[Please let me know if I make any mistakes below. While following along these photos, you might find it useful to look at the following campus map.] If you drive into Stanford, you're probably going to take Palm Drive from El Camino Real. Palm Drive will lead you straight to "The Oval" where people play various sports all day. In the same picture you can see Serra Mall behind The Oval. Inside Serra Mall you will find Memorial Court, which contains statues of various thinking men. Even further inside you will find the Main Quad and Memorial Church. There are always weddings in progress at the church (you can actually see a wedding procession in the background of the 'thinking men' photograph). Slightly to the east of Serra Mall you will find the Hoover Tower, which is visible from most areas near campus. And finally an unknown picture whose foreground I haven't been able to place, but with the Tower in the background.

I took some other random photos while biking around Palo Alto one day. It didn't require much biking to snap one of my room and house though. My office at work didn't require much effort either. These are some of the many spiders that happily live in my bathroom (the mamma spider is very protective!). And here you can see where I lived last year: 221 College Ave. Truth be told, I lived in the garage in the background - I guess it's weird to feel nostalgic about having a garage as living quarters, but oh well. The aforementioned Palm Drive becomes University Ave north of El Camino, but the photo doesn't do the length of University any justice.

The first summer fellowship@bayarea dinner was held on Saturday June 19th at Spalti. The weather was gorgeous, despite unrealistic forecasts to the contrary. The group that attended included, clockwise from the left, Ilya Ganusov, Maya Haridasan, Karthik, Pratik Patel, Andrew Butts, Polly, Haakon Ringberg, Mike Cheung, and Dan (photoshop'ed out). Andrew spent most of his time boring Pratik and insulting Karthik (who it appears is a Pakistani Texas A&M student working for AMD) - we can all see the evil in Andrew, right? In this photograph you see Mike visibly shocked as I make the ultimate clincher to a great argument about Canons (notice also how Mike appears to be a Pellegrino genie - too bad genies can't grant their own wishes or he would be an engineer). As the melee unfolded only Ilya and Maya were left smiling, which seems fitting in these post 9/11 times as the Russians have their vodka and the Brazilians have their samba - Osama be damned! Cheers!

The weekend of the 24th of June was spent in San Diego. While the city itself is a little small and not the most exciting place, it contains lots of beautiful scenery that was enjoyed by our crowd. Upon a delayed (no need to go into that :-) arrival we had Persian for dinner at Sadaf on Friday, after which we headed to a Mexican bar in the Gaslamp Quarter called Los Panchos de Charly [website] and filled up on Kahlua Coladas to Dawoon's great enjoyment.
Saturday was filled with activity from dawn 'til dusk. After an accidental visit to the La Jolla Shores, we had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant in La Valencia [website] hotel overlooking the La Jolla cove shoreline. We then walked down to the beach and were awestruck by its beauty. You can even see seals on the beach in the distance, which we explored further later. One can easily lose track of both time and space while sitting on the beach with such a view. It turns out that beginners also lose sense of the strength of waves,  evidenced by the fact that Janek and the Kangs drifted off into the sea and had to be rescued by David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. After the ultimate Baywatch experience, I decided I should rein in the crew slightly. We therefore relaxed in the sun (while nursing wounds caused by a deceptively rocky shoreline) and played cards on the beach. Despite these minor setbacks, the positively idyllic view from La Jolla (particularly if one can afford to stay at La Valencia) won our hearts. One would think it impossible to top this in a single day, but walking along the Coronado beaches at sunset provides stiff competition. One is easily left speechless by endless beaches connecting the eminent Hotel Del Coronado [website] on one end with the sunset in the other. While unable to secure seating at our top choice (order in advance for Chez Loma), we had a charming dinner at Rhinoceros before hitting up every Irish bar in downtown San Diego.
We began Sunday by exploring San Diego's quaint Old Town, ending with a tasty brunch at Zocalo Grill [website]. We then took the convenient tram towards Balboa Park, where we spent the rest of our day. As Dawoon the tour guide would point out, you can here see Dawoon and Ahreum in front of the historic lily pond. Janek, still greatly roused by his experience with the studly lifeguard, sought refuge in the stress releasing ways of L. Ron Hubbard. Ahreum then guided us towards a Swedish celebration of "Midsommar" (midsummer), which also introduced us to the world's largest outdoor pipe organ. After such an unbelievably crowded schedule, an exhausted bunch of travelers shuttled off to their respective home bases to catch their breath. It was a wonderful trip that must be repeated soon - thank you all!

The subsequent Fourth of July weekend I visited Janek Klawe in LA. In my experience, LAX's website does not exaggerate when it claims that LAX is "one of the busiest airports in the world." It is an ominous sign when your plane gets stuck in traffic upon arrival (LA is known for horrendous traffic). [And you know you've been spoiled by the bay area when you find yourself genuinely surprised by clouds during summer.] Despite its reputation, however, there are safe suburbs of LA: here, for example, you see Janek confidently standing in the middle of the road with only one bullet-proof west - you are a brave man! Janek and I spent Saturday exploring Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Venice Beach is a bit of a hippie carnival, but crowded and entertaining as such. Here I am in the midst of it all. On Sunday we ventured into downtown LA to spend the day there - big mistake! If you thought that any metropolitan area of this size would have a lively center, downtown LA will correct your grave misconception - even Princeton is more entertaining! Here you see Janek standing in front of a deserted municipal building. I will admit that downtown LA has some interesting architecture though, including Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall. And little Mexico had some dancing going on. Slightly disappointed we departed downtown for the touristy Hollywood, which raised our spirits. We rounded off the day with a wonderful dinner at JiRaffe [website]. On Monday - the Fourth itself - we soaked in some more of Santa Monica and its beaches [1,2], which here can be seen from the walkway to the pier. Thanks for housing me, Janek!

Ramona and Maya were both visiting from the northwest on the weekend of the 15th of July. Ramona Pousti and I started our day at 6am on Friday in order to go trekking all over San Francisco. When she wasn't commenting on how "random" everything was or stopping by every touristy store looking for postcards, she was being a remarkably good trooper while I chaperoned (*cough* dragged *cough*) her about town. Chinatown was the first stop on our tour, which was surprisingly dead at 9am on a Friday - who'd-a-thought? The next stop was Fisherman's Wharf; on the way there I snapped a photograph of Ramona with the Transamerica Pyramid in the background. We decided to take the San Francisco cable cars to the wharf, which are substantially more crowded than this photo indicates - the view is as advertised though. We then had a solid lunch at McCormick & Kuleto's on Ghirardelli Square [website] overlooking the ocean view nearby. I could obviously not resist taking a the requisite "girl next to naked mermaid" picture. Immediately following lunch I dragged Ramona up to Lombard Street on foot (at the top she proclaimed it wasn't as bad as anticipated). In this photo you can admire the view near the top with Alcatraz in the background. The next and final stop of our tour was the Golden Gate Bridge, which never fails to be covered by clouds. :-) After such a long day, we slept all the way back on the charming Baby Bullet, before Ramona, Polly, and I had dinner at Pro Bono. The remainder of the evening was spent debating philosophical matters at Polly's sorority house.
Saturday too was filled with activity from start to finish. We began the day visiting Santana Row [website], and had a cozy lunch with outside seating at Village Cafe. (You wouldn't think it, but Ramona is here standing on her toes on stilts on a stool). After lunch we headed over to Stanford to take touristy pictures next to their googolplex memorial buildings; and memorial court, of course. You here see the cute international couple in front of Hoover tower, and the rest of the group looking slightly less cuddly. Coming from the northwest, Maya and Ramona were not accustomed to the heat and thus decided it would be appropriate to jump into the closest body of water... a water fountain. "See, I'm already dry. And thanks for buying me a Stanford T-Shirt in 2 minutes - you're the best!" When the girls weren't swimming in water fountains, they were embarrassing young boys by frequenting Stanford's men's rooms. Ilya and I learned long ago to "breath in, breath out, and let the women do as they please" - even if what pleases them is pretending to be in a Turkish movie. "Ramona and Maya, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" (the taunt loses its potency with the knowledge that they often do much worse than merely kissing). Ramona is here trying to do a normal push up - let's just say she has a unique style.
Later in the evening we had the second fellowship@bayarea dinner, which was a resounding success. The chosen restaurant was the Cantankerous Fish in Mountain view. Attendees clockwise from the left were: Ilya, Pratik, Mike, Haakon, David Menestrina , Polly, Ramona, Alex Lieberman, and Maya - look at all our tasty seafood dishes! "You want me to move to the west coast??" Thank you all for coming and contributing!
As evening turned to night, we decided to explore the exciting opportunities that await in Silicon Valley. As always, we hit up all the happening places wherever we go - tonight's blessed/cursed street was University Ave. Here you see Ryon trying to explain to Dave how the luck of the Irish works - CS Ph.D.s don't trust luck, nor sneaky Swedish photographers. There is much to say about Polly and Ramona (even when only considering the following pose), but the best of all is that neither is tipsy here. I am here donning the venerable "engaged Haakon" face - ah, if only girls fell for guys who get excited by designing course projects (requiring LZ and RSA to be composable operations on top of lazy functional streams is very useful!). As you can see from his beer glass, Tadashi had the worst luck, but here he seems very proud of something, presumably his spiked hair. Thanks to Anna von Zweigbergk for taking the bar-photos, though sadly there are none of her (not very gentlemanly of me, I know).
Update: Daniel Roth posted some of Anna's other photos.
After such a hectic two days, we spent a welcomed low-key Sunday primarily hanging out. Ramona and Polly are here standing in "The Oval" at Stanford with Palm Drive in the background. I tried to introduce the gang to the wonders of Stan's Donut Shop, but was foiled by limited Sunday service. Oh, and at various points during the weekend, Ramona was introduced to: a street, a plaza, and a pizza shop (and, yes, Ramona's is always open...) that bears her name. Thanks for visiting and for a truly wonderful weekend - great team effort!

The first weekend of August was spent in Seattle. Ramona was gracious enough to take me on a tour of Pike Place Market (Farmers Market) on Friday. Ramona is here resting at a nearby square, and I am standing next to a turtle - it wouldn't be PG to divulge what I'm doing to the turtle, but suffice it to say that the turtle was pleased. On Saturday Ramona drove Maya and I to Kirkland's Marina Park (apparently this made me very angry), where we had lunch at Marina Park Grill (which was not the restaurant where I got the storied "apple sensation" - this is now motivation to return to the northwest to continue my quest). The first fellowship@Seattle dinner was held later that evening at Cutters Bayhouse [website]. I educated Maya about the "second push" that a gentleman is supposed to provide when seating a girl. Presumably this is unrelated to the drink I had recently had; but then again, maybe not. Ramona, on the other hand, continues to insist that she is a Turkish movie star. It would be hypocritical of me not to include a picture of myself mimicking Ramona and Maya being exceedingly flustered with Seattle's scenery (particularly Mount Rainier). Maya and Ramona (who grew about two feet during dinner) are here parting ways as Maya went to pick up her brother Madhu from the airport. The evening was barely starting for Ramona, however, as she and I went with Mike Shafer to Watertown [website] for a large Microsoft party. I vaguely remember stumbling into a Mexican Karaoke bar across the street by myself to order Kahlua Coladas, but luckily there is no photographic evidence of this.
On Sunday Ramona shuttled Maya, Madhu, and I between various scenic spots in Seattle. Unfortunately the lack of an AC in Ramona's car (which was accurately classified as belonging in the "apologetic car group" by Craig) eventually got the best of my fragile sanity at Alki Beach. Madhu, Maya, and Ramona are here standing near Alki Beach. We also grabbed some lunch at Duke's Alki Chowder [website] before heading to our next scenic experience. Ramona took us to Kerry Park, which has an unparalleled view of Seattle's skyline with Mount Rainier in the background. We took literally dozens of photos, but highlights include: Ramona and I, Madhu and I, the siblings, Maya and Ramona, Ramona, Maya, and I, Ramona, Madhu, and Maya.
As a humorous aside, most modern cameras will suggest one or more small boxes within the larger image that it intends to focus on. It is obviously a difficult algorithm but, crudely speaking, the camera attempts to find the regions that are most important. It was interesting to observe that if Maya was in a picture she would invariably receive the exclusive attention of the camera. If Maya was not in the picture, however, the second most important thing was Ramona's breasts (which I'm sure she appreciates that I discuss here). Gee, I wonder whether a man wrote this algorithm? :-P
Thank you for a wonderful weekend! P.S. A bearded Haakon is a frightening sight!

The final fellowship@bayarea of the summer was held on August 20th at Bistro Elan in Palo Alto. It was a good meal in better company. Dave is here taking a break from shoveling down the food to pose with Pratik, who seems to have something to say. Radhika Lakshmanan was too busy eating the "Vegetarian Surprise" (no unfortunately it was not a hamburger) to pay attention to Alex or the photographer. Sandeep Ravindran and his fiancé also graced us with their presence - it was quite the shock to learn that Sandeep had no weddings to go to this weekend! Mike is here frustrated that I refuse to take another genie picture of him - I'm sorry, Mike, but it doesn't work with Pet Chean Ang the magician sitting next to you! And finally it appears that drinking white whine gives me a lazy eye - go figure. It was a lot of fun - thank you all for coming!

On August 25th Dave and some friends were celebrating their second place showing in a treasure hunt, and they were gracious enough invite me along. As Ilya was returning to Ithaca shortly, I was able to get him invited along also. We ate at Menara Moroccan Restaurant. Anna brought Peyman along to the dinner, a friend of hers from Sweden, and we all know three Scandinavians can create a party no matter what the odds. You here see Ilya and me both engaged in our respective endeavors (the drinks in front of us are Menara house specials, "magic", which were exactly that). Christina sat next to James - another Princeton grad, which meant that there were four former/current Princeton students at the table. Here's a picture of Jessica and Christina. And the crew having their hands washed. The fun started when the belly dancer came out to entertain us. After doing her own thing for a while, she forced various people to join in the dancing, including Ilya (props for being the first) and Alex - good times. After the "magic" time at Menara, we headed for a less lively bar called the Saddle Rack. The bar provided one memorable moment, however, as Peyman attempted to withstand the furious Saddle Rack Bull (level 4). It obviously ended in defeat, but it was a valiant effort worthy of a few photos for posterity. We quickly moved on to the next bar - Mountain Charley's in Los Gatos, I think - but I don't remember much of this and fortunately there is no photographic evidence. 'twas a fun night.

Dave and I took on the heavy responsibility of being manikins for Jen and Terry's amusement on 8/28. You here see Dave being held up by said girls for all his Oracle stock. Jen felt bad afterwards, and decided to help Dave with his collar. I, on the other hand, tried my best to hang back and look cool. Thanks for the help girls!
Then, for labor day, Jen took me to Half Moon Bay. First off we hit up a beach immediately south of Martin's Beach, which was very beautiful (although descending down to it posed some dangerous challenges to Jen in sandals). Then we went to Pomponio State Beach, where we ate lunch and chatted about the world's problems. Finally, as the sun was setting and the tide was receding, we went to Fitzgerald Marine Preserve for some tidepooling adventures. It was filled with seafood (including mussels and starfish), but most of all it had some amazing backdrops. I had a super time - thanks Jen! (B.t.w. here is the tilework Jen is working on!)

Here is my final photograph of the summer, as I am departing Palo Alto. *sniff* I had a wonderful wonderful time. Thank you all, and until next time!