Damn my fast fingers!

If I had been more cautious with my cell phone, I wouldn't end up with what I have now: a bunch of badly corrupted photos. Unfortunately, on my 4th day in the Bay Area, I took all my photos with only my cell phone because I didn't think it would be appropriate to bring a camera to where I was going, so this entire post only has enlarged thumbnails that I recovered from the corrupt files...ah well.

Since this was just another normal work week, my aunt and uncle had work obligations, so I was happy to learn my aunt was willing to take some time to take me out for a quick lunch before dropping me off at Stanford so I could have a look around at the campus of a prestigious school while she went back to work. It really sucks that all my photos from this day were badly corrupted because I managed to get some pretty decent photos with it.

First up, my aunt took me for a quick drive-thru lunch at In-N-Out Burger, the only fast food joint they ever go to and one that she highly recommended. And I can't agree more. Burger was juicy and full of flavour, and it felt like you were eating a real burger, not just another fast food production (a la McD's). The best part was the fresh cut, fresh cooked fries! They're known for their fries - each location has a custom made potato slicer, and they prepare, slice, and cook fresh whole potatoes right to order! You can instantly tell they're really fresh, and they're just the right size - halfway between McD's shoestrings and regular cut fries.


On the road on Stanford campus leading up to the main buildings. It's hard to make out, but it was all lined with palm trees! It gave me the feeling that I was about to step foot into an actual establishment of higher education.


It's a bit hard to tell from the photos, but the campus was beautiful even though it started to lightly rain; it's a shame these photos don't do it justice. All the different buildings made it feel like something you'd expect for a university, full of history and a sense of higher education...UTSC can't even compare, which feels like an oversized high school hahaha. It almost reminded me of a small Spanish villa, until classes must have ended because then a stream of students on their bikes came rushing out from all different directions, making their way to other parts of campus - it was actually quite amusing to see, I've never seen something like that happen before on campus.


A better look at the palm trees as I walked down the road leading up to campus to get into downtown Palo Alto (the small town where the campus is located). It definitely had a small town feel, and while a lot of stores were catered to students, it didn't completely feel like a campus town, which is always a good thing.


After spending some time in a local Chapters reading up on some cook books, I headed over to a Red Mango (frozen yogurt) shop I had passed by earlier and decided to treat myself with some frozen yogurt! I had the pomegranate flavour - great texture and taste, plus Red Mango markets it as being healthy for you because of the yogurt and real ingredients they use (think Yogen Fruz up here)...relaxing on a sunny day and I left perfectly satisfied.


I dropped into a chain pharmacy/convenience store (I forgot which one), took a look around, and couldn't believe what I found: shelves upon shelves of candy and pop! The candy especially comes in bigger sizes and in more varieties (plus a lot of US-only candies) than I've ever seen in Canada. I really couldn't believe the selection and portions of sugar that was offered in a regular convenience store...now I completely understand why diabetes is such a problem in the US.


Of course, I couldn't try a little something myself...the American jujubes! I only found out after my trip that jujubes refers to different types of candy in different countries, so I was totally not expecting the tiny, hard (but still "soft candy"), chewy candy when I bought it...so different from what you think of jujubes if you've grown up in Canada! I definitely prefer Canada's jujubes better hahaha - they're so much chewier and softer (ie. easier on the teeth).

My aunt managed to step out of work really quickly and picked me back up at Stanford, then dropped me offer at a local electronics chain store to see if I could find any of those awesome US electronics deals I always see when I'm at home. And wouldn't you know it, with my luck, absolutely nothing worth buying (even though the place was huge)! In fact, most things were on par or even pricier than in Canada?! What happened to all the deals I usually see!?

And that pretty much wrapped up the day's activities. It might not seem as exciting as my other daily adventures, but it was a very interesting experience just to get a sense of some of the local community. And it was definitely nice to see what a university campus should look like haha. It was similar enough to the types of places we have here in the GTA that it felt quite familiar, but I still was very aware of the fact I was not in Canada. And plus, who can say no to the sun and mild January temperatures after growing up in Canada?

San Jose? Pass...

I spent my second day in the Bay Area just hanging out in my aunt and uncle's house, basically recuperating after being out all day, every day when I was in NYC. It was really relaxing, and I was interesting for me to observe how the typical daily life was like in the US, since I've only ever known the US as a place to visit and live like a tourist. Plus, I got to play with their very friendly and large dog, Petey! And when my aunt got back from work, she showed me around Cupertino to give me an idea of the neighbourhood my cousins grew up in (who are both currently away from home). It actually kind of reminded me of Richmond Hill - wide streets, middle-class to more affluent homes, giant chain supermarkets, huge chain stores like Staples, and a lot of small suburb plazas.

But the next day I headed out to neighbouring San Jose to look around town. It might've been the weather (it was very cloudy and eventually started raining), or it might've been the dated look of almost all the low rise buildings I saw during the 1 hour bus ride into downtown San Jose from Cupertino (San Jose is very big), or maybe I was expecting too much from the 10th largest city in the US, but whatever it was, I was not impressed at all. In my opinion, there's really not much to see there, so I'd recommend to anyone planning to visit San Jose for the city itself to skip it. But then again, I don't think San Jose is very much geared towards tourism anyways, it felt much more like a live and work city to me.


On the driveway of my aunt and uncle's home, looking down the street. It was blindingly sunny in the morning, but the sun quickly disappeared after that.


The first building I saw after getting off the bus in downtown San Jose. Probably because it was a weekday, but the streets were deserted - again, not really a touristy place.


This is what I get for bringing my cheap compact camera with me instead of my DSLR hahaha. It was the middle of the day and quite cloudy, so it couldn't figure out how to pick up enough light!


At Bicentennial Plaza.


At the Plaza de Cesar Chavez park.


Outside The Tech Museum, the main reason for my trip into San Jose.

With a forecast of lots of rain, we figured a trip to the science museum would be a good way to stay indoors and kill some time, and plus, my uncle was a member of the museum, so using his pass, I could get in for free. The big attraction there was that they had the Star Trek Exhibit for a few months, and even though I'm not a Trekkie, it wouldn't hurt to check it out. Well, let's just say I was glad I didn't have to pay to get in hahaha. Honestly, if I didn't have an interest in science stuff, I would've been bored to tears haha. It was really small, and yet, there was so much empty space! There were so few things to look at, I easily cleared the entire museum in under 1.5 hours, and I really took my time with it since I was trying to kill some time. Not even comparable to the Ontario Science Centre...I haven't been there in ages haha. But I'll let the photos do the talking, and see if you agree with my perspective that it looks like the designers tried at least to make the place look decent with the limited resources they had.

The ceiling above the escalators. 3 floors, but only 2 floors have exhibits.


Off to a decent start...


Okay, maybe the problem was that I was too old for this museum hahaha.


Looks promising? Well it's not, you just sit and watch a poor computer-animation of a roller coaster ride...


Probably the most interesting thing in the entire museum, and one half of it was broken, a robotic arm demonstration, where your picture is taken with a camera (a cheap one at that), a computer analyzes it for the borders, and then the robotic arm draws it in pen.


I wasn't kidding about the empty space. I should add that I've cropped most of the photos I took just to minimize the emptiness, because I didn't want the photos to look so pathetic hahaha.


Some of the exhibits themselves weren't that bad; like I said, it looked like they tried to make the best of limited resources. But the setup was just terrible, and the fact that there were a handful of visitors (maybe 1 or 2 small school groups) only compounded the feeling of too much empty space.


A heat vision camera...this was pretty cool to see.


Another broken exhibit.


I'm not going to bother repeating what I've already said hahaha.


The internet exhibit wasn't half bad. There was a globe with certain countries you could touch, and then the accompanying screen would show free webcams (at least the ones that worked) set up in cities of the country you pressed (2nd photo); it snowed in Sapporo! You business is bad when the employee tries to strike up a conversation with you about the activities even though you clearly look too old for this stuff just so she has somebody to talk to for a bit hahaha.


I really did try to take the most flattering angles hahaha.


The earthquake simulator at the museum that simulates the quakes of some of the most famous earthquakes in recent times. It was interesting, but the equipment really showed its age even though I really don't think it could've been that old.

I didn't even see the Star Trek Exhibit the entire time I was at the museum. I tried looking for it, but there were no signs set up to point it out, and in the only area left that it could've possibly been set up (since I basically covered the entire museum minus the IMAX theatre), it looked like something was still being set up, so that was another disappointment.

Back outside, looking at the museum, looking at the back of the Larkspur Hotel. It was already drizzling a bit at this point, so I decided to hop on the bus back to Cupertino.

The the bus stop was a bit of a walk from my aunt and uncle's home, so despite the rain, I took advantage of the walk back to check out the surrounding area. Not much to take photos of since it was a suburb, plus I'm sure my compact camera would've failed miserably at getting a correct exposure hahaha. The best part though was that I popped into a supermarket to get a look at some of the US-only candy varieties!

I picked up 2 bags of Cheetos with flavours I'd never seen before, and I'm pretty sure they're not available up here in the GTA. The Cheddar Jalapeno Crunchy turned out to have just the right kick, but the Flamin' Hot Puffs were too much - so much artificial spice to the point that it was disgusting. If I ate a few in a row, my taste buds would get overwhelmed from the heat alone, and the Cheetos lost the all the flavour it had, and it didn't have much to begin with...the best way I could describe it's flavour is "simulated hot" hahaha.


The finished drawing from The Tech which I kept as a souvenir of San Jose! I think it's actually pretty decent.