Students were always shocked when I mentioned my off-campus friends, book-group, dialogue group, and yoga and guitar classes. But, it us absolutely essential for you to create a life for yourself outside of campus.
Here are some specific suggestions of things that I’ve found useful and/or fun in the area:
1. Hike to the dish. It is a very Stanford thing to do and the view from up high, really helps puts the campus, and life on campus, in perspective.
2. Go to the Palo Alto resident only park. There are some great local hiking trails and it is relatively uncrowded.
3. Take a drive to half moon bay. Its the closest beach, and its great to know that the ocean is so near-by.
4. Visit the boardwalk in Santa Cruz.
5. Camp in Big Sir.
6. Go to Muir Woods and beach for some gorgeous nature and sight seeing.
7. Connect with the other JCSC Fellows in the Bay Area (SF Hillel, Silicon Valley, Berkeley, Santa Cruz). Then you can see some near-by areas as well.
8. Walk down University Avenue – crosses El Camino and runs through downtown Palo Alto. On and around University are lots of restaurants, cafés, bars, and some movie theaters. University is close, fun, and fairly diverse, but non-bars close down at 10 PM . Some good bar/restaurants in that area are Gordon Birsch, Nolas, and Cafe Blue Chalk.
9. Explore California Avenue – crosses El Camino just south of campus. California also has a few cute restaurants and cafés, a nice bookstore, an art supply store, a music store, etc. Antonios Nut House is a sleazy but fun low-class bar in this vicinity.
IN SAN FRANCISCO:
10. North Beach (lots of cute Italian restaurants)
11. The Castro (fun place to wander around, see lots of rainbow flags, and take in the alternative culture)
12. Haight Street (the home of the hippi movement with lots of stores, pipe shops, restaurants, tattoo parlors, incense dealers, etc.)
13. Golden Gate Park (it’s huge and beautiful, and right near Haight)
14. Fisherman’s Wharf (the most touristy area in the city, you need to spend some time watching the sea lions climb all over each other)
15. China Town (name is descriptive, a great place to be for the parade on Chinese new years)
16. The Presidio (beautiful nature and spectacular views)
17. Berkeley is really cool, although I didn’t spend much time there; it has good restaurants, music, theater, and a totally different atmosphere than Palo Alto.