Our train pulled into Mountain View station at around mid-afternoon on Tuesday 8 May. Not knowing any better, we ended up walking for almost an hour in the blazing hot sun with all our things :-/ So we were relieved to finally arrive at Vlad & Sonali's house. Sonali studied speech therapy with Jamie (see Seattle post) and have remained friends. They welcomed us warmly into their home and promptly offered us some ice-cold water - just what we needed after our long, hot walk. We chatted a bit before going to settle in upstairs (they have a spare room, so we had a room to ourselves!) Later that evening we drove through to downtown San Jose for dinner. We walked up and down the main street, which is really nice - shady trees, quirky shops, trendy restaurants - kinda reminded us a bit of Stellenbosch. We saw the original Facebook offices, although there are different tennants there now. After some deliberation we settled on a southern-style restaurant where Monique had a salad drowned in dressing and I had a burger. We had a great time chatting before heading back home to bed.

Wednesday we got to sleep in a bit, which was great. After a quick breakfast snack we took the train to downtown to have a look around. (We were very grateful to be able to put on some laundry before we left!) The main street in Mountain View had a relaxed feel to it - not a lot of people, quite spacious and shady. Monique wasn't feeling 100% so we took it pretty easy and just wandered around town. We had lunch at a local Vietnamese place (Kevin had a chicken sandwitch, Monique had poh soup.) We picked up a few things from the grocery store on the way home, made some chocolate mousse for dinner and then had a nap. That evening we order some takeaway pizza and just chilled at home, chatting.

Thursday we decided to take it easy in the morning. We did some admin, including booking our rental car for the remainder of our USA leg. Afterwards, we watched a movie and had a short nap before Sonali got home. We joined her for a walk in the park/forest, where we saw deer, bunnies and squirrels amongst other things. We stopped at Trader Joes to get some things for dinner and the pharmacy for some more meds. That night we had a yummy mango & black bean salad, followed by Ben & Jerry's ice-cream and Its It's (oatmeal cookie with ice-cream covered in chocolate - a San Francisco thing.)

Friday morning Vlad was able to drop us off at the airport on his way to work, which saved us trying to figure out the public transport :-) The car rental agency had just run out of the 'entry level' rental cars, so we got bumped up a level which was great! Not so great was driving for the first time in about 3 months, now in an automatic on the right-hand-side of the road :-/ Our plan was to head straight to the nearest Walmart to pick up a cheap GPS. Instead, we ended up driving around for about an hour getting very lost (at one stage we went the wrong way up a freeway offramp! - luckily no cops were around and we were able to make a speedy u-turn.) We had a bagle at starbucks to calm the nerves, and eventually we arrived at a Walmart where we did some grocery shopping and picked up some other things for camping. We ended up picking up a decent refurbished GPS from Fry's next door as it was a bit cheaper, and then drove home - so much easier now! It was only when we got back that we realised the travel notebook was missing :-/ So back it was to Walmart for us, where fortunately, it was waiting for us at the till. That afternoon we relaxed on the couch until Vlad got back from his conference. Later, he went to pick up Sonali while we (ie. Monique) put the finishing touches on a vegetarian lasagne which we had for dinner that night.

Saturday Kevin was feeling a bit sick so stayed in bed while Monique joined Sonali for a quick trip to the shops to pick up some things for breakfast. Vlad spoilt us by making some amazing crepes which we had with fruit/nutella/syrup and a few other treats. Monique and Sonali then drove out towards Santa Cruz for a walk along the beach and in the forest - weren't expecting it to be so cold and overcast at the beach with it being so hot in Mountain View. Monique had a great time seeing more of the area :-) That evening Vlad & Sonali treated us to In n Out burger for dinner and chocolate croissants for dessert. Afterwards, we pulled up Google Maps and showed them a bit of Cape Town and where we hang out back home. We headed upstairs to pack and then Kevin went to bed while Monique stayed up trying to get a Skype call going to a certain friend back home who was getting married that day... congrats Emsie & Andri :-)

Sunday was time for us to leave. We had some scrambled eggs for breakfast before saying our final goodbyes. We packed up the car, keyed the route into the GPS and headed off towards Yosemite National Park, the first stop on our two week road-trip!

We had had such a nice, relaxing, re-charging time with Vlad & Sonali - totally redeemed our view of the San Francisco area :-) They were so welcoming and generous and interesting to talk with, and we both really hope to see them again someday. You guys are totally welcome to stay with us if you ever find yourself in Cape Town!