneling in the snow

The Hastings

Squaw Peak

An afternoon hike to the top of Rock Canyon

Dickie and Rob pushing onward

Anna and Dickie near the top of the canyon

Delicious dinner at the Bombay House

Meagan in goofy-face prevention mode

On the way to the slopes

Maxwell was pinned in by the gear

Brazilian Dinner

The must like it -- they ate it

Colton and Millie hosting an expanded
Compound Dinner at Communal: fantastic

The troops waiting for a signal to begin

Salt-roasted spuds, roasted brussel sprouts,
steak, salad, and bread

On their way home -- sigh

Thanks for coming kids. We will miss you but will see you in the spring.

OXO

D.