Diego and I were set to head into San Jose first thing this morning but between my having to try and fix my Jawbone UP and Diego wanting to chat with his girlfriend, we didn't end up heading out until about 9, not too late but it did mean we lost a chunk of the day.
We took the Light Rail into San Jose. Although not as fast as CalTrain, it only costs as much as a bus ride making it a great value option. It takes an interesting route as well, looping north past many of the tech companies (NASA, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, eBay, Cisco) before going through Northern San Jose, down into San Jose and on to Winchester. What I really noticed about this journey was a stretch of Santa Clara. When I first went to University, the housing market in London was booming. When I came back from Durham to Balham, every other shop front had been turned into an Estate Agent's... what has this to do with San Jose? Well this one particular stretch of road, maybe a couple of miles long, had the same thing only instead of Estate Agents (or 'Realtors' for you Yanks), it was Bail Bondsmen - Aladdin's Bails, Bad Boys Bail Bonds, All-Pro Bail Bonds... one after another. Of course part of the reason is that Santa Clara County Court sits on this particular road, but even so, the fact that twenty plus Bail Bondsmen can be supported by this one court is a sad indictment of the state of US Law & Politics. The thoughts is made even more shocking when you consider this is the heart of Silicon Valley, one of the most well off Counties in the entire country (19th highest Median Household Income in 2011 US Census). It is the highest in California (Orange Country by comparison was ranked 64th in the same Census). So where the UK was for a while drowning in Estate Agents, it seems that, at least this stretch of the US, is drowning in Bondsmen... Out of two sets of complete cunts, I know which I would rather be drowning in... hmmm that is an interesting mental image.
By the time we got into San Jose, we were both pretty hungry so we decided that before heading to the Tech Museum, we would grab some breakfast. This plan was somewhat hindered by the Jazz Festival that had shut off a huge swathe of Downtown streets causing us to have to take a fairly lengthy detour in order to reach a breakfasting spot that wasn't another sodding Subway. In the end we came to Peggy Sue's, a traditional chrome and red leatherette booth diner. The food was filling, cooked to your liking and served with a smile, just as it should be at a place like this.
It was getting on for noon by the time we finally headed into the Tech Museum, but it was TOTALLY worth it. This place is the ultimate children's playground. Virtually every exhibit was interactive, everything gave simple information in short, bite-sized chunks. The information wasn't really new for me or Diego but the children around us were engaged and loving it. Your ticket comes with a barcode that you can scan at the various displays to take photos, take quizzes and afterwards you can log into the website from home and retrieve it all! In the gift shop I was also able to pick up a small Gyroscope, something I have wanted for years but never been able to find for a reasonable price.
By the time Diego and I had wandered around the whole museum, it was time for me to head to Shut Up and Write! A MeetUp group for writers to get together and make some headway on their projects. The Silicon Valley group is big with several different weekly meet ups. It seems like few people will attend multiple and they are in a wide range of locations ranging from Redwood City to San Jose. This one is not really conveniently located for me taking 90min to 2 hrs to get to however the folks I met there were (mostly) great and I think that I will try and return any Saturday I have nothing else on. Hopefully in future the other new attendee, an Australian that wouldn't shut up, will either not be there or at least sit still and keep quiet. Tomorrow there is one in Redwood City that I am gonna check out.
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