Quintessential November Hill

Painted pony on green pasture by reclining pine.

And finally - Palo Alto lodging and food - delightful!

As much as I was not inspired by Palo Alto I have to say the little hotel we stayed in was a delight. It was minutes from Stanford as well as great food but felt like a little nature retreat. 

It's called Creekside Inn and I highly recommend it. The room was very well appointed and the staff were wonderful. We had a balcony that looked out on a squirrel's nest!

I have never been eye level with a squirrel's nest before. There was a beautiful courtyard with little tables, a nice pool, an on-site restaurant, and a little convenient mart. 

And minutes away there was a Trader Joe's and this restaurant that we found and loved. We had a lovely dinner and drinks here the first night and went back for a quick lunch before leaving town. I wish I had taken a photo of our meal. But you can see some of the food they serve here:

http://www.calafiapaloalto.com/#!images/c1oyq

For anyone following the debacle about bathrooms in North Carolina (where I live) you will appreciate my obsession with this totally cool bathroom set up in Calafia.

There were beads hanging in the very wide entrance behind me - totally see-through - and a row of six (three on each side) unisex private bathrooms that shared this sink.

Why aren't all bathrooms in restaurants designed this way? I love it.

If you end up traveling to Palo Alto I highly recommend the Creekside Inn and a meal at Calafia. It was a delightful respite between Stanford and UC-Santa Cruz, which is up next in my travelogue. 

Stanford - my special mission and a reason to go there

So after all my commentary yesterday about how I didn't click with Stanford's campus, while my son met with physics professors I went on a secret/special mission to the biology department.

My daughter has read and loved Robert Sapolsky's work for years and he teaches at Stanford. You can read about him here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky

And you can see his books here:

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-M.-Sapolsky/e/B000APOCFE

I had hoped to find him and take a photo with him to send to my daughter. I used the handy Google Maps walking function to find my way to the biology building. In the lobby, success!

I took the elevator upstairs and loved this welcoming mural into the biology department.

Then found this. Sadly the office was dark and appeared to be vacated for the summer. But still, it was fun to snap the photo and send to dear daughter.

The hallways had many photos of birds so I sent those too.

The department had a very appealing outdoor study area.

And even a space to do a workout:

I headed back down to the lobby and thought this looked interesting too.

And a final homage photo to Dr. Sapolsky.

I saw a sign saying there was a biology store and thought perhaps they had T-shirts. It was in the basement of an adjacent building and took some looking to find, but when I got there it was a store for lab supplies for biology students. I ended up talking with the two student staffers for half an hour about Stanford, about North Carolina and the insane HB2 bill, and about environmental issues. They were so interested and it was a great conversation.

So... while I didn't click with Stanford I did experience what it might be like if I were considering attending with the idea of working with a very specific professor or department. That would make the difference for sure in a decision to attend this very prestigious university.

I also think many of you might enjoy Dr. Sapolsky's books. I'd start with WHY ZEBRAS DON'T GET ULCERS, which is about the science of stress. You can get it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698?ie=UTF8&qid=1467899789&ref_=la_B000APOCFE_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

You might wonder what my daughter's response to my mission was.

"I sure hope he doesn't take out a restraining order on you."

:)

Stanford - the campus

Stanford was not my favorite campus on the California grad school excursion, but I ended up with a fair number of photos nonetheless. Enough that I'm going to break them down into different segments - this one for the campus proper, another one on a mission I made on behalf of dear daughter, and the last one on the hotel and food.

This photo is the quintessential Stanford look. I'm not sure why I didn't like it except that the buildings here weren't my favorite architectural style and the open areas felt too exposed and too huge. The whole place felt very impersonal to me and that's not how I want a college campus to feel.

It's entirely possible the front and center headlines to do with the rape case sentencing spilled over onto my Stanford visit. I have no way of knowing if the huge impersonal feel is connected to what happened in that case but it seemed like it might be related. I tried to put the case out of mind while visiting and mostly succeeded at least consciously. I don't think I would go to school here unless there were a compelling reason - like a professor I wanted to work with specifically, etc. But I did enjoy exploring.

This was a common look across campus. 

These trees were huge and in some ways lovely but they just didn't inspire me. 

In this next one I think I see what I didn't like - the huge trees were nice but then in then distance you see the huge open area that is pavement/concrete. There were roads throughout campus with traffic and I didn't like that either. 

The blue skies and stucco were lovely but again, so exposed, and cut through with the huge driveway.

This next area was nicer and I enjoyed the sense of forest and the benches.

Certain spots were postcard perfect.

This little haven was appealing. There's a campus eatery down there and I loved the shade and sense of privacy in this nook.

This section had stone insets along the walkway for each graduating class for many years running and I saw them installing the Class of 2016 inset while I was there. The walkway itself was quite nice but the huge courtyard in the center (not shown in this photo) was too theme-parkish for my tastes. 

The physics building was kind of a disappointment on the outside.

But inside there were a few nice features.

I left dear son to his own devices and headed to check out the library. Another postcard scene.

When I got to the library I was a bit annoyed that I had to provide scans of my driver's license and fill out a huge online form to get a visitor's pass. I guess it was worth it to see this:

On my way out I had to offer my backpack and purse to be searched. This is the only library I visited where this was done and it seemed like overkill. Definitely annoying.

I headed back to the chapel to see what it was like on the inside.

I got a little obsessed with this donkey.

My favorite thing about the chapel was the tiny bathroom which was charming and very cool on a hot day. And it had its own stained glass window.

Back to physics to meet dear son:

I'm saving my little side mission for tomorrow. I had a nice lunch outside the library at a very fun campus eatery that had lots of great choices and a lively cafe atmosphere. There were also neat fountains just adjacent which I neglected to photograph. 

Overall? This campus didn't really click with me. Neither did Palo Alto. 

My annual PSA on fireworks

If you plan to set off your own backyard fireworks, I urge you to take a moment to consider:

Dogs

Cats

Horses

Donkeys

Other animals such as cows, goats, and pigs

Birds including chickens, ducks,and wild songbirds

Wildlife in general

There are statistics showing that many animals are displaced due to fireworks each year, that birds actually drop dead and fall to the ground, and that rate of injury and accidents goes way up for large animals.

If that isn't enough on its own to convince you to put the fireworks away, consider the risk of injury to yourself, your friends and family, and the risk of fire that could damage your own property as well as that of others if it spreads. When you light the fuse of anything that goes up in the air you basically have no control over where it comes down. I have had still burning fireworks land in my back field before from neighbors four farms away.

And if that isn't enough, consider the likelihood that somewhere nearby lives a combat veteran with trauma and that the sound of fireworks is very similar to live fire. 

I'll add in that not everyone wants to hear the noise of fireworks and when you set them off you basically ruin the holiday for all of us who prefer a quieter celebration.

When you set off fireworks to celebrate independence you basically trample all over the rights of others. 

Why not go watch the fireworks set off by cities and towns? I'm not fond of those either, but at least they're controlled and they have emergency teams nearby in case they're needed.

Or you can spend your 4th of July the way I do - with cats and dogs sequestered safely inside, horses and donkeys contained in small paddocks near the barn, and a bottle of Rescue Remedy in hand to help all get through the evening.