We got away from Stanford early afternoon and stopped at an In/Out Burger place to try it out. It was packed at 2 in the afternoon. We haven’t seen many McDonalds out here and it might be because In/Out is serious competition. We thought is was pretty good – certainly a cut above McDonalds and at a similar price.

I always thought Poplar ended at the Mississippi River. Now we know it runs all the way to the Pacific Ocean!

From there we made our way down to Monterey about an hour and a half drive. It wasn’t long into the trip I began to have regrets. We were taking the road that eventually runs to Los Angeles. We ran into 3 major traffic jams along the way and lost a good hour or more. We were already pushing it to get there is time to adequately tour the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We got to the aquarium 2 hours before closing and paid $78 admission – WOW! It turns out it was actually worth it. It is a world class facility right on the ocean. It has many really neat animals and exhibits you just wouldn’t see anywhere else. Everything was really first class.

Two exhibits that stood out consisted of shorebirds and jellyfish. The shorebirds were in this open beach area that was waist high. There were no cages – it was all open. They would come right up to you walking or swimming but made no attempt to leave the area. Right behind them was this big picture window overlooking the Pacific.

The jellyfish exhibit was even more impressive in a darkened room with these huge backlit tanks full of multicolored jellies large and small. The tanks were so beautifully lit and immaculately clean that at first you really had to look close to tell if they were real jellies or if you were looking at a super high definition tv screen.

That night’s dinner was at a spectacular spot on the wharf overlooking Monterey Bay.

Happily the trip back to Cupertino was a lot easier than the one going down!

After a much needed good night’s sleep we made our way to Stanford University. The first hour was a talk with an Admissions representative followed by an hour long walking tour of the campus. Hand’s down it is the most beautiful college campus I have seen. From downtown Palo Alto you drive up the long main drive which is lined with grand old Royal Palms. The main quad is in the distance with the mountains right behind the campus. The architecture is in the old spanish mission style and faithfully reproduced throughout the main part of the campus.

The school has an interesting history.  It was founded by Leland Stanford Sr.  and his wife as a memorial to their only child who passed away at the age of 16.  Stanford Sr. was a very wealthy railroad magnate.  The university sits on 8000 acres where the Stanford’s had their summer farm.  They named their farm Palo Alto which in Spanish means tall tree.  Leland Stanford Jr. University became known in short as Stanford and the surrounding town of course is now called Palo Alto.  The campus is still widely referred to by faculty and students as “the farm”.

There is no way pictures can do it justice. It is a very impressive place. We hope to make it back before leaving the area on Sunday.

I have been to a good many campuses now but have never seen as many bike riders than we did at Stanford.  I guess every student not only has a bike but rides it frequently.  There were kids on bikes everywhere.

Jackson’s school, MUS, has a former student who is an incoming freshman and nationally recognized track star. They arranged for us to meet with him. He is a really nice fellow and hopes to tryout for the Summer Olympics next time around.

MUS Alum Harrison Williams and Jackson

Dinner was at a great Mexican place in Mountain View. It was in a strip mall but when you pull in you drive into this heavily landscaped area with big trees and towering walls of bougainvillea that drape down over your parking space. It had different outside seating areas scattered around the property with neat lighting and all the windows in the main restaurant were open. Very Californian – and good food to boot!

These flower banks at the restaurant were huge. Pictures don’t do them justice.

After dinner we made our way to downtown Palo Alto to the Stanford Theater. It is a grand old movie house faithfully restored by the Hewlett Family Foundation. They only show movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Each night a double feature with our night being a Charlie Chan and a Sherlock Holmes with a 1940’s Superman serial thrown in. They change the movies out several times a week.  Before and between shows an organist rises from floor and plays pieces from that night’s attractions.  It is custom for the audience to clap whenever the good guys win.

The place is very popular with the  local community with both young and old.  We were there late on a Thursday night and they had a very good crowd.

Tickets are $7 for the double feature. The popcorn is popped fresh and is $1. A large coke was $1.50. It was a blast from the past from the past and a great value in an otherwise terribly pricey area.  It’s a cheap date for the college crowd.

We were dragging and couldn’t stay for Sherlock Holmes.  We got back to the hotel having been up 18 plus hours.

Stanford Theater downtown Palo Alto

At the San Francisco airport it took us about an hour and a half to secure a rental car. We finally made our way down to Mountain View – first stop the Computer History Museum. After catching a late lunch at the snack bar we checked out the exhibits. The Gates Foundation has been a major contributor to their efforts so all the exhibits were extremely well done.

Entrance to Computer History Museum in Mountain View

They pretty much start with the abacus and walk you through the iPhone and every product of any significance in between. We saw many interesting artifacts including an original Apple 1 made in the garage of Steve Jobs parents in Los Altos. We also came across the old Bally video game me and my buddies used to play back in the late seventies. On the way out they had a example of the Google self driving car. It’s a late model Lexus SUV with every sensor imaginable.

Google’s self driving car

The museum is in a really nice neighborhood which includes the fanciest 7-Eleven and Starbucks in the world. And around the corner just happens to be Google’s World Headquarters. It’s kind of like the corporate campuses back home but there is no fence and no guard gate. You can drive right up to the buildings. It’s actually a series of buildings that must take up a good many city blocks. The place is bustling with people many of which are on colorful Google bicycles. I guess if you have a meeting in the building a couple of streets over you grab a bike out front and off you go. You see all these engineers with computer backpacks riding around. Dozens and dozens of them. The yards are full of colorful sculptures many depicting the various versions of the Android Operating System.

From there we made our way to Apple World Headquarters at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino. It’s campus has a similar setup, no fence or gate with 5 large buildings laid out in a big circle. That’s right there are actually five Infinite Loops not just one. In front of the main building is the Corporate store which is the only place in the world you can get clothing and other trinkets with the Apple logo. So we picked up a few things and made a few pictures out front.

Apple World Headquarters – 1 Infinite Loop – Cupertino

Apple Corporate HQ’s Store

One thing I noticed on the ride down from San Francisco earlier were these super fancy buses with blacked out windows. When we got to Apple and Google it finally dawned on me what they were. Each company provides free shuttles to employees who live quite a distance from Silicon Valley. For instance, if you live in San Francisco but wouldn’t consider working at Apple of Google down in the Valley – no problem – they will just run these plush buses between your neighborhood and Mountain View or Cupertino. You catch the bus in the morning there are comfortable workstations with high speed internet, free lattes and doughnuts. You can get an hour of work in on the way in and back out that afternoon. For those who drive to work at Google there is no need to leave to get your dry cleaning, an oil change or carwash. You can get all those things right there on campus. They even have gourmet kitchens with 3 free meals provided a day. Yes they make it easy for you to maximize your workday!

Afternoon bus to San Francisco picking up at HQ’s.

The afternoon ended with us making our way to the hotel in Cupertino. It so happens it is across the street from Apple’s future headquarters, the huge circular building they are planning. It is a massive project that is already underway. There is a 10 foot high fence that runs all around the property. The fence must be a mile long and is there is no telling how much it alone must have cost. Over it you can see all kinds of cranes and what appears to be their own onsite concrete plant.

We overnighted in Nashville in hopes of catching the 7:30 flight to San Francisco.  Last time we did something like this we got the airport before 6 am only to discover that Southwest hadn’t yet opened the counter.

So last night I got to thinking why get out there before 6 if there is no one to help you.  So we caught the 5:55 airport shuttle and drove up to an airport bustling with activity.  Several thousand folks had beaten us to the punch.  What I didn’t think about was that last time was a Sunday not Thursday and wasn’t Fall Break for a lot of kids.

The security line was about out the front door – longer than any I have seen a LaGuardia. Well we got cranking and I guess because we were Standby scored a Pre-TSA pass which got us through security fairly quickly. We got to the gate and got one of the last seats available and off to California we went:

Except the above map doesn’t factor in a 2 plus hour layover in Las Vegas. But lady luck was on our side there. We got off the plane from Nashville and walked down to the next gate to check on seat availability for the next leg to San Francisco. It turns out they were just finishing boarding a delayed flight to our final destination and even had a couple of spare seats. So right on to that plane we went.

Early start at Nashville Airport

Catching A Nap

We ended up getting to San Francisco an hour earlier than we had originally planned. The standby gods were good to us going out. Hopefully they won’t get their revenge on the flight back. Time will tell.