I can never resist an interesting tree.

On my last morning in San Jose after another wonderful breakfast, I made up for lost time, took a long walk with my charged up phone so I could take snapshots in the areas I'd explored the previous day. Then I packed up my things and got a taxi to the airport. This ride was much calmer than the one on my first day, thankfully. I arrived in plenty of time before colleagues from the Artists' Cooperative Gallery landed, so I grabbed lunch as a sidewalk cafe near the arrivals area.

We met our driver, loaded our bags into vehicles and made our way out of the city and to Atenas, where we stopped for groceries before driving up the mountain to our home for the week. The 2-bedroom house had lovely views over the valley and two small guest houses right next to the main house.

We spent lots of time on this patio, sitting in rocking chairs and watching the light change over the valley.

View into the Central Valley from poolside.

A trail behind the house led further up the mountain and offered this view.

Looking down at the house where we stayed and into the valley.