Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton

Last Friday, I drove to the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton. I had been wanting to visit the observatory and decided this would be a fine day to do it. I think waking up and seeing the bright planet Venus on the horizon inspired me.

The trip to the observatory was very pleasant. I love driving in the Diablo Mountains as it provides a bird's-eye view of San Jose. The road to Mount Hamilton varied from flat and straight to hairpin turns. There were several gorgeous vistas.

I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the Visitor Center at the observatory. The hallway was well lit and lined with framed paintings all dealing with astronomical themes. There was a very large souvenir shop as well as an exhibit room and a small lecture room. I attended a 15 minute talk that took place under the dome where the 36" refracting telescope was located.

After the talk, I visited the lecture room where a large screen displayed a video feed of current news in the astronomy world. At the time, there was a news item about the Hubble space telescope and how it was going to run out of commission in 2010, and what plans were being made to repair and replace it.

After hanging out in the lecture room for a few minutes, I walked down the hall to the room with the exhibits. There were murals that covered the history of the observatory and a display of meteorites.

After that, I left the Visitor Center and walked the grounds a bit. I headed over to the 120 inch reflecting telescope. It was a very hot day but I took my time walking and did not sweat too much.

The 120 inch telescope was a bit of a disappointment. You were not allowed into the area where the telescope was but had to sit in a chair behind a glass window. A man appeared to be doing some maintenance work on the telescope and a family of four was watching a video. I looked at the display to my left, took some pictures, and watched part of an old video that talked about how the gigantic telescope was mounted.

After that, I walked back over to the visitor center and made another visit to the gift shop.

I was struck by the quietness of the campus. Its isolated location did not make it a heavily trodden tourist site. And the people I saw were people hired to maintain the building. I imagine the place was more bustling at night and on weekends.

I was also struck by how run down many of the buildings were. They looked neglected. The docent who gave the talk was also the gift shop supervisor. I liked her. She gave a nice quick talk about the telescopes and history of the observatory. She also explained that the number of residents was now down to 39. In the heyday of it's lifetime there had been 100 residents. The maintenance crew had been reduced down from 8 to 4.

The observatory, at one time used for many scientific purposes, is now used mostly for educational purposes. They have done a good job of making the place attractive to adventuresome tourists. It is a bit off the beaten track, but the drive is scenic and the history of the place (read about James Lick) entertaining.

I took some pictures while I was there.

Goggling Google

I want the folks at home to know why this is called Silicon Valley. Don't you think it's a rather funny name? I picture tons of irreducible silicon chips littering the lovely Diablo Hills. Actually, there are thousands of internet and high tech companies residing in the area from San Francisco to San Jose. For example, Yahoo, Google, Craigslist, Facebook, and McAfee have headquarters in the Silicon Valley.

All of Mountain View has free wireless internet because Google headquarters resides there and provides it to the city. I found out recently that the headquarters is actually spread over several acres and several buildings and so is referred to as a "campus." Last Wednesday, I did not just drive by the campus as I have in the past, but because of some unexpected free time, I stopped the car and took some pictures and wandered into the lobby.

The campus is a serene, attractive place. The only people I saw were people with name tags exiting these humongous buses that appears to be a limousine service Google provides to its employees. There were dozens of nifty identical bicycles parked around the grounds that also made it appear that Google provides bicycles to get around campus. These observations and the marvelous sculptures that I saw makes me think it must be a very special place to work. Here's the pictures.

Cool Cars--the Goodguys in California

Last Wednesday, I was driving around Mountain View on my way to the library when a couple of old jalopies passed me by. Then another, and another. After half a dozen made a left turn at this one street, I switched lanes and decided to follow them. I found myself turning onto a small side street with half dozen auto repair shops situated on it and, yikes, more shiny beautiful pre-60's hot-rods.

Turns out, it was a meeting of the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association, a national hot-rod association. A few dozen members had decided to attend an event at a place called Mozart's, a custom hot rod museum in Mountain View recently built by John Mozart and his wife, Heather. Then they were headed to Pleasanton, California for the BIG EVENT, the West Coast Nationals which was to involve thousands of cars.

I thoroughly enjoyed walking the parking lot of Mozart's. It was like attending an antique car show for free. I realized I was a bit of an interloper but no one seemed to notice me, and the friendliness of a few of the guys who asked how I was doing and started chatting with me made me feel welcome. I nonchalantly signed the guestbook and toured the local shop along with the other members of the hot rod association. I took pictures of my favorites.

Introduction to this blog

The nice thing about the internet is that anyone can become a writer. One can join a blog site and just start typing away. Two recent events have inspired me to start a blog--reading Jo Pearson's travels to various Iowa wineries (Iowa Wineries Project), and seeing the movie, Julie and Julia. So, I don't really want to make a big deal of this. I just want to share some of my adventures out here in California.

Though not everybody would consider living in California an adventure, I do. For I have only been out here a little more than a year, and moving to California from Iowa, was a big accomplishment for me. I had been drawn to the state for years and years and never found the wherewithal to make the move. Now, finally, I am here, and I love it. I find so many things out here, through an Iowan's eyes, an adventure. So, taking some pictures and writing a few lines about the various places I visit, I thought I would share these adventures with others who may never make it out to California, but should.