With the winter quarter in full swing, many Stanford students are discovering a drizzly season that is nowhere to be found in convincingly sunny University brochures. Though winter rain in California is relatively mild, it nonetheless encourages many students to cancel plans and loiter in dorms, avoiding productivity and wet bicycle seats. Slightly more adventurous students frequent the CoHo, measuring rainy days by used teabags and exponentially decreasing mealpoints. To combat this atypical winter lethargy, The Daily explores some activities that are overlooked in fairer weather and which may be enjoyed in this season.

Visiting the Cantor Art Center

Located in the far, northerly reaches of campus, the Cantor Art Center may seem like an inconvenient location to visit on a rainy day. The center, however, provides an appropriate combination of entertainment, culture and ambiance for those who brave the journey. In addition to an extensive collection of world art, the museum features themed exhibits, like “Fired at Davis: Figurative Ceramic Sculpture,” a collection of ceramics created by students and professors at the University of California at Davis, and “American ABC: Childhood in 19th-Century America,” a collection of paintings depicting childhood in a dynamic, turbulent century.

Freshman Ruth McCann is among those who visit Cantor for a less obvious reason — to read.

“It’s the best place on campus to read, hands down,” McCann notes. She was referring to the orange sofas on the second floor of the museum; there are two, each adjacent to a main window, providing for well-lit reading spaces. They are cleanly used and frequently empty, and people-watchers may appreciate the occasional murmurs that sound from museum patrons on the first floor.

The Cool Cafe on the first story provides a more conventional setting for readers and chatters, as well as a wall-to-wall window through which to watch the falling rain and a selection of gourmet desserts, sandwiches and salads.

Rock Climbing at the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation

For the physically active, the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation’s rock climbing complex offers a welcome diversion from the rain. The complex, which has walls that are 26 feet tall and 50 feet deep, can accommodate 30 to 40 climbers comfortably and makes for a stimulating workout.

“Rock climbing is an excellent sport to do on rainy days,” says Dan Arnold, head instructor of rock climbing. “It’s a real sport, the best sport.”

Menesha Mannapperuma, a sophomore majoring in history, agreed.

“Climbing provides excellent strength training and endurance training and it’s fun,” she says.

Budding climbers can visit the rock-climbing complex from 3 to 10:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 2 to 8 p.m. on Friday. Shoe rentals cost two dollars and climbing instructors provide education on climbing techniques and safety precautions.

Discovering Campus: Marguerite Privileges, the Hoover Tower Observation Deck, Your Own Two Feet

The vastness of the campus can handicap efforts to become intimately acquainted with Stanford’s geography. There are multiple solutions to remedy this problem during the rainy season; the Marguerite, Stanford’s friendly shuttle system, is one way to improve one’s familiarity with important campus destinations. Not only are the buses a dry, comfortable way to navigate the Stanford campus, but they are also equipped with announcement systems that are informative and accurate. Enjoy the full tour of the Stanford campus, and finally find answers to compelling, years-old questions like: do the A and B lines ever intersect? Where does the C line go? How many roundtrips can one passenger make before the bus driver finally becomes suspicious?

The more impatient may prefer discovering campus through the Hoover Tower Observation Deck. Despite the fact that students and their immediate family members are admitted free to the observation deck, few take advantage of this privilege.

“There are a lot of seniors in the spring who come to the tower before they graduate, who say they haven’t been here in their entire Stanford careers,” says junior Galen Thompson, who works at the Hoover Tower’s information center. A short elevator ride takes visitors to the top of the tower, where a spectacular view of the campus and the neighboring bay area is available.

For students who insist on discovery through first-hand experience, senior Govind Persad offers a solution.

“I try to walk home without getting wet,” he says. “I walk through buildings, and under roofs and trees; it’s a challenge, but it’s fun, and it brings me places that I haven’t been before. Once, I stopped under a palm tree in the middle of the quad and looked up at the rain. It was gorgeous. And I was still dry.”