Day #10 - San Francisco, Stanford Uni, In-N-Out Burger and then onto LA.

Silicon valley originally originally known as Santa Clara valley was the 10th largest growing area in the United States. It was known for growing prunes apricots and cherries back in the early 1900s. A wealthy New York family Stanford's, decided in the in the late eighteen hundreds to build a university in this fruit growing area of California. Stanford university has now grown to a population of close to 15,000 students with many of them living on campus its self. The first president of the University was an entrepreneur himself, encouraging like-minded people from across the country to setup business in the region. From here the University assisted with providing capital funding to many businesses, inc the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

Apple founders also were members of the Stanford university (as were the original developers of Facebook), and as it was, it ended up being our first stop of the day, on a trip around silicon valley. We arrived at Stanford university to have a look at their campus. As you can imagine with so many students this is a very large campus, and  right in the middle of the campus in a very Spanish styled setting, is the main chapel of the University.

I've been to many chapels around the world including Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral but this chapel takes the cake. It is simply breathtaking in its appearance and it's decor. TSS has a lovely piano-organ, in it's chapel, but this one would've been 6 to 8 times bigger and more magnificent. The stain glass windows, the wall paintings, the overall chapel appearance was purely magnificent. Certainly if you get a chance to come to this place it is one that you should not miss.

Souvenir shop at Stanford university was also top of the list for the boys to see, with many of them walking out with a new hats, jumper, T-shirt, all emblazoned with Stanford university across the front. The Tour now looks like it had been sponsored by the University itself.

The Silicon Valley area is known for its entrepreneurial ideas and skills, with that, we decided to have lunch at one of the newest and fast growing businesses developing fast food stores around California, In-N-Out Burgers. Taking on the likes of McDonald's and Burger King, In N Out burgers is a much more fresher and more healthier approach. They are also known as the rest of California is, for their sustainability, and giving back to the environment. We noticed when we went in there is no fancy packaging, no plastic wrappers or everything. It is completely recyclable, reusable or environment friendly. And the food itself was delicious. Real potatoes for fries, and deliciously local grown vegetables and mince, for all the limited menu, but still a lovely meal.

Following lunch we jump back on the bus and headed to the San Francisco airport where we proceeded to go through security for another time and waited for our flight to LA. The flight to LAs is only about an hour from San Francisco, and as we touch down, outside we could see the large vast land this city covers. Funny story from the flight.... ask your son about Tom Bass about the turbulence, and where he was at the time.

Upon settling in to the Hotel, dinner together at Dennys Diner not far from our hotel was a great way to spend what has been a fantastic trip so far. Check the video for some great action....

With LA and San Diego our last stops, and only two days till we board our flight home, I'm positive that every boys has thoroughly enjoyed his trip.