I Love CA: Stanford

Architectural delights abound at Stanford University.

The campus is beautiful, both the elegant buildings and the landscape that surrounds them.  And it holds a special place in our hearts because here is where we spent our first year of marriage.  Cody was getting a Masters in structural engineering.  I was teaching elementary music part time.  We had a tiny apartment on the 8th (the very top...the penthouse!) floor of a student housing building.  We spent one year sightseeing as much as time, money,  and Cody's studies would allow.

We met some of our dearest friends here at Stanford.  The Ceaicovschis were fellow students that we formed a lifelong friendship with...in fact we just visited their family in Montana this summer.

I love the vibe at Stanford.  It's classy and ancient, yet progressive all at once.  I didn't appreciate it as much as a 21 year old as I would appreciate it now.  Everywhere I turned on this trip I seemed to exclaim, why didn't we do this when we were here?!?  Cody often reminded me we were young, poor, and busy when we lived at Stanford.  We did what we could.  As 30-somethings our lives, interests, and abilities are different.  Not better, just different.

One of the things I didn't even know existed when we were at Stanford so long ago is the Gamble Gardens.  This several acre haven from the city is full of gorgeous plants and garden features.  We strolled about and I went a little crazy with the camera.  I narrowed my many shots down to a few to showcase the beauty we saw in this garden.

Another fun thing we did was visit our old church family on Sunday morning after we ran a 5K.  It had been almost 15 years, but they remembered us.  It was great to catch up with them and to see their families...the children we remember as being 3-4 years old were so grown up.  They were practically college bound and one had a mustache!  That group of Christians was so loving toward us and challenged us to grow spiritually during our time at Stanford.  They have a special place in our hearts.

I love Stanford and its neighboring town of Palo Alto so much.  If 2 bedroom houses didn't cost half a million dollars, we might even consider living there!   I did get a pretty cool souvenir from the Silicon Valley.  We popped by the Apple store and picked up an iPhone 5.  I thought it was neat to get one so near the source.