Run #20: Lake House, Landau Economics, Language Corner (Pigott Hall) (260), Lathrop Barn, Lathrop Gate House, Lathrop Library, Laurel

Today's run started out with what Ira called "without a doubt the most interesting find of the entire run so far."  He's referring to our first stop, the Lake House.  Before today, we weren't even sure that it existed at all.  But, we found it, and it created more questions than answers.  Basically, it is a private residence on the "shores" of Lake Lagunita.  It is surrounded by a fence on three sides, and it is really tough to peer inside (trust me, we tried).  There are all sorts of signs that say "Private Residence", so it felt like we were trespassing.  Who lives here?  Why is it on the map?  Can anyone live here?  What's the deal?  (Editor's note: after some Googling, I found this information.)

Then, we went to the Landau Economics Building, right near Memorial Auditorium.  This is one of those buildings you go by a billion times and never notice what it is called.  There probably isn't a reason to notice it unless you are studying economics.  Not that there is anything wrong with economics, of course.

We then went back to the Quad for the Language Corner (Pigott Hall) (260).  I'm certainly not crazy about the double set of parentheses, and this is the corner of the Quad closest to the clock tower.  There is a rant about this coming, but I'll save it for the P's, when, inexplicably, this building is listed again.  This corner is pretty much the busiest bike intersection on campus, yet I bet, if you did a poll, most students would have no idea where Pigott Hall is.

Then, it was up the hill to the golf course area.  Ira shared the story of the parking craziness around that side of campus, which sounds like it will be a mess for a few years.  We ran up the hill to the Lathrop Barn which is, um, a barn.  It is an old barn near the Carnegie Institution that is locked up, with no sign and no easy access.  No idea why this is on the map either.  It looked totally unused.

We headed back down the hill to the Lathrop Gate House, a private residence near the entrance to the golf course.  I'll admit we didn't actually touch this building, since, as we ran close, there was a person nearby and a large dog started barking at us.  Well, it may not have actually been a "large" dog, but it was a dog.  I found some information about this private residence at this article, where it is called the "Alta Vista Gatehouse".  Bizarre that today's run took us by two of the coolest private residences on the Stanford campus.

We were tired, but we decided to keep going to the newly opened Lathrop Library.  It's the old business school, right across from History Corner, and it contains a lot of the stuff that was moved out of Meyer Library.  Ira told the story of his new car on the way there, and we actually walked inside as Ira found the auditorium where he took CIV his freshman year.  It turns out that walking for a few minutes feels really good, but then feels terrible when you start to run again.

Lastly, we decided to check more thing off our list: Laurel, which is one of the "tree portables".  Do they really each deserve their own entry on the map?  We brainstormed other tree names that begin with the letter L.  (Loganberry, Lingonberry, Lime, Lemon.  OK, maybe those aren't trees.  We were at six miles at this point, and we only really went here to make the next stage of the run make more sense geographically.)

Distance: 6.3 miles (bringing us to 99.2 miles total)

Run #19: James H. Clark Center, Jen-Hsun Engineering Center, Johnson Pediatric Ambulatory Care Center, Jordan (420), Jordan Quad, Juniper, Keck Science, Kingscote Gardens, Knight Building, the Knoll, Koert Pavilion

We ran two days in a row this weekend, which is rare.  And, we also did two whole letters: all the J's and all the K's!  And, since there are no I's at all, I'm taking credit for three letters in one run.  How 'bout that!

The big topic of conversation on today's run was Ira's saga of buying a car.  When a story begins, "I know you'll find this hard to believe, but car salesmen don't always tell the truth."  He's trying to buy a car, and proceeded to tell the story of how a car salesman told him he had the car he wanted, but then, at the last minute, actually didn't.  That happened about five or six times.  Maybe Ira actually has a new car now, but that seems unlikely.

Oh, and Ira also had this new compression wrap thing on his calf, which seemed to help.  Plus, it made him look like a serious runner. You've seen the same sort of thing in the NBA all the time.  Sorry, Ira, I couldn't find a picture of Penny Hardaway wearing one.

Our first stop was the James H. Clark Center.  It is at the Med School, and we've passed by it a million times by now.  Very cool inner courtyard with a little cafe.  We seemed to run by lots of food options today, and at the end of the run we discussed how that might be the biggest change at Stanford since we were students.  How many places are there to get food besides a dorm cafeteria and Tresidder?  When we were students, there were about two.  Now it seems every building has a cool place to eat.  Here's a cool picture of the Clark Center, looking like it should be in a Tom Cruise movie.

Next is the Jen-Hsun Engineering Center.  We run right by it on just about every run, and, keeping with the food theme, I was excited when Ira told me that Ike's Sandwiches is still there.  I had heard it was leaving, but I guess that was premature.  I'll be picking up a sandwich sometime in the next month for sure.

Our longest segment today took us to the Johnson Pediatric Ambulatory Center on Welch Road, near the mall version of the Stanford Barn.  Pretty much the whole time Ira was talking about buying his car, and, amazingly, we didn't get mixed up in the construction around the hospital.  We're doing a much better job navigating than we were earlier in the run.

Then, back to the Quad for Jordan (420), which is the Psychology department.  This is, of course, home to the famous Stanford Prison Experiment.  I must also bring up the bizarre numbering scheme in the front of the Quad, where the buildings are numbered 380, 420, 460, 120, 160, 200.  OK, I guess that's not so odd, since they are all 40 apart.  But it sure looks weird when you consider the rest of the Quad, since some numbers are missing.

Then, a weird one: Jordan Quad.  This is not even a building, and is just a collection of buildings, many of which we've already visited.  These buildings are so old and uninteresting compared to the rest of campus that the entire place will clearly be torn down sometime soon.  In fact, here is my "power ranking" of the various "quads" on the Stanford campus.

1.  Main Quad (10 points out of 10, for many reasons)

2.  new Science and Engineering Quad (7 out of 10)

3.  Sterling Quad (3 out of 10)

4.  Jordan Quad (0.01 out of 10)

Then we ran to nearby Juniper, one of the "tree portables" that we've gotten to know well.  We briefly discussed the difference between Juniper and Junipero.

Next was Keck Science, which is right across the street from the Rodin Sculpture Garden.  I peek into the lobby and noticed a cool metal cube sculpture in the lobby, clearly not made by Rodin.  You can kind of see it in the picture below.  (I also feel compelled, dear map-maker, to comment on why the James Clark building is under the J's, but the William Keck building is under the K's.)

The hidden gem of this run was next: Kingscote Gardens, an apartment building right near the Faculty Club.  It is a bit run down, but has a beautiful quirky charm, and is surrounded by cool oak trees and a nice lawn and  driveway.  It would be a big perk to live here: fun and peaceful.

Tough to believe we had three more places remaining, but here goes.  We ran to the old business school and found the Knight Building, which now houses East Asian Studies, apparently.  This took us right by the new Lathrop Library, and we peeked inside and saw some people studying.  It looked pretty neat.

We were tired by now, but ran up the hill behind Flo Mo to the Knoll, which is closer than you think, all things considered.  Trivia fact: the Knoll was the home of Stanford's president before the Lou Henry Hoover House.  It now always seems abandoned, and has a bit of a haunted house feel.

Our last stop was pretty close: the Koret Pavilion, which is basically attached to the Hillel-Ziff Center.  It was very much on the way home, and Ira tried to run through the building unsuccessfully.

That's all for today's run.  Two letters on one run is impressive, and our pace was a bit too fast.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw my old student Ally at the beginning of the run, when I locked my bike up by Wilbur Field.  Good job on your first swim meet at Stanford!  (Note to all other students: Ally was leaving to do her math homework.  Are you doing your homework?  You should.  Homework is important.)

Distance: 6.7 miles (92.9 miles total, which seems like a lot)

Run #18: Lou Henry Hoover House, Lou Henry Hoover Building, Hoover Pavilion, Hoover Tower, Housing Maintenance Center and Annex

We had an unusual Saturday run today, since Ira's leg has been hurting a bit, so we had to take a few days off. I feel a bit bad about this, since I'm sort of the cause of his injury: I bumped into him last run.  Oops.

OK, I need to rant a bit about the alphabetical ordering of the "Hoover" buildings.  There are five listed on the map, and the order is totally jumbled up.  The map lists them like this:
1.  Hoover Memorial Building, Hebert
2.  Hoover House, Lou Henry
3.  Hoover Bldg., Lou Henry
4.  Hoover Pavilion
5.  Hoover Tower

So many things are wrong.  Why in what alphabet does "house" come before "building"?  Why the need to use an abbreviation for "building"?  And, that building is actually called the "Lou Henry Memorial Building", so why does Hebert deserve the word "memorial" and Lou Henry does not?  Heck, the buildings are almost identical, and share a courtyard.  And, of course, we must question why some buildings on the map are alphabetized by the first name, whereas here the first name is just tacked on, after a comma.

Anyways, we first ran to the Lou Henry Hoover House, which is the private home of Stanford president John Hennessy.   He's a nice guy; I've taught his kids, and Ira knows him from working at Stanford.  We had an awkward decision here, since normally we touch the door of a building to "prove" we've been there.  But this building is someone's home.  In the end, we touched the historical plaque on the sidewalk, then decided to run across the front lawn and touch a wall of the outdoor balcony.  (Note: the front lawn really had some bit divots. It was really torn up.  Ira called it "very shabby."  What happened there?)  We were a bit worried about awkwardly meeting someone from the Hennessy family and trying to explain what we were doing on their front lawn.

Next was the Lou Henry Hoover Building, which is part of the Hoover Institution.  We had to run around a bit to find the sign, but otherwise not much of note here.

Then, we had a long run down Palm Drive to the Hoover Pavilion.  We had a bit of a discussion why this is even on the map.  It is a cool old building, but it is really closer to the mall than the university. If you're going to put this on the map, why not Macy's or Nordstrom?  It is a nice building, though, and Ira's doctor is in this building, or so he claims.

Back to campus to touch Hoover Tower.  As we were running back, Ira forgot about this stop and was running toward our next stop, so we had to backtrack a bit.  See, I do bring some value to this project.  If you're reading this blog, you probably know a lot about Hoover Tower.  If not, you can look it up, since it is probably the most famous building on the campus.

Our last stop was the Housing Maintenance Center and Annex, which is over by Escondido Village.  Ira took us on a wacky shortcut, and we ran through a courtyard we'd never seen before.  There was this weird sandbox with a three-sided concrete mound.  (Tough to describe, but you'd have to see it to believe it.)  The actual buildings are the places where the maintenance department is, so there are lots of tools and vehicles.  We never actually found a sign for the annex, because it was surrounded by a fence.

Distance: 5.0 miles (bringing us to a total of 86.2)  

We're going to try to run tomorrow, depending on how our legs are doing.

Run #17: Hagey Pediatric Regenerative Med, Harmony House, Herrin Hall/Herrin Labs, Health Research & Policy (Redwood), Hansen Experimental Physics Lab (HEPL South), Hillel-Ziff Center, History Corner (200), Hoover Memorial Building

We missed our usual long run this weekend, since I was in San Diego for a family wedding.  Today I had to rush over from school on my bike, and so I was a bit late and a little frazzled and unprepared.  This run didn't go as smoothly as some of the others.

We headed across campus to the Hagey Pediatric Regenerative Medicine building.  We knew it was over by the medical school and hospital, but once we got over there, we couldn't really find it.  (See?  We were unprepared.)  We ran through my favorite building (CCSR, which we've dubbed the "Tom Cruise" building since it looks like it belongs in some big-budget science fiction movie), then realized we were lost, looked at a map, and then ran back through the Tom Cruise building and found Hagey.  Hagey is somewhat unimpressive architecturally, so here's another picture of the CCSR (aka Tom Cruise) building.

Then it was back toward the center of campus for the Harmony House, which is between Tresidder and Roble.  I'm not sure exactly what goes on here, but the building is a quaint little house.  (A quick Google search reveals it houses the "Institute for Diversity in the Arts."  That seems like a worthwhile cause.  Tough to argue with that.)

As we were running to our next location, Ira had to avoid two pedestrians on a narrow path next to the construction across from the Earth Sciences buildings. When he went around them, I clipped his thigh with my foot.  It wasn't a big collision, but he started cramping up a bit, and that made the rest of the run a bit tricky.  

We were running to Herrin Hall, Herrin Labs.  (Hey map-maker, why is this one location on the map instead of two?  Other buildings with similar names have earned two entries.)  On our way there, I made the comment that I didn't think this building actually still existed.  To our surprise, yes, it did, and we decided this is probably the biggest building that I've never been inside at all.  It is between the Gilbert Biology building and the Oval, and houses a lot of offices and labs on lots of floors. It is an older building, and looks like it might eventually be replaced, but there it is, going strong.  (Ira had to stretch his calf a bit.)

Next we headed back to the medical school to find Health Research & Policy (Redwood).  There are many map-maker questions here:

• Um, the list is not in alphabetical order again.  Sigh.  Shouldn't "Health" come before "Herrin"?  How does this keep getting messed up?  
• Why is this listed under "Health" instead of "Redwood"?  The listing of the name of the building in parenthesis is unbelievably inconsistent.  Last run we visited "Gunn (SIEPR)", which follows the exact opposite scheme as this building.
• Health Research & Policy is actually a little "quad" of buildings.  You'll notice on the map there are several buildings (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, to be specific).  Why do these buildings not get their own shout-out?  All the buildings at the Business School did.  This whole thing is frustrating – let's move on.

It was back to the Earth Sciences area for the Hansen Experimental Physics Lab (HEPL South).  Again you'll notice we're out of alphabetical order.  It is unclear whether the map-maker is trying to file this under "Hansen" or "HEPL", but either way it is in the wrong place.  Not a very good job on the H's.  In any event, we couldn't really find the door for this building at first, and it looks like an evil fortress of concrete from some super hero movie.  I really tried to find a picture of it, but there isn't one on the internet at all. Who knows what the heck is going on inside this building?  We peeked inside and it seemed dangerous, with lots of equipment.  I hope they keep it locked.

We headed across campus to the Hillel-Ziff Center.  It's on the corner of Campus Drive and Mayfield.  Happy Rosh Hashanah tomorrow!  This is a beautiful old home with a primo location!

Then we ran to the Quad to touch the History Corner (200). We obviously knew where it was, and we found a sign that said "200", but, as far as we can tell, there is not a sign that says "History Corner" anywhere.  I mean, sure, it is the History Department and it is on the corner of the Quad, and everyone calls it History Corner, but isn't the point of the map that you could find things if you were an outsider.  Hey, map-maker, is it really the right call to use Stanford insider lingo?

One last building today: the Hebert Hoover Memorial Building.  It is one of two buildings that make up the Hoover Institution think tank near Hoover Tower.  The sign for this building is actually inside the lobby, and we almost missed it completely.  I have a huge rant coming on the alphabetical haphazardness of the five buildings listed under "Hoover" on the map, but this entry is getting long, so I'll save it for next time.

Distance: 5.1 miles (81.2 total)

Run #16: Graduate Community Center, Graduate School of Business, Green Earth Sciences, Green Library, Gunn (SIEPR), Haas Center

Today was the first day of the entire journey that I felt compelled to bring a paper map.  We knew that our second spot today was the Business School, and we're totally unfamiliar with the various buildings around there.  Yes, we know very little about business.

Before that, though, our first destination was the Graduate Community Center, just a little way down Escondido Road.  There's a little cafe, and there were quite a few people gathered around eating  outside.  They looked at us kind of funny when we ran through the tables and touched the door.

On the way there and on the way back, we ran through the crazy new roundabout that is at the intersection of Campus Drive and Escondido.  We've eyed this in various stages of construction and, now that's it is done, we're very skeptical.  It seems to work OK for pedestrians, although it always seems like a leap of faith that the car is going to stop for us.  We're really worried, though, about what happens when traffic is heavy and there are lots of students on bikes.  It seems like a lot to look for in all directions: cars, walkers, and bikes.

Next was one big site: the Graduate School of Business: Knight Management Center.  By the rules we invented, this is one place, but the map actually lists various distinct buildings (Bass Center, CEMEX Auditorium, Faculty Building East and West, Gunn Building, MBA Class of 1968 Building, McCleland Building, Oberndorf Event Center, Patterson Building, Zambrano Hall).  We touched every one, which made us look ridiculous as we ran back and forth in front of the same people about seven times.  The whole place is quite new and cool looking, and we were really impressed with the branding "naming opportunities."

A few highlights from our criss-crossing journey:

• We had a silly conversation about whether the Bass Center rhymes with "face" or "pass".  
• I have no idea when CEMEX stands for, but there is a really cool artwork right outside with flipping colored tiles that I'd never seen before.  Mesmerizing.
• The "MBA Class of 1968 Building" may have the worst name of any building on campus.  
• At one point we ran through the cafeteria, which is sort of inside: it is enclosed with a roof, but all the doors to the outside were open.  Still, that's the first time I can remember we've run through a building.
• We couldn't find the Oberndorf Center,  but then we saw a sign that said it was on the third floor.  Yes, we ran up the stairs, the first time we've done so in this adventure.  Ira's pedometer doesn't handle elevation, so this really hurt our distance and average pace.
• The CEMEX Center is inside Zabrano Hall, so we aren't sure why it was listed twice.  We definitely touched the building, though.  And enjoyed the art again.

Then, across campus to the Green Earth Sciences Building.  Not much to report here.  It is a nice new building, and Ira was telling me a story about 7th grade math, which passed the time very well and caused us to run pretty slowly.

We ran back to the center of campus to Green Library.  If you follow this blog carefully, you'll note that we've already been to the Bing Wing and the East Wing, which seem to make up the entire library.  This brings up an interesting metaphysical question: what exactly is Green Library anyways?  I meditated on this biking home, and here's my best answer: it is sort of like North Dakota and South Dakota.  Just because they named the two parts doesn't mean that Dakota no longer exists.  Very "ting and yang" like.  Two parts of the whole.  (Whoa, this is getting heavy.)

We had brief run to Gunn (SIEPR), which stands for "Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research".  The building is near Memorial Auditorium, and we again sort of ran through some people having a reception.  This building is quite pretty and new, like many of of our stops today.

Lastly, we dipped our toe into the next letter of the alphabet by visiting the Haas Center, which provides community service opportunities for students.  It is really close to Wilbur Field, and is a cool old cottage-like building.  (Note to any current Stanford students: you should drop by here from time to time.  They do some good work.)  Oh, we also tried to cut through a courtyard which had no exit, and again some people were having a reception and looked at us funny.

It was only a few hundred yards back to Wilbur Field, so we tried to pick up the pace and run faster.  Unfortunately, this caused my iPhone to fall through a hole in my pocket and slide on the sidewalk.  It got scuffed up a wee bit – I've always gone coverless – but probably not enough damage to justify getting a new iPhone 6.

Distance: 3.6 miles, although we know we probably lost some tenths in the crazy back and forth of the Business School  (76.1 total).  I'm going to San Diego this weekend (Hi Kermit!) so there won't be another run for a few days.

Run #15: Gas Station, Gates Computer Science, Geology Corner, Gilbert Biological Sciences, Godzilla, Golf Clubhouse, Gould Center

Happy "Welcome to Stanford" day to the class of 2018 who moved in today!  There was an energy on campus that we hadn't felt all summer, and I couldn't find a place in my usual bike rack at Wilbur Field.  Congrats to Selby, Alex, Ricky, McKenzie, Harrison, and Ally.  Incredibly, as I was waiting for Ira, Ally was also on Wilbur Field, learning new dorm cheers from her Otero RA's.  Oh-oh-oh-Otero!  Hope you all enjoyed the Band Run tonight, which is probably going on as I type this.  It is one of my favorite Stanford traditions.

We started off today with the campus Gas Station.  It really doesn't say "gas station" anywhere, since it is now a Valero, but we touched the sign that displays the prices as well as one of the gas pumps.  This gas station actually has pretty good prices, considering the area.

Since it was "move in" day, Ira shared a hilarious story of his first day at Stanford.  I'll try to summarize: flew from Memphis, missed bus at SFO, waited 3 hours, Palm Drive had dead palm trees, arrived after dinner and checkin, no one waiting for him, roommates had already claimed space and put him on third top bunk, sheets and stuff was inaccessible in storage.  The saga continued the next few days, when he took his first walk around campus, and, in a 90 minute walk from Toyon, somehow never found the Main Quad.  Then, a few days later, he walked down El Camino to a bike shop to buy a bike, but the bike shop was in Mountain View.  (Let's just say it was all uphill after these first few days.)

We then ran down Serra to the Gates Computer Science building.  This building was built after I got my degree, but it sure is nice inside.  Our hero Donald Knuth has his office inside this building, I think.  My friend Truth once told me that Bill Gates made sure he had a dinner with Donald Knuth as a condition of funding this building.  Seems plausible.

The above picture reminded me that, on a previous run, we were wondering if the fountains would be operating today, to welcome the freshmen and their families.  Nope.  No water was flowing.

Next we ran to the Quad to the Geology Corner.  We have several questions for the map-maker today, and here's the first:  Why does the Geology corner get special recognition on the map when other departments don't?  This doesn't make much sense.

We then ran back towards Gates to the building next door, the Gilbert Biological Sciences.  It is also a fancy new building, with a lot of glass, but here's question #2:  Gates and Gilbert are listed by the last names of their namesakes, but the building across the street is the David Packard building, which is listed under the D's.  Explain.

The highlight of this whole journey was supposed to be Godzilla, an oddly named portable building near the backside of Roble Field.  Ira was so excited for this building, especially when I presented my theory of why it might have been named Godzilla.  There were two modulars – Bambi and Gozilla.  These names seemed bizarre, unless you go with my unproved theory that they were named after the famous short film "Bambi Meets Godzilla."  I've provided a link below, and it is totally worth 91 seconds of your time.

Alas, due to the construction on Roble Field, the Godzilla trailer no longer exists.  So, yes, Bambi outlasted Godzilla, at least at Stanford.  How poetic and glorious.  Somehow I think this may be the moral lesson of this whole journey.

Next we ran up the hill to the Golf Clubhouse.  Here's our next question (#3) for the map-maker: The map calls this the "Golf Clubhouse", but there is no sign anywhere that says "clubhouse".  One sign calls it the "restaurant", and the sign on the door of the restaurant just says "Stanford Golf Course."  Who is in charge of the signage?

When we ran down the hill, we noticed one more oddity.  The intersection of Junipero Serra and Campus Drive West has the worst crosswalk setup I've ever seen.  Instead of having four crosswalks like most intersections, there is only one, which makes it impossible to get to two of the four corners. We wanted to run along Junipero Serra (for the only time on this journey) and we had to fend for ourselves crossing traffic.  Probably not a question for the map-maker, but someone should look into this also.

Our last visit was pretty close to Wilbur Field: the Gould Center.  The sign says something about the center "for conflict resolution", and Ira and I noted that neither of us had ever been in this building, probably because we're such nice, friendly, amenable pacifists who never disagree with anyone.

Total: 4.4 miles (72.5 total).  

One final note: I always try to map out the runs ahead of time, and I had this one pegged at 4.5 miles. Every single run so far had come in over the estimate, probably because we run around the building looking for the signs, take a wrong turn, hit construction, or get lost.  This was the first run so far that came in under the distance estimate of Google Maps.  See, we're getting smarter than Google!

Run #14: Faculty Club, Fairchild Center, Falk Center, Field Conservation Facility, Fire Department, Fire Truck House, Forsythe Hall, Frost Amphitheater, Galvez Modular

We knocked off all the F's today with another one of our long Sunday runs.  This one really hurt, for some reason.  We definitely weren't at our best.  I felt really sluggish and overheated, and Ira was fighting off a cramp.  We made it the whole seven miles, but this probably was our most painful run.

On the other hand, we seemed to have great "map mojo."  I've chronicled lots of situations on past runs when we sort of got lost, tried to take a shortcut and hit a dead end, or other "where the heck is the building situations.  Today was the exact opposite.  Every decision we made paid off perfectly.  I think we probably took the absolute shortest path to each building.  When we made a guess where the door to a building might be, we guessed right.  When we decided to head across campus following a weird diagonal route between two buildings, we came out at just the right place.  It's a good thing we had such good mojo today, because I think an extra half mile detour someplace would have put us over the edge.

Our first stop today was the Faculty Club, right near Tresidder.  It's a restaurant that Stanford faculty can use.  I've eaten there a few times, but not for a while, so I asked Ira what he thought of it.  He was not very positive, to put it mildly.  "It is about as good as a Denny's," he said, criticizing the menu and the decor.  "I mean, I guess it is clean.  They sweep the floors."  Let's move on.

We then headed across campus to the Medical School to the Fairchild Center.  It's a nice looking building, and, looking through the window, you could see a lot of people in white lab coats doing stuff.  That's about all I can say, actually.

We were worried about our next destination: the Falk Center.  It is on the other side of the hospital, and we knew there was a lot of construction, and we thought it might be tough to find.  In fact, we almost ran right by the brass plaque identifying the building.  Good mojo!  I found a pretty picture of this building, when it isn't surrounded by construction and chain link fences.

At this point, I almost made a horrible mistake and skipped our next destination.  I try to memorize our stops and route, and I really haven't had to look at my phone for help much the last several runs.  This wasn't the case for the first few, when we didn't really have the system down.  We headed off in the wrong direction for about ten yards, when then I remembered we had to go to the Field Conservation Facility.  We ran through a bunch of med school buildings, and eventually came out by the new Stanford intramural fields on Oak Road.  As far as I can tell, this is probably the only opportunity we'll have to run down this road on this entire adventure, so we seized the day.  The building at the end, though, is pretty much just a portable trailer.

We were at 2.6 miles at this point, and our next goal was the Fire Department, way on the other side of campus.  Ira asked me what our mileage would be when we got there.  At first I guessed 4.3, and then I changed my guess to 4.1.  The real answer was 4.2. More mojo!   It was a long run down Serra Road in front of the Quad, but we eventually touched the door of the fire department.  There were three real fire trucks outside, and two guys were taking a picture of the coolest looking one.

Keeping with the "fire" theme, we ran back to the center of campus to the Fire Truck House.  This was the fire station for the early days of Stanford, but now it is a cool building that hosts various student groups like the Women's Center.  We were totally exhausted at this point, and, by "we", I mean "I".  I think I ate too many pancakes for dinner the night before.

We stayed on that side of campus and headed to Forsythe Hall, which is one of those buildings that will likely be knocked down in the next phase of construction.  I guess this is a bit nicer than the others, actually.  George Forsythe was the founder of the computer science department at Stanford, and his wikipedia page has a quote from Donald Knuth.  I probably should have stayed here a bit longer to pay some respect.

Next was a long trek to Frost Amphitheater.  Again our good map mojo paid off, and we took just the right path that got us there.  Frost is sort of an old relic of a venue, and we couldn't really find a sign but we touched the fence in a few places.  Did you know that graduation was at Frost until the 1980s?  The list of people who have played at Frost is quite impressive.  Here's a picture of a packed house to hear Joan Baez.

Beaten down, we headed back to Wilbur Field, although we picked up one more place along the way. Galvez Modular is a portable right by Meyer Library, and so we ran right by it anyways, like we probably do on over half of our runs.  That would be a fun stat, actually: which building have we passed more than any other?  Probably the Main Quad, I guess, although I'm not sure.

Total: a painful 7.0 miles (our good mojo continued when Ira's pedometer beeped about ten feet before we hit our stopping point), 68.1 miles total.  

On to the G's!

Run #13: Environmental Safety Facility, Escondido Village: Rainbow School, Escondido School, Escondite Cottage

We're done with the E's!  And, incredibly, there are no "I" buildings nor any "U" buildings.  So, hey, only one more vowel to go!  That's something, huh?

We headed off across campus to the Environmental Safety Facility which is pretty much the farthest building to the west.  Again, it is way out by the new power plant.  I'm not sure exactly what goes on in this building, but environmental safety has to be a worthwhile cause.  On the list of buildings on the map, it says "Environmental Safety Facility and ESF Annex," so we felt like we should find the ESF Annex, if only to be thorough.  According to the map, it is right next door (see "annex"), but the building itself had no sign.  Stupidly, we jogged all the way around it looking for a sign, but there just wasn't one.  Is there a Stanford "signage" department we can complain to?  We could see in the windows, where there were big yellow containers marked with red lettering saying "danger" and "toxic", so we were pretty sure we had the correct place.

Then, we had to head all the way across campus - more than two miles, according to Ira's pedometer - to Escondido Village.  This had to be the longest single stretch in our entire journey, since we pretty much spanned the map west to east.  We checked off three buildings right in a row.  The first was a pre-school called Escondido Village Center: Rainbow School.  I'm afraid I have to quibble with the map again: if you had no idea where you were going and you were looking for "Rainbow School", you sure wouldn't look in the E's, would you?  Add this to things we need to discuss with the mapmaker.

We then ran right across the street to Escondido School.  Ira made us go in and touch the door to the main office.  Again, this is a place Ira knows pretty well, for several reasons.

Then we ran back across the street to the Escondite Cottage.  We knew were it was on the map, but we never really saw a sign that said "Escondite".  We found one door that said "Cottage Room",  and I'm sure we had the right place because this is the headquarters for checking into graduate housing in Escondido Village, and we saw all sorts of signs that said so.  We even had to run around one grad student checking in with all his luggage, so we wished him good luck.  I wonder what he is studying.

That was all for today.  Ira is off to Atlanta for a business trip for a few days.  If you know of any fun things to do in Atlanta, please add a comment, because he knows he's going to have a few hours to kill.

Total: 4.3 miles (61.1 total)

Run #12: Durand, East Wing (Green Library), Education, Elliot Program Center, Encina Commons, Encina Hall

Today was our first run in a while, since we had a busy weekend, or at least Ira did.  To be honest, this wasn't the most interesting set of buildings, but here goes.

First was Durand, an older building from the 1950s or 1960s era of the Engineering side of campus.  It is a pretty big building that has been there for quite some time, and Ira's comment was "I don't think I've ever been inside this building.  I don't think I've even been up these outside steps."  Weird, since we've run by it a zillion times, and it was almost a hole on the old frisbee golf course.  At least we got to make one Durand Durand joke, although I wish I had said that we were hungry like the wolf.

Next was the East Wing of Green Library.  As we ran over, we discussed that we might not be able to find a sign that said "East Wing", and that was indeed what happened.  While there might be a sign inside, there was no sign anywhere on the outside, and we ran all the way around the back checking.

Right next door is the Education building, one that Ira clearly knows well.  We touched the door and moved on.

Our longest leg of the day took us to the shores of Lake Lagunita (Can you say the "shores" when the lake is entirely dry?  Probably not.) for the Elliot Program Center.  This is pretty close to Ira's dorm house, and we had to run around this one also, only this time we found the sign.  On a spring day when there is water in the lake, the outdoor patio is a great place for an event.

We ran back along the lake to the center of campus, right past the library to Encina Commons.  This is a random administrative building, but we know it well as the famous final hole of the frisbee golf course.  We ran right down "methane lane", which is this outdoor portico that, if you throw your frisbee just right, it flies along the polished tiles, and it really seems like it is floating like an air hockey table.  The legend is told that our frisbee hero friend Truth would always try to convince people that the reason the frisbee would float like that is because there was methane leaking through the tiles.

Right around the corner is Encina Hall, another administrative building that is one of the oldest buildings on campus.  In fact, I just learned it was the first dorm built; this article about "The Bad Boys of Encina Hall" is really, really interesting.  I especially like the part about the hazing, which sounds perilously close to water boarding.  Anyways, it is a really pretty building that I think I've been inside once in my life.

Total: 3.3 miles (56.8 total)

Run #11: Credit Union, Cummings Art, Cypress Hall, David Packard Electrical Engineering, Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Drell

This run actually came together pretty nicely.  Six buildings in 3.2 miles is a much better ratio than yesterday's eight buildings in 7.8 miles.  Why can't the map be our friend all the time?

Oh, and we had Jake and Mo running with us again.  They're becoming groupies.

Our first stop was the Credit Union, which seems much farther away than it actually is.  It is a long block down Serra Road.  Ira said he was actually there earlier in the day, presumably doing some banking.  Yeah, this is basically a bank.  We touched the ATM instead of the door.

Next was the Cummings Art building, right across from the History Corner of the quad.  Ira was convinced that we had already been there, but, alas, he was mixing it up with the Art Gallery, which is right next door but is a different building.  (Side note: one the best classes I ever took at Stanford was in this building.  "History of Architecture" was awesome.  I learned a lot, and I still remember the slides.  High praise from a CS major.)

The next leg was the longest segment of today's run.  We ran through the quad and the new engineering side of campus to Cypress Hall.  They've done a really nice job with all the new engineering buildings, and it is a beautiful sight line that leads all the way from the far side of the quad in a long, east-west straight line.  Hats off to the people who planned this vista.  It is weird, though, that if you stand on one end of this axis and squint, the building at the other end is Cypress Hall, which is really quite unimpressive.  I'm sure this building is on the chopping block, and they'll finish this off with a nice fountain or something.

OK, here's today's complaint about the map.  Let's say you had this map and you wanted to find the electrical engineering building.  You'd logically look in the E's, wouldn't you?  It isn't there.  Then, let's say you somehow knew the building was named after David Packard.  You'd logically look in the P's, wouldn't you?  Nope.  Not there either.  For some reason, the David Packard Electrical Engineering building is listed alphabetically under the D's.  This makes no sense.  Look at the picture above.  The Nathan Cummings Art Center isn't listed under N.  A building shouldn't be listed by the first name.  People probably call this building "Packard", not "David".  The Bill Gates Computer Science building is across the street, and it is listed in the G's, not the B's.  OK, I'm done with my rant.  

We then ran back to White Plaza to touch Dinkelspiel Auditorium.  This is another building that pretty much everyone knows.  I've heard lots of music and a cappella groups here, and I seem to recall being inside during freshman orientation when there was a minor earthquake, and all the non-Californians freaked out because the lights were swaying a bit.  Rookies.

Right around the corner is a building called Drell, which I had never heard of before.  It is a beautiful old building that was a former faculty housing.  There's lots of good info about this building in this article, including the fact that it may have been moved a block to make way for the Munger dorms.  And, wow, the Drell family members are really good at Physics!

Distance: 3.2 miles (53.5 miles total)

UPDATE: I realized I forgot one big story from this run.  At the beginning of our runs, Ira often bring a frisbee from his office, which we throw around a bit before we start.  We don't want to bring it on our run, so we usually leave it by my bike.  It is has always been there when we return, except for this time...

The frisbee was gone.  We looked around, and saw a grad-student-looking guy in workout clothes talking to a woman on the other side of the field.  It looked like the frisbee was near his feet.  We walked over, and the two of them awkwardly looked at us as we were approaching.  Ira just picked up the frisbee and said "I'll take back my frisbee."  The guy just sheepishly replied something like "OK, I got it from over there."  No apology at all.  I'd like to think that he was trying to ask the woman out on a date, and we showed him to be an unethical creepy thief.  Take that you unnamed guy!  You've been called out on my blog!