Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Visiting Stanford

Last week I visited Stanford University to meet with some VIPs of the fluid mechanics community. This was my first real visit to California. Previously my only time in California consisted of Kristie and I running from one side of LAX airport to the other lasting a grand total of approximately 15 minutes. Most people have told me that that doesn't count as visiting California. So my stay this time was significantly increased because I was in California for 25 hours (arrived 12:30 am Wednesday and left ~1:30 am Thursday). The flights were horrible since I first sat on the plane in Detroit for 2 hours, deplaned for about 45 minutes, got back on the plane, spent about a half hour deicing the plane, and then we finally started the 4.5 hour flight. The return flight was better since it was less than an hour late and by sprinting through Minneapolis we were able to catch our flight to Detroit as they were closing the doors.

In spite of the miserable travel schedule/delays the trip was useful and pretty enjoyable. I was able to visit the fluid mechanics labs, meet with a few very knowledgeable professors, present some of my work, and have lunch at the faculty club (the bathroom had cloth towels in it). Plus I was able to walk around Stanford's campus a bit and in the evening my advisor and I went into San Francisco for dinner. Since this was my first visit to the area my advisor figured I couldn't go to San Fransisco and not see the Golden Gate Bridge so we went down to Fisherman's Wharf and was able to get a nice view of the bridge at night as well as Alcatraz. The only unfortunate thing about the trip was that I was within a few miles of two close friends of mine and wasn't able to visit them because the trip was so short, but with any luck I'll be making more visits out there.

Stanford Campus - Old Union Area

Key spots from my visit to Stanford.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hOW COOL!!

demoreeann said...

nice map :) ... i was going to say "Go Cardinals!" or something like that.. but the i realized that their mascot is THE Cardinal. i'm not sure how to make that into a chant .. "Go THE Cardinal!" ? haha.

belbing said...

Perhaps "The Cardinal, The Cardinal,..." in like a chant type voice. That seems like it could be a little creepy even, which would be intimidating.

Mrs. Starman said...

I like the note about the bathroom towels... good detail!

jbhancock said...

Yes, I remember our race through LAX airport... the machine guns... drug dogs... quite a nice place. Hope you had fun in SF! It is one of my favorite places!

Anonymous said...

OH maN!!! So close to where the Nash and I work. I've taken Galvez St several times on my way to work after getting off at the Palo Alto Caltrain station (located in South East Section of the map)...Oh, Did you get to drive down the Real El Camino! Ben seems to have a very strong dislike for that street :) Wellp, I really hope they let you come out again.

Btw, I'm now the self proclaimed fusball champ of the west!