Our home is a contemporary, single-family house and is approximately 1800 square feet. It was built in 1963 and has been completely remodeled and updated. It is the perfect place for up to two couples or a small family to stay for a weekend or an extended visit of northern California.

The house has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, office, indoor laundry room, garage/workshop, and a "great room" that includes the kitchen, living room and dining room. We also have a covered patio, small grassy play area, and delightful new swimming pool and spa.

The master bedroom has a queen-sized bed with a TempurPedic mattress, TV, and a small bathroom with shower. The other two bedrooms have queen and full-sized beds and share a bathroom with a tub/shower. The kitchen, living room, and dining room are all open in a large "great room" that has two sets of French doors and large windows to the backyard. The kitchen and laundry room have all new appliances. The living room has a large, comfortable sofa, cozy gas fireplace, TV and a home theater/sound system. Our covered patio has a table and chairs and gas BBQ. The house has central air conditioning and heating.

Other fun things for families include: bicycles and helmets; canoe, paddles and life jackets; basketball hoop, ping-pong table, and Nintendo Game Cube video game system.

Our house is located on a cul-de-sac in a safe and quiet central Davis residential neighborhood. We are within easy (5-10 minutes) walking and bicycling distance of downtown Davis, the AMTRAK train station, university campus, the year-round Davis Farmer's Market and two fine grocery stores - including a large natural food co-op. Our neighbors are a mix of retired seniors, families with school-age children, and a few college student households.

Davis is a small, safe, family-friendly college town located in the Great Central Valley of northern California, 15 miles west of Sacramento and 75 miles east of San Francisco. It is accessible from San Francisco and Oakland International Airports by train - BART and AMTRAK. In addition, Sacramento International Airport is only 25 minutes away by car and is also accessible by local bus and private shuttle.

Davis is the home of the University of California land-grant campus and is famous for its small-town atmosphere, relaxing pace, bicycle trails, public art, greenbelts and parks, farmer's market, the Mondavi Center for Performing Arts, and the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. In the summer, it is particularly mellow as most of the university students return home.

Davis is surrounded by farms and ranches and other small cities in a very productive agricultural region. It has a vibrant downtown with many shops, movie theaters, art galleries and cooperatives, and a wide variety of American and ethnic restaurants. Sacramento, only 15 minutes away, is a larger city with a historical Gold Rush "old town," Crocker Art Museum, and a very lively Midtown with beautiful old homes, shops, clubs, art galleries, museums, theaters, and restaurants.

Davis is a great central location to explore northern California between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. It is within easy driving distance of Lake Berryessa (30 minutes); Berkeley (45 minutes) and San Francisco (1 hour); Clear Lake and Wilbur Hot Springs (1.5 hours); the fabulous wine regions of the Napa and Sonoma valleys/counties and the El Dorado and Amador county Sierra Nevada foothills (1-2 hours); the the beautiful northern California Coast of Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties (2-4 hours); Lake Tahoe (2 hours); and Yosemite National Park or Santa Cruz/Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur (both areas about 3-4 hours). AMTRAK also connects Davis to the San Francisco Bay Area (Capitol Corridor), the Sierra Nevada Mountains (Zephyr), and central and southern California and points north in Oregon and Washington (Coast Starlight).

Activities within a two-hour radius of Davis include: hiking, biking, fishing, skiing (both cross-country and downhill), scuba diving, surfing, boating, water skiing, swimming, wine-tasting, golf, whale watching, etc.

You can view Davis Life Magazine at: www.davislifemagazine.com

The climate in northern California is Mediterranean. For Davis weather see: http://www.idcide.com/weather/ca/davis.htm

Because we have children in college and secondary school, our traveling is generally restricted to summer, the winter holidays, and Easter break. We can, however, sometimes arrange non-simultaneous exchanges for long weekends in the winter or fall when we are at our cabin at Lake Tahoe.

We would like to arrange a 1-2 week simultaneous exchange in Hawaii during February, 2013. The specific dates are: February 7 - 19, 2013.

We would also welcome year-round simultaneous or non-simultaneous weekend or short-term exchanges for:

- Coastal central or northern California including San
Francisco or the East Bay
- Ashland, Corvallis or Portland, Oregon
- Salt Lake City, Utah.

We are Marc and Carrie, both in our mid-fifties, and are ecologists/conservation biologists. We have two sons: Galen, 19, and Reed, 15.

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