Anya's brother, Neil, lives in Tokyo but travels to the States and Europe as often as his schedule allows. He's a professor now and is organizing a collaborative research project with some people at Stanford; he's spending a couple weeks in California getting to know those people. We went down for the weekend to see him.
Neil is staying on campus at Stanford in Palo Alto, which is in Silicon Valley about half way between San Francisco and San Jose. Since a large portion of the world's leading tech companies are located there, Neil was scouting the area as a potential place to move. He'd been to San Francisco before but wanted to explore some interesting places outside the city.
We started the trip by driving from Silicon Valley over the small mountains to Santa Cruz, which is right on the ocean at the northern tip of Monterey Bay. It being a hot summer weekend, there was a ferocious traffic jam getting to the beach in this surfing-crazed town. We reconsidered our plans and went to downtown Santa Cruz instead. We also visited a small, funky beachside village named Capitola, which I've since read is the oldest beach resort on the West Coast.
From Santa Cruz we drove North on the Pacific Coast Highway to another beach town, Half Moon Bay, before cutting back over the mountains to Silicon Valley. It's only about 35 miles between S.C. and H.M.B., but during that time you drive along a beautiful stretch of coastline ("beautiful" is almost a redundant term when describing "coastline" in Northern California). There are literally dozens of spots to pull off the road and access the ocean. We chose a spectacular place called Scott Creek Beach where the Pacific was mercilessly battering a wide swath of sand - no breakwaters or coastal islands here. No crowds, either.
Back in Palo Alto we walked around the Stanford campus which, as I wrote before, is gorgeous. The sun was just going down, and the twilight made for some great photography (even for amateurs like us).
Our last day we went to Berkeley to visit Stanford's archrival, the University of California; Berkeley is the flagship campus of the 10 school U.C. system. It's a hilly campus that's architecturally more diverse (read: hodgepodge) than Stanford but still quite nice. Although it has a reputation for being a hotbed of liberal social activism, today it's mostly recognized as one of the best science & engineering schools in the country. While it's definitely more urban and down-to-earth than lofty Stanford, the atmosphere is no more radical than what you'd find in any big city. We didn't get enough time in Berkeley before heading to the airport to come home, so it's a place I'd like to get back to again sometime.
As you'll be able to tell from all the pictures we took, we had a great weekend.
2 comments:
You beat me back to Stanford! How long is Neil staying down there? I liked when you called Stanford "lofty."
We need to talk on the phone soon - it's been awhile.
Matt - Neil is going back to Japan this weekend, but he'll likely be visiting Stanford this winter when you'll be there. We'll all get together - It'll be fun.
I actually debated about the right words for the whole lofty/down-to-earth comparison between Stanford & Berkeley. I think it turned out well. I suppose it ultimately comes down to the public vs. private divide: Stanford has money to spend on things like landscaping, architectural unity, and Rodin sculptures.
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