September 17th, 2005
A quietish day today. In the morning while Raewyn and Brendan went out for yet more shopping, Sally and I took Calvin for a walk to the local park with swings and slides and other fun things for grandchildren. The reason for the rather serious expression we found out later was that we had gone to a park he was unfamiliar with. But he still had fun.
We visited Stanford University and strolled around looking at the mix of Romanesque and mission revival style architecture and the many statues in the open courtyards. The history of Stanford makes very interesting reading.
Later when we were visiting San Francisco city I bought a book which also had various interesting accounts of the university’s origins. We saw two or three wedding parties using the grounds and buildings for photographic backdrops. We were intent on climbing the Hoover Tower and were very disappointed that it was closed.
To round out the afternoon we then drove to Castle Rock National Park near Saratoga where again we had to pay. Vern and I did a short walk to one of the feature waterfalls that was almost dry, but Raewyn and Brendan decided to carry on for a much longer walk which culminated in a good view across the Bay. Sally was suffering quite badly from a cold so we were quite happy to wait in the car for their return. Back to Mountain View for dinner.