19 Wednesday

While Sally did some laundary, I went to the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffet Air Base which is located on the the other side of highway 101 about 10 minutes drive from Russell's place.  I considered walking there, it would only take about 30 minutes, but decided to drive instead.  They have an Information Center which was open and a computing museum which unfortunately was only open on a few days each month, probably catering mostly to school's needs. I found the whole place quite interesting and while I was in the Information Center they had a video monitor set up showing the shuttle's return to earth as it was actually happening.   Wow.  They had a number of exhibits of old used space hardware like Triton rockets, and USAF chase planes and many static displays of the work that ARC does particularly in the earth sciences and environmenta areas. The backup mercury capsule was on show and several model exibits of planes that carry high altitude x-ray measuring equipment.

The rather unimposing front entrance to Ames Research Center

When seated in the Mercury Capsule seat there is barely enough room to manipulate the controls.  If you had an itch, you would have to live with it!

After lunch we went to the Sunnyvale Town Center Mall (which must have been the only mall in Silicon Valley we hadn't yet been to), but found it uninteresting and mostly deserted; a good 20% of the shops were closed down due to the dot com recession.

When we came back I went for a walk into downtown Mountain View which took 35 minutes both ways. To look in detail at neighbourhood areas you need to walk.  In a car you can only see a macro environment as if you are viewing a large scale map. The details flash past and are not properly registered. Walking brings a new perspective and appreciation of your surroundings. Walking in 30 degree temperatures under cloudless skies would, if you were in Auckland, be an exertion which would have you freely perspiring in 10 minutes. In Mountain View with its dry atmosphere, I found the walk to be pleasant and comfortable. There are many apartments in this area of Mountain View some are obviously converted large old houses, but many are custom built buildings designed around features intended to attract prospective tenants.   One such apartment block called 'Lake Apartments' featured several attractively shaped shallow lakes complete with fountains and waterfalls around which the apartment complex had been built. The front deck of each apartment overhung the lake by half a meter at a height of about 600mm.  Attractive landscaping made the whole area look quite cool and appealing.  But what about small children with all that water to fall into?  Further on I came to a school team doing some baseball training along with small children trying to emulate their heros.  After several more road crossings and I have to think carefully about which road to take to get to downtown Mountain View.   Moffett Blvd - there it is, hang a right and it should go over the CalTram track, into Castro Rd and then straight into Downtown.  Passed the Thai Restarant where we have now had two meals and strolled along the main street inspecting each eating place, night club, fast food joint until I came to the bookshop that we had visited several nights previously. Browsed the bookshop (www.booksinc.net) for about 45 minutes, bought Steinbecks 'Cannery Row' and then somewhat reluctantly retraced my route back to Russell's place. 

We took the rental car back to San Jose Airport after Novey got home from work at 7pm.  Andy popped in to give Russell & Novey 2 'Open BSD' tee shirts and the 3 of them had a "I'm bored with my dumb job" gripe.  Andy seems ready to apply for other positions.