Pomona is the Stanford of the South

I wish I had my camera unpacked.

One of the first things I noticed about Palo Alto, is that it is strangely familiar, right down to the 2 rows of square concrete tiles for sidewalks. It was sometime in my first week that I first looked around me and realized that if you had knocked me out while I was in Claremont, and dropped me off to wake somewhere a block or two off university ave, I would wake up thinking I was downtown in the village.

The whole town has the exact same feel (though Palo Alto is a but busier and a bit cooler): nice tree-lined streets with small houses from the earlier part of the century now worth millions, trendy and expensive shops line the walkable, but still car centric downtown area.

And I wasn't kidding about what I said about Pomona and Stanford. Both have their arboretum with native trees, their towering buildings and their expansive sports fields. They aren't afraid to emphasize the old-world palace of learning feel either with stone columns marking the main vehicle entrance to campus like a gate and the wide lawns in front of great cathedrals of buildings.

Someone remind me in a few weeks when I get my camera unpacked and I will demonstrate the parallels with photographic evidence.