Our day traveling from Las Vegas to San Jose started around 7:00 am to get ready and pack. It was really rough after going all out on our last night in Vegas. Our flight was at 10:00 am, so we hopped in a cab at 8:00 am to head to the airport.
The flight to San Jose was about an hour. When we landed, we headed to the tiny baggage claim to grab our massive bags, then Kevin picked us up shortly after that. Once we were in the car, it was on to Google!
I’m not sure why, but in my head, I was expecting Google to be in one giant building. It was actually in a bunch of small buildings spread out over a very large campus; like a college.
We parked then walked over to one of their many cafeterias. Kevin explained that we weren’t allowed to take pictures in any of the buildings so I don’t have as many pictures as I would have liked to get, but I did get a few!
We ate lunch with a few of Kevin’s co-workers. They were all really nice! I had a fancy salad and Eric had a bunch of random things including sushi. All the food at Google was free for employees (and accompanied guests). They could choose from many different cafeterias and had what seemed like limitless options. Jealous yet? I was.
After lunch, Kevin walked us over to one of their coffee shops (also free). I got a caramel latte. Not only was the coffee free, but they even had biscotti and Ghirardelli chocolate for free when I picked up my order.
We took our coffee over to another building where Kevin told me they had desserts. They, in fact, had desserts. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t work there; I’d be a whale. Snickerdoodle cookies, Biscoff cookies (the Delta ones), pistachio shortbread, all the candy we could ever want, ice cream, and the list goes on.
They also had break stations everywhere with refrigerators full of any type of beverage our chubby hearts could desire and, of course, more snacks. Eric had a Mexican Coke in a glass bottle. Not just a Coke, but a Mexican Coke… IN A GLASS BOTTLE.
This is starting to sound like we visited Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory instead of Google.
After we left the desserts, we hopped on some Google bikes to get back to Kevin’s car. Technically we weren’t allowed on them (liability or something stupid like that), but we did it anyway!
Next, Kevin drove us to the peasant tourist area of Google. I could feel the anger in my iPhone at our traitorous antics. Especially when we took this picture with the Android WITH said iPhone. Oh, the betrayal!
Our last stop was to another building where we were told there was something really cool to be seen. We walked in and there was yet another break room with snacks, but next to that were these 5 or 6 rectangular screens side-by-side each about 4-5 ft tall in a u-shape.
Kevin turned it on and we saw Earth sprawled across all the screens. It was Google Earth! A GIANT Google Earth! I seriously could have played with this for hours. We were looking up different places around the world which anyone could do, but not laid across 6 giant screens! That was awesome.
Before we left that building, we grabbed some snacks to go. This time I gathered dark chocolate covered espresso beans, gummy worms, and a bottle of fruit water. If it sounds like I was a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, you’d be correct and that’s exactly what I looked like. Eric and Kevin got some spicy snack mix. Can we make a law that requires all companies to give their employees tasty snacks? Can someone get on that? Thanks.
Speaking of squirrels, California has black squirrels! The first one I saw was at Google and I was like, “OOOHHH KITTY” and Kevin goes, “Lauryn NO. That is a squirrel!” It honestly looked like a small cat. So, Google doesn’t have it all it seems.
After gorging ourselves with Google food, we asked Kevin what else there was in San Jose worth seeing. He had no idea, THANKS KEVIN. So we consulted my trusty TripAdvisor for some ideas. The number one thing to do in San Jose was to visit the Municipal Rose Garden. So that’s where we started.
Basically, it was a public park with a zillion roses. I’m sure it would be better if it were sunny and the roses were in full bloom. Not saying it wasn’t pretty, but I think we spent 15 minutes there and 7 of those minutes were Kevin and Eric going to find a bathroom. If you are a flower enthusiast, this is your place (looking at you, MOM).
Next on the TripAdvisor list were 2 museums; meh. One was Egyptian and the other was all about technology. If you didn’t guess it, we skipped those.
Fourth down was the Winchester Mystery House. Oh man, of all my years watching the Travel Channel during Halloween, I had always wanted to see this in person. When we arrived, I was so disappointed. It was $40 per person for a tour. It was more expensive than the Hoover Dam! Needless to say, that was a little out of our “random tour” budget, so we settled for a few pictures outside and were on our way.
After our thrilling adventure through San Jose, we decided it was time to drop our bags at Kevin’s place. We had already met one of his roommates, Ben, since we had lunch with him; super nice guy!
Kevin lives in a townhome with 2 other people in Mountain View, CA. It’s located steps from VTA (their {very efficient} transit system). We hung out for a little bit then decided to go to downtown Mountain View for dinner.
Originally, we were going to go to a hummus place because it’s one of the only places Kevin has eaten at, but at the last minute, we decided Kevin needed to broaden his neighborhood horizons. We settled on a nice little Italian place called Doppio Zero.
The food was good, service was not. We ordered wine and the glasses she brought us were wet and smelled like bleach. So unappetizing. We did get new wine glasses, but after our food came we didn’t see her until the check appeared. Maybe my standards were raised significantly by the fancy places we went to in Vegas.
After dinner, we went to a bar and each got flights of beer. I got the light flight and I think both Kevin and Eric got the dark flights. Most were local beers which were cool to try.
We wrapped up the evening around 10:00 pm. Lyft had brought us downtown, but Eric really wanted to take VTA home. So Kevin bought us tickets and we hopped on the train. I think it was a 3-minute train ride. The cool thing was, the stop we got off at was literally at their neighborhood. We got off the train, went through a little gate, and we were back! Very cool. I wish we had something like that in Atlanta (*COUGH* MARTA *COUGH*).
We planned to get up pretty early the next day to drive to San Francisco, so it was straight to bed for us when we got back.
-Bisous!
Continue reading my Western US Travel Diary here: Day 7: One Day Exploring San Francisco
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