Do you know the (google maps) way to San Jose?

 

Dionne Warwick coined the song after she felt she had to go home after not achieving what she wanted to in L.A  We picked it up as have made San Jose more of our focus out here rather than San Fran itself. Interesting facts, San Jose (other than having a great airport, being a BA hub and having a seismic football team, still no other earthquakes) is 12th largest city in the U.S, and the hopping off point for Silicon Valley, so we had a day of quiet adjustment taking in some of the seats of learning and entrepreneurship that make this area quite established in recent years.

No-one quite sure what time zone they were on so we really had to keep things simple before maybe one more day or so of ticking off a couple of final activities and then head home. Thoughts certainly turning to home and work today especially as we ended the day on a University campus.

I woke before everyone in our little AirBnb, and got on top of all the charging situation. We are on a main road in Palo Alto East. A google search that I should have probably done before the trip shows why this place is cheaper than Palo Alto itself!

People slowly came to life and we decided to make use of the car a bit with some local travel and exploration. With some big name tech companies having emerged in this area with names like Bezos, Musk, Zuckerburg and Jobs all part of the tapestry here, chance to take a look at some modern history.

Google and Apple today, I'm saving Facebook for a hit and run before I leave ;) Some of these  platforms have certainly turned to the darkside but have sucked so many in that they know they have a sitting audience. I do note a lot less activity on Twitter these days which is just a chance for people on the right and left to shout at each other in empty rooms. And Facebook feels a bit feast or famine in whether people use or not.  Anyway, maybe Twitter tomorrow...

Google was spread out across quite an area, but plenty of android robots across some of its sites to make for a fun bit of exploration.  Earned our trip to Mcdonalds where Bryn and I filled our face to appreciate local culture right!

Apple which has a couple of distinct locations was more of a disappointment. Yes, a Visitor centre, but with absolutely nothing to captivate, unless you want to buy a device. Some cool stuff coming down the track mind.

Only a few hairy moments in the car, Carys wanted a cheesecake factory experience so we found an All American mall. Might do a bit of shopping on our last day so a chance to look at some more of those big american icons, and others to eat cake. And me to practice my parking. The lots so much bigger out here!

Our last stop of the day was Stanford University, the incubator for many of those tech minds and an institution that (for the US) shows a bit of established and acknowledged academic excellence. Strolled through its grounds, enjoying the modern and slightly older architecture, but mainly the space. Wished I had brought my running shoes as nowhere to really run near our Airbnb, unless we are making some sort of getaway!

But was back to that for the rest of an Uncle Sams indoor evening with a bit of Netflix (they're around here somewhere) , Bud and pizza, just the second smallest size from the outfit 2 doors down from our digs. Lots of laughs and relaxing.  Bit of larking around, Bryn showed me how to trim my beard like his.

(Carys)

It was nice to sleep in a different bed after a week in the same one, and definitely much better than sleeping almost upright on the plane, so although still tired when I woke up, I was glad to have had a nice sleep. We got on our way pretty quickly, in order to have a little look around the San Jose area. I'm really glad to be back in California, and enjoying seeing just outside of San Fransisco which we didn't get to really explore at all when we were here 5 years ago. We went on a bit of a tour of the big company HQs, starting with Google, and then Apple. Unfortunately not a whole lot to see really, but it was interesting to have a nose around such important locations for these gigantic brands.

 Between stops we tried to look for some brunch, but with McDonalds not having any vegetarian options - not even cheese dippers which I was very surprised about - other than chips, that became the meal for me. I did also have a Starbucks, which I chose  to have a Mango Dragon Fruit Lemonade since that's something that feels very American to me that we don't have in the Uk (I'm really trying to maximise that American experience), and it was perfect for cooling down in this Cali heat. 

The Apple visitor centre and store especially was extremely modern and minimalist. The buildings were all very sleek and aesthetically pleasing. Despite having a very fancy cafe with iPads to order on (of course), I didn't really fancy anything to eat so convinced everyone to take a trip to my favourite place in the world, The Cheesecake Factory. I've been looking forward to going since I found out we were doing this trip, and I'm hoping we may even go again before we leave. We had to walk through a mall to get there, a mix of shops indoors and outdoors, which we had a brief mooch around. The best way I can describe it is just that it feels so American which is just perfect really. For food, I was dithering between options on the menu, they have around 20 different cheesecakes and all sound top notch, so it's a hard choice for me. I settled on a red velvet cheesecake, also tasting some of mum's raspberry and white chocolate one, whilst Bryn had a carrot cake with a strawberry milkshake, which I think he regretted later on. I learnt that lesson when we were in Las Vegas, and I also had a milkshake with my cheesecake - all delicious but sickeningly sweet.

 We went on then to drive out to Stanford University just to have a wander about, which was relatively easy to locate. The campus itself is really beautiful, with a mix of palm trees and others, and lots of green spaces. I'm not sure why I make it sound like a review, but it did feel like a university open day, despite not going to any talks or anything of course, since that's something I've been having to look at recently. It did get my mind thinking a bit about what college in America would be like, and from what I've seen today, Stanford would be a lovely place to attend - my issue would be the heat, as the sun was blaring down on us. 

When we'd finished up, we made our way back to the Airbnb and ordered some pizza from the shop down the road. It ended up being much nicer than the ones we had in Fiji the other day - less cheesy and doughy - and we spent the evening just enjoying our space. So, all in all, it's been a fun day, even though it's been rather quite random. Time to rest up now for more busyness tomorrow!