New Year in Palo Alto, CA

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Today the nearly deserted Stanford University campus is blessed with crisp cool air and the morning light shining on mature trees and well-maintained lawns.  The Rodin Sculpture Garden, though echoing with the noise from nearby construction is as beautiful as ever.  I search in vain for "The Thinker" even assigning a spot where I think it should be.  After turning this over in my mind a while, I remember it was the University of Houston campus where "The Thinker" sits in a prominent spot.  Rodin Sculptures are probably the only similarity between these two schools.

Not far away on the Campus is the "Main Quad" with a minimally landscaped courtyard surrounded by buildings.  Each building is fronted by a portico or "peristyle" a wide porch with one side open to the breeze and the roof supported by columns bridged by graceful arches. The crowning glory of the Main Quad is a pair of ivy-covered arches over the two entrances to the courtyard.

One attraction of Stanford is a big antique clock mechanism originally installed in another building on campus which was damaged by an earthquake.  The clock works were stored for several years, then reinstalled in a rather plain purpose-built tower.  The beauty of the installation is that the pendulum, gears, fans, levers, pulleys "the works" can be viewed from all sides through a glass enclosure.  Pretty cool when everything starts spinning and whirring in time with the chiming of the bells in the tower above.  No?  Well it's a guy thing.