Steve was a warm and welcoming host. To start, I had gracious and unstinting access to the whole place, the living room and kitchen and wonderful garden and his refrigerator and pantry (for tea etc). I had two very friendly dogs to greet me every day - one, in particular, Asher, who took to me readily.

But on top of that, Steve himself went out of his way to make it a pleasant stay. He took it upon himself to show me around the neighborhood. We had dinner together most evenings at (very good) neighborhood restaurants, he found out relevant travel information to help be get around San Diego for the conference I was attending, and so on.