Quite simply put, I feel like I hit the jackpot with my first AirBnB experience.

I was in Palo Alto for a choral festival, and while my choral-mates checked into local hotels, I splurged on Todd's place since it was also my birthday weekend. Lety greeted me since Todd was out of town, and it took a good 40 minutes for her to give me a tour of the properties but for good reasons. It simply takes that much time and much much longer to fully explore and appreciate the quiet, bold, and astonishing... works-of-art Todd and Lety both have created.

To my chagrin, the photos that captured my attention are outdated, and don't do justice to what has since been done to the interiors. My friends and I spent the first 20 minutes in the evening after we'd settled in, simply sitting and marveling at every color-scheme and lighting fixture that have no reason to look appealing in combination but somehow all of it worked. Todd's custom decor truly boggled our minds, as he used cheap beer bottle tops to turn drawers from plain to sophisticated, expired credit card turned a Cross into a gallery-worthy art piece. Every surface, every corner revealed a surprise, and if I were to continue... well, it'd be ruining your chance to discover it for yourself. And I never even got to talking about the wonderland that is the half-acre garden/oasis behind the homes.

I will finish by saying that as soon as we arrived, we realized that going out to eat in downtown Palo Alto would be unthinkable when one is presented with a chef's gourmet kitchen. So on my birthday, we picked up items from Whole Foods, fired up the grill, popped an iPhone onto the iHome, put on some jazz, and that's all she wrote.

A million thanks to Todd for having created this space and then for opening the doors (those doors!!) for us to enjoy it. It truly warmed our spirits and inspired our senses of wonder. Thanks for Lety for having been a welcoming host and for gently pointing out that what we thought were chives that we put in our scrambled eggs weren't chives, and that the mint leaves we thought we plugged also weren't mint leaves, and for taking the time to re-educate us.

I look forward to a return visit!