Mountain View

A place in the Bay Area where I grew up. When people ask me where I’m from, I just say it’s the city where Google is headquartered.

Places

The main downtown area is Castro Street (map)
Shoreline (map) is a really nice park area on the baylands. It’s also near Google.
- There’s a kite flying area (map) where I’ve seen people do power kiting (like kite buggying or landboarding)
- You can rent paddleboats at Shoreline Lake (map)
- Shoreline Amphitheater (map) has a lot of music events during the summer
The Computer History Museum (map) has computer history.
When I went a long time ago they had like a Babbage differential engine, a Cray supercomputer, and lots of old Apple products. I also remember seeing a video with JWZ, the guy that now owns DNA Lounge in SF.
NASA Ames has Hanger One (map) which used to be a blimp hanger, long before I was born.
The Mountain View Public Library (map) is where I spent a lot of time as a kid.

I remember their internet used to be way faster than what I had at home, and this was back in the day when you could bring a laptop and plug it in to ethernet ports (and you had to bring a cable). Google provided WiFi to the library (and actually the whole city) for a while, but I remember it being pretty spotty.

They’ve also got a Mountain View history center inside that’s only open on Wednesdays.
Stevens Creek Trail (map) is fun to bike or longboard down. It also leads to Shoreline.
San Antonio Shopping Center (map) used to just be like a Sears (and a Rite Aid, Burger King, and Payless Shoe store) and now they’ve got a pretty nice mixed-use retail area. It’s also near where William Shockley invented the transistor, starting Silicon Valley. Shockley was kind of a jerk, though. He was a eugenicist and people disliked him so much they left him and formed Fairchild Semiconductor without him.
Rengstorff Park (map) has a small skate park (map), a pool (map), and tennis courts (map). I think I learned CPR at their community center before I eventually completely forgot how to do it.
Cuesta Park (map) is where I had my first birthday party (like, as a 1 year old. I don’t remember it at all). The picnic area is pretty good for family events.
Garden Fresh (map) is a vegan Chinese restaurant. I used to go to this place (for takeout) a lot when I was a vegetarian in college visiting home. You know what, I still visit it a lot, even though I’m not vegetarian anymore. I always just get the kung pao “chicken”.