Two day trip around the bay area? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 06:28:37 am
content: Hi, i've got a couple of days in NorCal, to fill in.. Arrive in san fran on tuesday evening and leave early friday morning. the one thing i have to do is go to the Livermore outlet stores. Am intending to hire a car. Any suggestions on what to do to fill in a day.. ( I have spent time in san fran ).

author: SimonR
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 02:48:42 pm
content: I'd be interested in any suggestions as well, for my next visit, I always find out about places after I leave.Here is what I have done previouslyIf you're into history then I can thoroughly recommend the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, you will probably need a day to see everything. I went 3 times. Watch out for all the Tesla's charging their batteries in the car park.In the reception they have an information sheet with all the addresses of significant contributors to the computer industry.So I visited The Apple house where it started, Apple HQ, Google HQ and the Intel museum, all a short drive from each other. In fact Google is right next to the computer museum.If you are interested in space at all then directly across the bay from San Francisco, across the other bay bridge, is the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Its the ship that picked up Apollo 11 when it returned, and it still has the Airstream built quarantine trailer on board.I also tried to go whale watching but missed the boat due to bay area traffic jams, sot watch out for that.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 02:58:10 pm
content: Definitively the Computer Museum.If you are old enough, your eyes will glaze at the nostalgia of seeing again some equipment you actually used (or saw someone use), and remembering how it all looked so "high tech" back then.

author: dr_dan
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 03:22:33 pm
content: Another thumbs up for the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. I spent nearly 5 hours there yesterday!I've heard that the Intel Museum is quite good, but it isn't open on Sundays so wasn't an option for me.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 03:49:11 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on November 26, 2018, 06:28:37 amWhat Livermore outlet stores? I think the remaining surplus stores are HSC (may not be around long), Alltronics, Anchor, and Excess Solutions.Do you have any interests other than electronics? Art, the outdoors, food, history?

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 05:35:02 pm
content: I would go to Halted/HSC (https://www.halted.com) (unfortunately my second suggestion WeirdStuff.com appears to have shut down!).They always had tons of fun one of a kind surplus stuff at both stores.If you don't have anything similar wherever you live now, I would also check out Frys. Which is huge, kind of a supermarket for all kinds of electronics, the same owners also own a supermarket chain. They have multiple stores all around the Bay Area. (Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Fremont.)There are other electronics stores but none of them anywhere near as large. There also may still be a flea market/electronics/computer and ham radio swap-meet/parking lot sale (Was at at D' Anza College - no longer is there- during the nice weather months, it now is held in the parking lot of Fry's Sunnyvale)(Edit/Update:The Electronics Flea Market “swap meet” is held on the second Saturday (pre dawn) of each month, March through September) ,FLYER.Edit: website:https://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/map: (Frys parking lot in Sunnyvale)schedule, "Our next Electronics Flea Market is scheduled for March 9, 2019".

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 05:38:11 pm
content: My last few visits down to that part of the world the traffic was enough to discourage me from doing too much. Be focused on your desires.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2018, 05:57:20 pm
content: The traffic there can be really brutal at certain times, especially in the area centered around Oakland/Emeryville, with the intersection of the various highways there and the Caldecott Tunnel. Also traffic on the Peninsula can be really bad too. Scan the various traffic predictions in advance to give yourself an idea of what clogs up when, and if you have to be somewhere schedule extra time to get there.Try to stay off of 101 in SV during the rush hour because if there is an accident (and they happen fairly often) it can and does get backed up for miles and traffic can slow to a crawl.When I left the Bay Area to move elsewhere, just to give you an idea of how bad it can be, the traffic going east was so bad it took literally 3/4 of the day to get out of the mess and on the open road.Trying to drive eastward from SF (just to get on 80 East) coming off of the Bay Bridge we immediately found ourselves stuck- in Oakland/Emeryville and it was so bad we literally gave up on going through there.. We had to return to San Francisco - (back across the Bay Bridge) and then across SF on Van Ness Ave to go north across the Golden Gate Bridge and then we took 101 to the Richmond-San Rafael bridge -a lesser used, smaller bridge, to re-cross the Bay to go around it. That all took many hours.Sometimes I miss the Bay Area, its beautiful scenery, its great hiking, its fun people.But I don't miss its traffic jams. I've been in lots of traffic where I live now, but it always is moving, it doesn't just stop leaving you sitting there breathing carbon monoxide from all the other cars. So its nothing near as bad as it can often be in California.

author: LapTop006
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 27, 2018, 06:49:30 am
content: Quote from: cdev on November 26, 2018, 05:35:02 pmI'd say skip the Sunnyvale Fry's, the others may be better, but the Sunnyvale one has been a bit of a waste of time when I've been.Sadly the AMPEX sign is now gone, it was always a landmark for me when I arrived on the overnight flight from Australia