Yes, sending a kid to college can be fun for the parents!

[Yoder]

My youngest daughter will be leaving for college this year (empty nest). She applied to a lot of top notch schools and was accepted to all but one. We are pretty excited that she got an invite to attend Stanford, and so to Stanford she shall go! Stanford said that they received over 38,000 applicants, but only accepted 2,000. Thus, lowering their acceptance rate from 11% to 6%. They are also very generous with their scholarships, and our costs will be minimal. We are glad for her, and I am glad that I now have an excuse to return to the stomping grounds of my youth.

That being said, the wife and I are going out to the Bay area for a few days to celebrate our 28th anniversary and will drop the youngster off at the dorms so she can attend her "admittance seminars/classes/meetings."

Anyone from the Bay area know of any good jazz joints to visit (preferably, close to Palo Alto)?

[xcortes]

I am a Stanford MBA. Best place in earth!

[Alonzo]

Close is relative here in the Bay, Yoshi's San Fran or Yoshi's Jack London Square are a good dinner and Jazz place, Patti LuPone is singing at the Rrazz, Bill Frisell is at the SF Jazz Center, there's too much to list.  Check out SFGate dot com in the Entertainment tab, plenty to do depending on your time and motivation.  There's a few hole in the walls (really upscale because it is Palo Alto after all) that are around Stanford that you can go to.  Also Metroactive dot com will give you all the goings on in the South Bay (Entertainment, restaurants, movies, art, "best of Silicon Valley", etc.

[ironbut]

I went to the new SF Jazz Center on Thursday night for the first time.
Beautiful venue and designed for a great sound at every seat (I was on the front row and found it a little too close!).
Kind of on the upscale/slick side but if you want to hear what a great venue can sound like, check it out.

BTW, Yoshi's in Oakland is no slouch either! It's more of my kinda place.

If you wish to head south about the same distance as SF is north, the Kuwamba Jazz Center in Santa Cruz is small but excellent.

If you happen to be visiting during August, the San Jose Jazz Festival is going on (usually around the 10th of the month). The San Jose Jazz Society also has shows going on at various venues all year round.

Speaking of festivals, Stanford has concerts all year long and has a jazz festival which lasts all summer. I believe they just opened a new performing arts venue there too.

[Doc B.]

I sure would like to check out the new jazz center. It's a funny location for me. The building that used to be there was a big car repair joint. Eileen lived across the street when we started dating and many years later Romo lived on the same side of the street, practically next door. Jacqui and Art live a couple blocks away. As a matter of fact Jacqui and Art are doing a gig there on July 26th.

[Chris]

Yeah, Stanford has a beautiful campus.... She will love it...