I feel like this complete photo series has been tainted! Okay, not completely, but I actually had full intentions of selecting Palo Alto as my #2 photo city all along. However, I visited Palo Alto and Stanford a few weeks ago and suspected that they are actually two separate jurisdictions. Tonight, my search confirmed this. In fact, Stanford is not even a city, it’s a census designated place and is part of unincorporated Santa Clara County.
Well, that doesn’t change the fact that this is one of my favorite photos. At full size, it looks much better than this reduced version. What is impressive about this photo to me is the circumstance in which I shot it. I was riding a bike at the time with a group of planners. We paused for a moment at this location and I quickly turned around and snapped the photo. I don’t even think I really aimed. I think it turned out quite nice all considering. Pictured is the absolutely stunning Memorial Church on the campus of Stanford University.
The entire Stanford campus is amazingly beautiful and extremely bike/ped friendly. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Stanford and the adjacent City of Palo Alto several times and they are two of my favorite places in the world.
Palo Alto is definitely a place I’d consider living. Unless you’re Steve Jobs, however, it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to buy a house there. In addition, the diversity of Palo Alto is not the greatest and many of the commercial establishments cater to the wealthy and students with high-income families. That aside, it’s such a gorgeous city (sans El Camino Real!).
I really feel that Palo Alto got slighted, but was I planning to include another photo of Downtown Palo Alto anyway, and I’ve included it after the jump. You can also view my other photos of Palo Alto and Stanford in the photo gallery.
