[Photos taken 06-09 June 2023, posted online 10 March 2024. Still no eruption.]
While planning my California trip, I allocated one day to shopping, a walk, and a downtown-dinner. The day after I managed to invite myself to visit a person I’d been regularly remote-meeting with for work that whole spring, and then it was time to fly back home!
Tuesday 06 June 2023
A signature tree of the area during a cloudy morning.
I went back to the good coffee house for brunch.
It was a little cold outside, and then it began raining so I headed inside. The clientele was wonderfully Californian.
If there’s one thing California is fond of, it’s signage.
That gate on the left was the entrance to the public path…
The path in question. I decided not to pursue it.
Lovely flowers.
The signature sign downtown.
Then I was off shopping. I attempted to find clothing at REI, but women in my size are not supposed to be mobile. I had more luck at Nike.
After a bit of retail therapy I found my way to the Google campus to go take an afternoon walk.
More signage.
A bit of whimsy is still to be found on campus.
Chairs, and then some chairs.
We walked past some art.
This parking garage is apparently a tourist destination. The outside is made of free tiles that shimmer in the wind. So lovely.
We found a bit of nature.
Hello 101.
We walked past some Googlers playing beach volleyball.
We found the new monster-sized Google building! It was still not open, but it looked very fancy.
The tops of the Shoreline amphitheater visible in the distance. I kick myself a bit for not attending more shows there, but the ones we did see were memorable.
More aaaart…! Please don’t climb on it though!
Signage for the new monster building.
Androids!
After my lovely walk I had a bit of time to kill before dinner. I drove and found the last house we’d lived in in California. Nothing had changed much in the area.
I drove around the corner and checked out the old daycare center.
The entrance to the day care center. The news broke a few months ago that Google would stop being a daycare provider, since it was such a big perk that was localized to one area.
Some projects on display.
I drove past a playground we often frequented. It had also stayed mostly the same, although the trees may have grown.
A few streets over I parked my car and walked to my old advisor’s house.
Tux was there to greet me.
We drove to downtown Mountain View and had a lovely dinner.
Excellent fish!
Apparently Castro street is now a pedestrian area only.
There weren’t a whole lot of people there aside from outside the restaurants.
The campus turned out to be huuuuuge! But I was told that they were having a lot of trouble getting people to come to the office, so a lot of the office-buildings were mostly empty.
More campus!
After a very interesting tour, I drove back south towards San Jose airport.
Time to fill up the tank of the rental tank.
The airport terminal.
Perfect packing, as the bag was 50.0 lbs. even!
Meh airport food.
My plane.
The famous non-window window-seat was mine.
Goodbye Bay Area!
The artwork at Seattle airport revisited.
Seattle airport restaurant.
Salmon burger!! It was quite good!
My Icelandair plane!
I had three seats to myself!
My elaborate pillow setup, to ensure nothing fell on the walkway. I slept most of the way to Iceland.
Thursday 08 June 2023
Soooo cloooose!
It was wet!
Oh look, a familiar face in the duty free store!
Airport artwork.
As I unpacked it struck me that the rental place in Silicon Valley had handed me a dot-matrix-printed contract!
Emma with her present!
Green book for a green shirt.
Bjarki got something too!
After napping for a bit, I went to recharge and refuel at a nearby cafe.
Friday 09 June 2023
The wet backyard at 8:30 in the morning. We were still putting the plants out to acclimatize them.
While I was away, my team had moved down to a large room on the first floor. It was weird visiting our old team room, it’s felt much bigger than when there were 10 desks in there.
