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I got the first half of the week off for Independence Day, and I put the free time to good use. Fortunately, my vacation coincided with Mel and her boyfriend Ryan's visit to the bay area.

Stanford

On Monday, I met them at Stanford. Mel has been working the Los Angeles area and is thinking about returning to grad school. She wanted to visit the campus because she hopes to apply to Stanford and several other west coast universities. I wanted to visit because it was just down the road from Mountain View.

I called Maurice, a fellow UIUC grad who went to Stanford as an undergrad, and asked if he had any suggestions for what to see. At his advice, we visited Hoover Tower, Memorial Church, and the Rodin Sculpture Collection.

We also wandered around the rest of campus. Mel wanted to see the biological sciences building, which we all thought looked like a space station.

And I wanted to see how Stanford's computer science building compared to UIUC's Siebel Center. The building had a lot of interesting displays. In the basement, we found the original Google server.

San Francisco and Alcatraz

On Tuesday I boarded the CalTrain with my bike and rode into San Francisco. I was excited to see the city for the first time. I biked up and down San Francisco's famous hills, along the edge of Chinatown, and between the downtown skyscrapers. I did not get any pictures because I was busy pedaling. I met Mel and Ryan at Pier 33. From there, we boarded a ferry to Alcatraz.

I greatly enjoyed the visit to the island. I find it very interesting how the buildings deteriorated after just 50 years of disuse. Ryan and I debated when the water tower will fall over.

There was a powerful sense of history at the prison. A video in the basement and an audio tour of the cellblock, narrated by former guards and inmates, imparted some of that history. The audio tour was especially well done. It had great ambient prison sounds and pointed out the locations (and remnants) of several escape attempts.

After taking the ferry back to the mainland, we drove across town to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. It is certainly bigger than it appears in pictures.

I had a great first visit to San Francisco, and with a month and a half left in my summer, I am sure I will return.