Travel Writing Assignment
Home to countless Nobel prize winners, Stanford University and various tech giants such as Instagram and Twitter. Palo Alto, California offers the perfect opportunity to get inspired and intrigued by the technology of the 21st century.
Palo Alto embodies the ideology behind the title of the Move fast and Break Things book written by Jonathan Taplin. This quote quite literally defined the tech industry, after Mark Zuckerberg used it as the internal motto for Facebook up until 2014.
Nestled between the northwestern area of Santa Clara County, Palo Alto lies among the western shoreline of the San Francisco Bay. This northern California suburb remains a vital role in the tech sector through its participation in the Silicon Valley area. Entitled the “Silicon Valley”, the bay area started to develop its reputation through the numerous sites of technology-based startups. Back in the 1970s, the mass production of silicon chips used for assembling computers was greatly attributed to the name of the valley, hence why we refer to it as the silicon valley. The Valley hosts a variety of Fortune 500 companies such as Google and Apple. Due to this Silicon Valley has been coined as the Tech capital of the world.
In addition to the booming tech industry, Palo Alto hosts an influx of brilliant minds at Stanford University, which has an “...undergraduate enrollment of 6366 (fall 2020)...” (U.S News). Visitors often explore the infamous bright green grass as it awaits eager brains at one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions. Meritocracy is not common in Palo Alto and neither is it at Stanford University as this school is filled with alumni of over 70+ current-day billionaires.
Stanford University is home to picture-perfect architecture enclosed by luscious green-coloured palm trees. The Stanford University museum, owned by the Stanfords family, holds collected pieces of art from their previous travels. Located in the Cantor Art Center, the museum has the largest collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures, outside of Paris, France. See the image below of one of his bronze medium sculptures at the Canon Art Center.
Stunning landscapes are plentiful in Palo Alto with blue skies and sunny bright mornings, what more could one ask for in their vacation spot. To reset from our technology-filled lives, the Baylands Nature Preserve has over 1900 acres of salt marshes, trails and wildlife. Animal enthusiasts alike can thoroughly enjoy all that Baylands has to offer in Palo Alto.
A hidden gem within the Palo Alto community, aside from the booming technology industry is a four-letter word, food. The concept of being technologically advanced correlates with the modern advances in the food industry, hosted by a multitude of Palo Alto restaurants. The New Nordic 2.0, located in Silicon Valley has become a food innovator mastermind through their rethinking of how we deal with food waste. New Nordic food is sustainably sourced with a focus on seasonal and “hyperlocal” (Holland) ingredients. The food associates building quality means of human interaction through food, which is beyond crucial in a world where technological innovations are at the forefront of what Silicon Valley and Palo Alto consist of.
Comments