Anyway, these were some ideas that I have initially. The main thing is to figure out when a good date is. OR... the other thing is to suggest a better place to hold the competition. And again, if you say "Hold it in my back yard because then I don't have to travel," I will pay someone to kick you. (Probably the sum of 1 USD... which is actually WORTH something now. Haha... suckers who use the Euro.
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Why not at UC Berkeley?
For competitors traveling from outside of the United States, we could probably also arrange to take you around the San Francisco Bay Area. Again, since Stanford University is an area that I have many ties to, there are significantly more resources for me to leverage. ?The Monday and/or Tuesday and subsequent days could be used for people visiting from Europe, Asia, and Antarctica (penguin speedsolve division) to see the city of San Francisco, go wine tasting in Napa with Swedes, poke the Facebook head quarters, or whatever.
All this would apply well to Berkeley, perhaps better than Stanford. BART is literally a block away from the campus, and runs directly to San Francisco; from Stanford to San Francisco you have to take a bus to the Caltrain station, then take Caltrain up.
I am thinking of Stanford University for US Nationals and Open 2009. Stanford University is in California, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, and accessible by public transportation from San Francisco International airport. 2006 was San Francisco, 2007 was in Chicago, and 2008 was in Atlanta so I feel it's time that we return it back to the west coast.
To get to Stanford from San Francisco International, you need to take BART to Milbrae, transfer to Caltrain, take that to Palo Alto/Stanford Stadium, and take a bus to campus. To get to Berkeley from San Francisco International, you only have to take BART to Downtown Berkeley, which is a block from campus. Also, for those who prefer Oakland International (for possible cheaper flights), there is a BART shuttle bus.
The Stanford area is home to many cubers that would be able to lend their support to the competition. This would definitely make running the competition easier, and we would probably be able to coordinate some type of airport pick-up as well.
Stanford has a few cubers (Lucas, Timmy, etc.), but Berkeley Cube Club is far larger and has much more experience running tournaments (see Berkeley Fall 200X, Berkeley Spring 200X, etc.). In fact, Berkeley Cube Club pretty much ran the EPGY tournament at Stanford last year, and as far as I know will play a large part in the upcoming San Francisco Open. For airport pickup: see BART.
Downtown Palo Alto is also within walking distance of Stanford and has a nice array of restaurants. I can do some research as well and find a close hotel.
I am very familiar with the area that Stanford University is in and I can promise, it is very nice, unlike the crap that was the Underground Atlanta.
If by walking distance you mean 15-30 minutes away, then you would be correct
But as far as I know, Stanford students find it annoying to get to downtown PA simply because it is too far away. Berkeley is located downtown; there are plenty of nice restaurants Westside (Shattuck, etc.) and Southside (Telegraph, etc.).
