Stanford Picnic

One morning a few weeks ago, the girls and I packed a picnic and a blanket and headed over to Palo Alto to see what Stanford had to offer us. 

Once we parked the car, we walked a bit until we found a grassy patch under the trees by the Cantor Art Center.

We shed our shoes and stretched out on the blanket.

And enjoyed being outdoors on a beautiful day.

When one of us started getting antsy, circles were run around the Rodin sculptures in the garden.

And when we needed a restroom we made our way to the arts center itself.

On our way in, Alice played "shake the bees" among the lavender.  Then I realized that "shake the bees" meant trying to pinch the bees off of the top of the plants with her fingers.

We entered the Cantor Center by way of a spectacular, light-filled room and an array of bronze sculptures, including Rodin's famous The Thinker.

Spirits were lagging by the second floor, so we thought we'd just head home.

And maybe take a rest.

But, as we strolled by Memorial Court and the main quad, we realized that it was the perfect spot to take a spin on the balance bike.

Alice saw this innocent looking trio walking towards her and shouted, "Mom, hurry, we have to get away from these three monsters!" They actually didn't seem that offended.

She greeted The Burghers of Calais.

As the afternoon wore on, spirits once again dipped a bit.



There was a standoff which resulted in my having to pretend to leave so that Alice would follow me to the car. She began wailing but followed along behind me, her head hanging, shoulders drooping, feet dragging, and arms crossed in a pitiful self-embrace. I'm guessing that crying children trailing behind briskly walking mothers aren't common around campus, judging from the two different people who emerged from nearby buildings to investigate the racket and come to the rescue of what they were sure was a child in serious distress.

And even though we lost the car for a while and spent nearly 45 minutes wandering among what seemed like hundreds of identical buildings, we arrived back to our two hour parking spot after nearly four hours and saw that there was no ticket on our windshield.  

We decided that Stanford has plenty to offer three adventurous girls on a lovely summer day!