Charlie's place is an amazing location, literally at the edge of the forest in Woodside, one of the most upscale, yet relatively unpretentious communities around the Bay. The house itself has a bit of a quirky 1970's homebuilt atmosphere about it, propped up on huge wooden stilts on a steep hillside surrounded by giant trees. It feels like you are in the middle of the forest, complete with wildlife and the sounds and so on. I don't know what it is like in the winter or in a rainstorm, but over the summer it was wonderful.
Charlie was a very helpful and easy going host, always responded when I needed something and even let me hook up the house with high speed internet, which required installing a new overhead cable from the street through the trees. I spent more than two months here renewing the reservation again and again and it is hard to leave.