During my day of more scenic driving, I get a text from Petra, one of my Salt Lake City ‘brides’ from the Green Tortoise trip. She works as a nanny in Cupertino, a small town to the west of San José at the heart of Silicon Valley. Cupertino is home to Apple amongst others, while the nearby Mountain View has a Google Avenue.
Being the home of the IT giants of the world, and with a good public (state) school in the area, house prices are eye watering. The house that Petra lives and works in has been valued at $4m, even though it is an indistinct American suburb house, perhaps slightly larger than average. There is nothing overtly appealing about the town, a kind of typical shopping plaza suburbia. In fact, when I join Petra in the evening, the shopping plaza nearest my motel didn’t even have a restaurant that didn’t serve drinks in paper cups. Eventually, we drive to one of the more upmarket plazas and have a pizza in a popular bar restaurant.
The next day, I meet up with Petra again to take a walk up a trail overlooking Mountain View and some of Silicon Valley’s more palatial homes hidden away in the hills.
After our walk, I go on to Santa Cruz on Petra’s recommendation. This is a popular tourist resort and surfer’s area, but I don’t arrive until the end of the afternoon. As I am flying out tomorrow, I don’t have very much energy left for exploring, though I do walk down to the pier for dinner. With sea otters circling below the pier scavenging leftovers, there is a line of expensive seafood restaurants on the pier. However, from the one I choose, I am served a fish that seems less than fresh, an anti-climatic end to my stay in the good old USA...
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| Silicon Valley |
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| Silicon Valley Palaces |
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| Google Avenue Some of California in Pictures...Click Here |
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