A day at Stanford with an exciting evening

Dan and I decided to take the kids to see Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto, CA.  We enjoy seeing college campuses and like to start brainwashing our children about colleges at an early age.  It required two train rides for a total travel time of a little over an hour, one way.  Luckily, we discovered a free Stanford shuttle that runs from the train station to campus. Our first stop was Hoover Tower, named for President Herbert Hoover, who was a member of the first graduating class of Stanford.

Of course, we took the elevator ride to the top. The kids were afraid we would have to walk to the top, which is a fear they have had since the experience of the Arc de Triumph...The view was incredible!  This is a view of the Quad.

We also had to take a picture of the kids at the top for good measure.

We grabbed lunch at the Student Union.  It has a very impressive food court for a college.  Most of the places were closed because it was after 2:00 PM, but during peak hours their offerings include, Italian, sushi, a French boulangerie, Chinese, Subway, froyo, and Starbucks.  That is way more than the Taco Bell and KFC in the Wake Forest food court back in the day.  We headed to the bookstore and purchased t-shirts for everyone, which is a tradition of ours upon visiting a college campus.   Then, we made our way to the Quad, which is centered around the Memorial Church.  It is an exquisite non-denominational church that was built by Jane Stanford in memory of her husband, Leland Stanford, the founder of the University. The artwork that you see is all done in mosaics, which is incredible.  The detail is extraordinary.  

My pictures of the inside didn't turn out very well, due to the lighting, so I will post one picture that doesn't even begin to capture the beauty and majesty of the place.  Google Stanford Memorial Church, if you want to see better pics of the inside.  Again, the designs are all mosaic tiles.  

Mrs. Stanford collected many inspirational sayings over the years and inscribed them on the walls of the church.  I think this is one of my favorites:  "A noble ambition is among the most helpful influences of a student life, and the higher this ambition  is, the better.  No man can work well unless he can speak as the Great Master did of the joy set before Him.  And this leads to the greatest of all safeguards, and the most encouraging of all stimulating influences to a noble life, - that is, the power of personal religion.  We need something outside of and beyond ourselves."

After visiting the church, we walked around the Quad area, admiring the architecture.  The style of the campus is mainly Mission Revival, I think.  It is so different from what we see on the East Coast, but it is very beautiful.  Here is a picture of Dan and the kids in one of the colonnades (which may not be the proper architectural term).

We also discovered a totem pole as we were wandering around campus.  The kids liked the explanation about Boo Quilla.

Now, for the really exciting part of the evening.  We discovered that Stanford is hosting the Bank of the West Classic, a USTA women's tennis tournament.  The 7:00 match last night was Serena Williams vs. Ana Pliskova.  Yes, that Serena Williams -- the #1 ranked women's tennis player in the world.  There were still tickets available, so we couldn't pass up the chance to see Serena play in person.  

She won, of course.  At one point, the serve speed monitor showed that she served the ball at 117 miles per hour.  Wow!  We stuck around to see a bit of the doubles match before heading back to San Fran.

Unfortunately, the shuttle was no longer running to the train station, so we walked the mile through campus back to the station.  It is a great campus for walking and biking, as evidenced by the thousands of bikes we saw on our visit.  We felt like we were back in Amsterdam for a moment.  We caught both trains back to SF, which led to a late night, but very worth the experience.