If anyone is off topic, it is you oceankayak.

"Give me your thoughts on towns on the Peninsula side of the bay -- schools, commute, housing prices, etc."

The OP did not mention Marin. The OP asked about the Penisula. Whether you like it or not doesn't matter. All of us except for you posted answers to the OP inquiries. All of us live in the communities of which we speak and obviously know more about them than you do.

"The last placed I would want to live would in would be in the SSF area."

Me too! Burlingame, Menlo Park,San Mateo, Palo Alto and the other towns mentioned are not in what you call "SSF area", whatever that is.

Teehee! Teehee!

I don't live in the area mentioned - way up there near San Francisco.

I live much lower down in the "peninsula" BUT it's certainly refreshing to hear from fellow Fodorites "up there". Learning a great deal about different communities. :)

Keep up the good debate!


(another useless posting from easytraveler)

Didn't mean to stir the pot. :)

As beautiful as I'm sure Marin is, we are not interested in replicating our long East Coast commute on the West Coast. Since we won't be trading up in terms of cost of living, we'd like to at least trade up in terms of commute!!

Sounds like we've honed in on the right towns -- Burlingame, Milbrae, San Mateo, Palo Alto.

I can suggest a fabulous real estate agent in Palo Alto if it should come to that.

I may be stuck with whoever the relo company requires us to use, but if not, I will take you up on that iamq.

I don't know where your husband's office is in SSF, but be aware that commuting to/from Palo Alto can take some time. I live on the Burlingame/San Mateo border, and it took me 20-30 mins to get to work in Redwood City - just off of the freeway at Woodside Rd. This is leaving at 7am - 8am would take 10 mins longer Palo Alto is probably another 10 mins to the residentual areas. It's probably 5-10 mins from my house to the SSF freeway exit. Coming home takes longer because of the "Oracle mile". Often it took me 40 mins with just moderate back-up. This was 8 years ago (I'm retired). Hopefully iamq can add her/his 2 cents in about the workday commute situation between SSF & Palo Alto.

Mid San Mateo is about a 15-20 min commute to SSF - but I never commuted in that direction. Burlingame might be 10-15 min. For Millbrae you might not need to get on the freeway - but driving down El Camino Real is not fun.

Also, Millbrae gets more summer fog than San matel or Palo Alto does. Often in Palo Alto it's 5-10 degrees warmer in the summer than Burlingame.

Stu Dudley

I would allow 45 minutes to commute to SSF from Palo Alto. It could take less, but for a ballpark average, 45 minutes would be a good place to start.

Stu is right. The weather in Palo Alto is warmer, less foggy and less windy than Burlingame, San Mateo and Milbrae. The bay area is a micro-climate hell (or heaven). I work 5 miles from where I live and the temperature, especially in the summer can be as many as five to ten degrees different. Generally, the weather will be windier and a little cooler the closer you are to the bay.

<i>The weather in Palo Alto is warmer, less foggy and less windy than Burlingame, San Mateo and Milbrae.</i>

While that is very true (as I noted earlier), it is also true that Burlingame can be quite a bit warmer, less foggy and less windy than Millbrae. We live about 2 miles south of Millbrae Avenue (which goes east-west). We can drive up El Camino in perfectly sunny weather, and get to Millbrae Avenue and hit a WALL of fog. When we chose Burlingame, one of the reasons was it was the first town heading south from the city that has pretty consistently good weather in summer (that's not to say Palo Alto isn't better, but it's also a lot farther from SSF).

I take 101 from Burlingame to San Francisco every day. I'll time the commute to SSF tomorrow.

Having lived here all my life, and having frequented all the towns up and down the Peninsula, I have to chime in here with the observation that those of us who live in Burlingame consider it &quot;less hot&quot; than Palo Alto. The amount of fog and wind we get is decidedly no more than PA; that's not a defensive remark, because I happen to enjoy occasional SF fog, but it's just not an integral part of our climate. (Whoever remarked on the microclimates is indeed spot-on...my husband works one day a week in Daly City, and he always comes home feeling like he's been to another country!)

I'll second dmlove's assessment of the fog in Millbrae. It seems like Millbrae Ave is the dividing line. There is an Orchard Supply Hardware about 2 miles north of Millbrae Ave, and I couldn't even count the times that I've left home in sunny weather, and OSH was socked in with fog. I go to a health club in Millbrae &amp; the same is true when I go there in the early evening.

The main reason we chose San Mateo Park (before that, we lived in SF) as our home is:
1. The proximity to San Francisco. We're only 20 mins away. We adore the City. We spend almost all our entertainment dollars in the City. My wife is even a tour guide there. My wife is currently on crutches because she broke her foot. She's getting cabin fever, so yesterday afternoon we headed into the City &amp; just drove around aimlessly through our old neighborhood (Noe Valley) &amp; admired the Victorian houses, watched the residents do their Sunday stuff, drove down 24th st &amp; &quot;people watched&quot;, then came home. We've often remarked to ourselves that if we lived in Palo Alto (another neighborhood we were considering) we would not drive to the City as much on a &quot;whim&quot; or even to have dinner (20-25 mins vs 45-60 mins).

2. We like old homes, and our neighborhood is full of them (old homes out here are late 1800s - early 1900s). Our house was built in 1907.

Stu Dudley

OT - Stu, Lucie and I both belong to Prime Time. Do you, too?

Yep - I'll be on the stairmaster at 5:00.

Stu Dudley

Well, I'm usually on the treadmill or the elliptical around 6:00, but not tonight (left my gym clothes home!)

Are you perhaps D--l--e from Ampex???

Stu Dudley

Stu, I'm not sure what D-l-e is, but I don't think I'm him or her! (never worked at Ampex -- I work in the city)

I wished I lived closer to Prime Time...its a shrine