California Trip {Day 5}

We checked out of the Dolce Hayes Mansion and started our "Geek" tour. We mapped things out on the GPS. Our first stop was 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA.


For those readers who are not familiar with this address, this is the Apple headquarters.

Maybe this image is more familiar.

It was amusing to people watch here. We were behind a metro bus that stopped and let off dozens of Apple employees. They were mostly young, casually dressed (jeans or khakis and button down shirts) and nearly everyone was wearing a backpack. The Apple campus was HUGE! Apple has a Company Store open to the public. Chris bought a polo style shirt there. We also picked up some little things for the kids, too. While in the store, Chris played around with an IPad on display and found a little place for us to eat breakfast. So that's where we went next.


Breakfast was at Bobbi's Coffee Shop. I had a delicious veggie omelet. Yum!


Our next stop on our Geek tour, was 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA.

In case you aren't familiar with that address, it is the headquarters of Google.
The Google headquarters (Googleplex) also encompass several buildings. There were yellow bicycles with baskets outside the buildings for employee use in getting from building to building.


The Computer History Museum was next. This is the largest computer history museum in the country.

This is a PDP-1 computer. It is significant because of the the control panel on the lower right that students built for playing a video game. The concept of video games didn't exist before this, so for video game fans out there, this was a crucial moment in history.


An original Pong video game machine.

This is a Cray Super Computer.


This is one of the first personal IMB computers. Chris had one like this in his dorm room at college.


This is an Apple 1 computer. You had to assemble the computer yourself and it did not come with a case. This one is signed by Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak.


The first Nintendo video game system. We received one as a wedding present in 1991 from my sister.

Then it was on to 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto, CA to take a look at this garage.

In case you're wondering why we would stop to look at someone's garage, it is the Hewlet Packard Garage - the birthplace of Silicon Valley.


Now finished with our Geek Tour, we made our way back to San Francisco, our final destination.


We checked into our hotel, the Warwick San Francisco, then went walking and exploring.

In all the excitement of our geek tour, we forgot to eat lunch! So we stopped at Annabell's Bar & Bistro for an early dinner. It was happy hour and all drinks & appetizers were on sale. So we feasted on a some bacon wrapped prawns, sweet potato fries, and an arugula pesto pizza.


We went to bed early, we were tired from our geeky adventures. I wish I could say we slept well, but we are not used to sleeping in downtown areas. There were whistles blowing (hailing taxis), horns honking, and lots of loud, drunk folks in the streets of downtown San Francisco.