Oma and Opa visit - Wednesday: Stanford

Today was a longer outing day. I wanted to take Oma and Opa to a part of Stanford I had not been, and then to the Jr. Museum and Zoo where we have been. Wyatt and I took Zachary to school and came back to get us totally ready. We packed a picnic lunch and started out towards Stanford. I have driven on and around campus twice, but never stopped there before. There are two things there that I thought would be good to see and show visitors. One, the Rodin garden (largest Rodin collection outside of Paris), and two, the Chapel. I tried to find the chapel when I drove around with my mom a bit on campus, but the maps on my phone let me astray. We ended up at the faculty club...less interesting. I gave the parents the choice and they chose Rodin. I did not know what to expect, but it was nice. The drive there was beautiful. We had to go down Palm Dr., which was aptly named because of the palm trees lining both sides of the street. I did not expect to pay $4 for parking, but it was fine since the garden was free. They had several statues, and one giant work that took him a decade to complete called the Gates of Hell. We probably spent 45 minutes looking at everything. Kids were well behaved, and seemed to enjoy looking at some of it. Wyatt even took the phone so he could take some of the included pictures. Finally we had seen it all, and Wyatt was begging to go to the zoo. They have his work The Thinker, but it is kept inside one of the galleries, which was not open when we were there. Next time. However, there was a smaller version of The Thinker included in his Gates of Hell works. I am glad we went, and it is worth going again. So interesting to see the amazing detail that is able to be shown in bronze. So difficult! Then we headed off to the museum and zoo.