Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM and others all have their HQ's in Silicon Valley, which is not far from where we are staying. So we had a little tour around the neighbourhood, Facebook was boring, nothing really there, Google was cool, the staff have multicoloured bikes to cycle around the complex, I suppose no one is going to nick them as they do stand out. Apple had a company store and Linda identified a t-shirt she liked, so now she can say been there, done that and got the t-shirt to prove it! The Apple site was very immaculate, the grass all cut, a bit like their products, you can see the quality.The computer history museum was an interesting visit. We spent a couple of hours there, looking round, although it did show our age as we recognised some of the machines for, the 80's like the Commodore Pet, Spectrum ZX80, BBC micro, although there was no VIC20. There was a section on IBM and when they started all the employees had to wear an uniform and in the morning they wold sing the company songs, how times have changed, probably jeans and a sweatshirt now. They had a couple of Charles Babbage's machines from the 19th century and when you compare that with modern technology you notice the difference, or do you. They both do the same things, but now it just looks a bit nicer.
I drove from Death Valley to near San Jose, a distance of over 500 miles, but now we are staying at a Hampton Inn in Morgan Hill since we arrived in the area, it's nice to have one base for a few days rather than keep moving around, packing the cases and loading the car. It's a large room, with a desk to write at, a coffee machine, microwave and wireless Internet, everything I need!
It was the Super Bowl final this weekend, so I sat there with my 49er's t-shirt on and watched the game, well apart from the 35 minute blackout in the middle. As its American football I did not really understand it, but after watching it got the gist of it, the team with the most points wins. Unfortunately, it was not my team. Linda liked watching the adverts, which seemed to be on more than the game, and it appears is costs the companies $4 million per 30 second adverts. The papers were comparing the adverts to identify the best, I think Budweiser came top.
We went to see the big trees today, the redwoods at the Henry Cowell national park. The trees were big and tall and been there for over 2200 years, according to the literature. However, there was no-one there who could prove it. We had a walk around the trail which was just under a mile, Linda was in her element not only was she wearing her Apple t-shirt, but there were plenty of trees to photograph. To me one tree looks like another, but not to David Bailey.
It was a nice scenic drive of about 100 miles, we came back along US Highway 1, saw the Pacific ocean and then cut back through the mountains to Morgan Hill. This is wine county and there are lots of ranches selling wine, offering free tastings, but I was driving so we did not stop.
We have checked in for the flight home, boarding passes on the Ipads ready, we have seats on the upper deck, so we will be higher up than those in cattle class, although it won't get us home any quicker.
I have uploaded some photos here