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.
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)
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