I had been to Stanford Stadium twice before, but both times were in the 20th century. Went to a Big Game (Cal-Stanford) and to an exhibition game there between the then-Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots. Son Dillon, big Pats fan, joined me for the latter game.
I had not experienced the Stanford campus, however. Had seen lots of pictures of the buildings and knew the campus was huge, but I wanted to spend time there walking around and also to scope out the locations near the stadium where we wanted to have our tailgate.
I went to the campus, about a 45-minute drive from Moss Beach, Friday morning and parked at the Visitor Center, where I picked up a map. My first walk was to the stadium and, more importantly, the Arboretum adjacent to it. I had purchased a parking pass in that location.
Instead of paved parking lots, the stadium is surrounded by groves of trees. Tailgaters park among the trees, which provide shade. It’s just a much more pleasant environment for a tailgate than an open field or parking lot.
After getting some eyes-on orientation to the tailgating location, I headed to the academic area of the campus. I took just under 11,000 steps that day, which an online calculator gauged to be just under five miles.
Stanford did not begin its “autumn quarter” until more than a week after the BC game, so the students on campus were primarily grad students. And while the campus is open to automobile traffic quite extensively, based on the number of bicycles I saw being ridden or in racks, it’s a bike-centric campus.
The Stanford logo is a cardinal red “S” with a green sequoia tree superimposed on it. After walking around that campus, I get it. Trees are plentiful and are somewhat honored with arboretums and identified “groves.” (The “Stanford tree” that you see with the Stanford student band is the mascot of that band, long recognized for boisterous and, in the opinions of quite a few, offensive behavior. The University has no official mascot.)
Below is a gallery of scenes from my walkabout. Clicking on any of the thumbnails will present larger image.
Here’s a slideshow of some of the sculptures in the garden.
I wore a somewhat bold BOSTON COLLEGE shirt on my tour and ran into several fellow alumni doing the same walkabout as I was. At one point, I came upon an older gentleman who asked me to take a picture of him and his daughter, which I did happily. He told me she was on campus to begin her doctoral program at Stanford. She was aware that BC and Stanford were to play the next day and wished us luck.
We would need it.