As you might know, my family enjoys get-aways, big or small, because we like to experience new places. Last month, all our schedules lined up, and we had an opening to escape Los Angeles for a 3-day road-trip.
We decided to run up to Menlo Park, somewhat south of San Francisco, an easy 5-hour drive, mostly through California’s Central Valley farmland, from Los Angeles. Menlo Park is where Stanford University and the gateway to Silicon Valley meet. The area is also home to a lot of interesting cultural attractions, enough to keep us all happy during our visit. Of course, it is also near the many technology businesses that make the area a powerhouse in the world’s economy.
WHERE WE STAYED: STANFORD PARK HOTEL
We were invited to stay at the Stanford Park Hotel and check it out, and I’m glad we were. It is a wonderfully comfortable place, walking-close to Stanford University, with solid brick and wood construction that looks just right for a university community. In fact, the entire hotel is themed around Stanford’s illustrious heritage, and hallways are decorated with large photographs of various Stanford students who went on to achieve great things, from John Steinbeck, the author, to Sally Ride, the astronaut. The grounds are also decorated with life-sized – and very life-like! – statues of important Americans, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
The Stanford Park Hotel itself is part of the Woodside Hotel Group, a group of 7 unique higher-end hotels in California. Each of the hotels seems to have a design suited to its community; the Stanford Park Hotel itself opened in 1985, but it is designed with a vibe drawn from the historic San Francisco Bay Area architectural studios of Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan, who inspired each other with many famous buildings a century or so ago.
The Stanford Park Hotel stands three stories, with 168 rooms, many arranged around a large courtyard with open-air restaurant leading to the swimming pool area. It has really convenient ground-level parking, too.
Our room was a first floor suite, very convenient for us and with a view directly onto the pool area. Like the rest of the hotel, everything in the suite is first-class, such as the comfortable furniture and rich towels and robes.
The hotel also has some amenities we especially liked that made the visit feel special – really good complimentary coffee in the lobby, together with delicious muffins. I admit we indulged in those goodies each morning we were there!
Stanford Park Hotel offers other convenient amenities, such as health club and complimentary bicycles to ride around the neighborhood. And all the staff we met were totally helpful and personable – I want to give a shout-out to Sheherezade, Amethyst, and Fang, who staffed the front desk during our stay and were so helpful and friendly.
What I wore: Lela Rose Gown
WHERE WE ATE:
DINING AT MENLO TAVERN
We arrived at the Stanford Park Hotel in the afternoon, and were pretty hungry after we settled into the room and explored the hotel grounds a bit. Fortunately, the hotel has a terrific restaurant in it, the Menlo Tavern, and Executive Director Roque Medina arranged an early reservation for us there. The Tavern has both inside and outside seating; the weather was beautiful, so we opted to eat outside, and enjoy some very good live guitar music and singing. Very soothing and pleasant.
The restaurant has something of the feel of a traditional university dining club, especially the indoor area with rich furnishings. I learned something very interesting from Patrick Lane, the Managing Director of Stanford Park Hotel, when he stopped to chat with us: 80% of Menlo Tavern’s patrons are people who live in the community, not hotel guests – I think that speaks a lot for the quality and value of the restaurant.
We ordered some drinks, including a tasty and gorgeous craft cocktail (whiskey and lemon juice with pineapple) named “Kyler Sun,” as well as a glass of a rich pinot noir. My husband and I shared with each other; we agreed they both were excellent.
I ordered a filet mignon with mashed potatoes, French green beans, and a kale salad, while my vegan men went for a variety of sides, including chicken fried French fries, fingerling potatoes, hummus, and assorted raw vegetables. As I said at the time, it was the best filet mignon I ever tasted, and the rest of my meal was perfectly flavored – so delicious! My men ate up all their various veggies, and loved them – the French fries (I tried a couple) were uniquely delicious (but probably sinfully rich).
What I wore: Carolina Herrera Dress
The first destination after a good night’s sleep was Stanford University, and on the walk back to the hotel, we came upon a P. F. Chang’s Restaurant, and had lunch there. The menu was familiar to us, since it is a large chain, but the food was good and exactly what we expected: vegetable lettuce wraps is our favorite BTW. P. F. Chang’s is always a tasty and safe choice, and we were all happy and satisfied when we finished.
What I wore: Linda Farrow Sunglasses // Cartolina Nantucket Top
The night after visiting the Hiller Aviation Museum, we wanted to dine out before heading back to the hotel. I was in the mood for Mexican seafood, and we spotted a restaurant named Cecilia’s on the road that appeared to fill the bill. My men had vegetable tostada and burritos, while I enjoyed a sip or spicy magrita.
Not exactly in the Menlo Park / Stanford area, but on the drive home we stopped at the famous Harris Ranch restaurant in Coalinga.(Pictures shown above). It is part of a huge cattle ranch, famous for providing prime beef across the country – and it comes at a welcome point in the drive back to Los Angeles, when we might need to stretch our legs and refill gasoline. For a restaurant renowned for beef, its menu also has good choices for vegans and vegetarians, such as the black bean soup my husband enjoyed. As for me, I tried a tri-tip lunch, and ate every bite.
EXPLORING THE NEIGHBORHOOD
One particular thing we had in mind was to take our son to visit the Stanford University campus – it is a couple years premature for him to select a specific college, but not too early to start giving him a feel for college life. And Stanford University has a wonderful campus I had visited before I met my husband.
The University is practically across the street from the hotel, and it is just about a ten-minute walk to the main gate of the University. The weather was gorgeous, so we took that walk, and then went onto the campus grounds, and right to the center of Stanford University. Besides the buildings and gardens, we particularly enjoyed a sculpture garden featuring bronze statues by Rodin, and a particularly compelling sculptured doorway titled, “The Gates of Hell.”
Had we turned left instead of right at the entry to the University, we could have wandered down to the University Avenue shopping area that serves the community, with so many interesting small shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and other places college students frequent.
In fact, we drove by later, but we were on our way to another local attraction that my son and husband both wanted to see, the Hiller Aviation Museum in nearby San Carlos. This Museum was created by Stanley Hiller, Jr., an early aviation inventor and entrepreneur, especially in the field of helicopters. It turned out we all had a great time in the Museum – as we entered, there was a live performance of dancers in period uniforms, performing to vintage songs of World War I and II. The stars of the museum, however, are so many amazing, innovative aircraft, including some of Hiller’s helicopters, as well as unique flying machines from before the Wright brothers to recent times. And, if you visit there, spend some time in the gift shop – our son came away with a sign for his bedroom door, “Pilot Lives Here.”
There are plenty of other very close by attractions for every taste – Elizabeth Gamble Gardens, Shoreline Amphitheater, Filoli Gardens, many wineries and breweries, and much, much more.
OUR TEST RIDE: MAZDA CX30 2.5 TURBO PREMIUM PLUS
For this get-away, courtesy of Mazda USA, we had use of a new “compact utility vehicle” (CUV), the CX30 2.5 Turbo Premium Plus, for a test drive. As you can see from the photos, it has great style, and although it is considered compact, it was comfortable for a long weekend road trip for my family of 3.
Of course, it has all the safety bells and whistles I like – blind-spot warning, heads-up display of speed and speed limit on the windshield, back-up camera, and more. I always feel a lot safer and more confident with these safety aids. It also has all-wheel drive, a safety feature my husband insists on for safety in bad weather, but on this trip we stayed on roads, and the weather was dry as a bone, so we did not really use the AWD. The seats were comfortable, the sound system was great, the ride was quiet, and we were all impressed by the great, smooth power. On our trip, the car yielded a little over 30 miles-per-gallon, which was very welcome.
We have driven Mazdas before, and we have always liked them and been impressed by them – this CX30 Turbo was no different. If you need a compact utility vehicle, you will want to check it out.
FINAL WORD
This was a short get-away, but very comfortable and fun. We got to check out a famous university campus to inspire our son, we stayed in a premium, cozy hotel, and we dined on some memorable food at the Menlo Tavern.
Stay tuned for our next adventure in travel!
