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!