SperlingViews - Woodside, California

This is a very horsie place.[read more...]

My grandparents lived in Woodside, and I've visited there a few times in recent years. It is a beautiful, quiet area of country estates located northwest of the campus of Stanford University. There is a tiny "downtown" with a couple of restaurants and a few little stores. To the west lie the beginnings of the Santa Cruz mountains, which are covered with redwoods. Further west are the ocean beaches. There is very little development in this area, just a few farms. To the east is San Francisco Bay, with San Francisco to the north. The weather ranges from sunny but chilly during the winter (with quite a bit of rain) to hot and dry in the summer (the fog from the coast usually does not get as far as Woodside.) Life in Woodside centers around horses. A typical house in Woodside will have four to ten acres of land, with stables and outbuildings. Along with Hillsborough, Atherton, Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills, Woodside is home to the wealthy on the San Francisco Peninsula. This is the good life, if you can afford it.[read more...]