As Good as I Remembered

The Burghers of Calais is in Memorial Court, not the Rodin Sculpture Garden

When San Francisco and Napa Valley no longer produce the thrill down one's leg, a day trip to Stanford University may be just the ticket.

Both the Rodin Sculpture Garden and the Stanford Memorial Church are snapshot worthy, as is the 285-foot Hoover Tower, the shape of which has engendered countless Freudian references.

We took the elevator to the Hoover observation deck, from which the entire campus was visible. Many of the open areas that allowed me to get my bearings were gone. Thank goodness for smartphone compasses, downloadable maps, and even walking-tour apps.

The school I attended back in the days of the Ford Administration has moved to new, expensive digs. The building (left) is now a library.

After four hours of wandering around, everyone was hungry and thirsty. Just outside the campus was the "O", another Stanford institution.

The din of pinball machines has been silenced, replaced by flatscreen TVs showing the NBA playoffs. There were much fewer peanut shells thrown on the floor (an ancient O custom). Perhaps the diminution is due to consciousness being raised about peanut allergies, or, more likely, because peanuts are no longer free.

But the double cheeseburgers were as good as I remembered.