I spent this past weekend in San Francisco. This was my third trip to San Fran and this time my friend Jake and I decided to rent a car and drive around the Bay Area and see what was what. Everyone always says that the Bay Area is one of the best places in America to live and I wanted to see what it had to offer. After driving through Berkeley, Oakland and several others towns in between we made it down to Stanford University in Palo Alto.
What an amazing college town. The University itself, being one of the best colleges in the United States is absolutely beautiful. I can see why people mortgage their lives to send their kids there and why kids who can get in anywhere decide to go to Stanford. The campus is like a big country club. It is colorful and big with tons of nice basketball courts and tennis courts dotting the living areas. I didn’t see inside the dorms or buildings but I just assume they are nice. It is no wonder why superstar athletes like Tiger Woods and children of US Presidents attend.
The athletic facilities are superb, it is no wonder why they have the overall best athletic program in America year after year. I mean the campus actually hosted a Superbowl (XVI, 49ers beat the Dolphins). The campus is done in sort of a Mediterranean style of architecture that is just very inviting and warm. I was just blown away by the campus and that doesn’t even begin to address the actual town of Palo Alto.
Downtown Palo Alto is ridiculous for a college town. I understand that regular people other than college kids live there and it is a thriving community but the downtown had everything to offer that you can find in any major metropitan city. It has the best stores and restaurants. I was immediately thinking that how can most college kids afford to live with all of this here to entice them to spend, but then again most people attending Stanford have the means to afford it.
With the palm tree lined streets and beautiful architecture, Stanford and Palo Alto are just gorgeous. I really enjoyed my time in college on the east coast. But I wish I’d looked at Stanford when I was in high school because it certainly would’ve motivated me to work as hard as possible in school so I could’ve gotten in…affording it would’ve been another story though…
Palo Alto has nothing on College Park, MD, where was the Cluck-U and the PG county ‘hood rats???