Posted on March 25, 2014

Jase writes about his his fifth and final day in San Francisco which includes: Hollywood Café, a Chevrolet Camero, Turkey Vultures, a trip to Google and Steve Jobs garage.

We had a very full day of being tourists planned, so the breakfast that the hotel provides just wouldn't cut it! Fortunately, just a few doors down from the hotel was the 'Hollywood Café' (Not a tourist trap, obviously).

The restaurant specialty hash brown breakfast went down very well!



The great thing about these trade missions is that you get to meet some great people and make new friends. We were joined today by local (Cardiff based, Australian born) entrepreneur and guru, David Hulston.

Today, to get into the entrepreneurial, tech startup spirit of Silicon Valley, transport was provided by local (San Francisco based) start-up 'Getaround'.

Having looked into the regular car rental companies dotted around San Francisco, and the boring everyday cars they rent out, I decided to try something a little more geeky. With 'Getaround', you hire someone else's car for the day. It works very similar to a regular rental service in regards to insurance and other safeguards however you get a far better range of cars!

No Nissan or Ford for us… today we would be touring Silicon Valley and the Bay area in a brand new Chevrolet Camero. A proper American muscle car. You have to do these things right!



To unlock the car, you need to click/tap on a link in an email that sends a signal to the car via a built in SIM card on the car to unlock. This meant international data roaming! £9 later, the car was unlocked. Cheers Vodafone.

We had a quick inspection of the car and I got into the driving seat. The initial task of getting out the car park proved to be quite the challenge, and then navigating our way out of the city without GPS wasn't the greatest start to my great American muscle car experience. I took the car over the Golden Gate Bridge and up the mountain to the scenic lookout spots and was more than happy to give over driving duties to Dan.



The view from the mountain looking over the Golden Gate Bridge were awesome. A picture tells a thousand words.





Whilst up in the mountains, we were joined by what we thought were two eagles circling us above. Later inspection of the photos reveal that they were in fact Turkey Vultures.



I gave up the keys to the Camero, jumped in the passenger seat camera in hand and took off on Route 101 down to Silicon Valley to the soundtrack of 'The Killers' and 'Howlin Wolf'.

Our first stop, Google.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but there's not really a huge amount to see around Google. They've pretty much taken up block after block of office space. Other than the multitude of multi-coloured bikes, the sighting of a rather odd 5 person bike and sign post after sign post announcing Google's presence, that's pretty much it.





Next, we took the ultimate Apple fan boy pilgrimage to the home of Apple. The place where it all began. In Steve Jobs garage.

It was more of a drive-by shooting (of the photographic kind). There was a rather ominous sign outside the property warning of any intrusion of privacy so we kept it quick.



Heres a picture of the late Steve Jobs stood outside.



After a spot of lunch (another behemoth of a sandwich) at 'Nob Hill Foods, Mountain View' we made our way to Cupertino and Infinite Loop, the current home of Apple. On the way, we drove past the construction site that will eventually become Apple's home. Currently known as the 'Spaceship'.

What surprised us all I think was the lack of sparkle to the entire Silicon Valley area. An unimaginable amount of money is made in the area by companies liked Google, HP, Dell, Apple etc but the homes and offices in the area looked very much in the same vein as Reading on a sunny day.

The new Apple 'Spaceship' site is currently adjacent to some very uninteresting, lower/middle class homes and some average looking shopping centres.

Apples headquarters, Infinite Loop, is a very average, albeit large, looking office block. It comes as no surprise to learn that Steve Jobs hated the place.



At the front of Apple HQ is 'The Company Store'. Highlighted by a rather nasty looking '80's/90's Apple' style signpost in their old Apple Garamond brand font.

Inside is unfortunately no 'ultimate Apple store'. Quite the opposite. Full of rather tacky merchandise, pens, pencils, t-shirts, polo shirts etc… all with the Apple logo slapped on the front. They do have the tech, but not in the style and panaché as your typical Apple Store.

So a few dollars down, but two pens, a pencil case and a mug up (what can i say, I'm a sucker for tat!) we left the store and headed over the road to the local bar for a quick drink or two.

Stupidly, its taken a 10,000 mile round trip for me to discover that my new favourite drink is Newcastle Brown.

So, a little merrier, we made our way up to Sunnyvale to pick up an old friend of ours who now works at Apple as an Art Director. Aled left these shores several years ago after being recruited by Apple however in all that time, the Valleys accent is as strong as ever!

We made our way back to Apple HQ, parked up and went in. We had our guest passes printed at reception and made our way to Café Macs for dinner.

Whilst looking like your typical office canteen, there is a huge selection of food and it all looked amazing! But first, a trip to the toilet… we'd had a couple of pints. Automated paper towel dispensers, motion detecting taps and super slick toilet cubicle latches… typical Apple.

We all opted for the pizza. Made to order in the wood burning pizza stove no less. I also picked up a bar of astronaut ice cream chocolate from the cashier desk… as you would.

Surprisingly, there were a number of children running about. Apple aren't employing them young (at least not in the US!) but the engineers working there work extreme hours and very odd shifts so their families are invited in to spend some time with their Mom/Dad over a meal before they say goodbye again.

We sat down and enjoyed our pizzas, reminiscing about our time working together years ago and learning about Aled's experience working for Apple (without giving too much away) and how he got there. On the way out, the frosted glass windows of Johnny Ive's block was pointed out to us… shrouded in secrecy as always.

We left Apple and made our way back up to San Francisco. We drove back a slightly different route with Aled providing some local knowledge. Dan was becoming comfortable in the Camero, taking full advantage of the speed capabilities (whilst remaining within the rather conservative US limits of course!).

As darkness crept in, Aled suggested we visit a local scenic spot called Twin Peaks to take in the view of the city skyline.

Incredibly windy but… wow!



Unfortunately, it was time to take the Camero back to its garage. After many many micro manoeuvrings into its tiny space, Dan managed to get the car home.

After bidding adieu to our fellow traveler David, we made our way on foot to a bar in the Italian Quarter of the city to have a couple more drinks and some more reminiscing.



Unfortunately, no matter how much drink was consumed, no further details of the iWatch or new Apple TV were divulged… such the professional is Aled! We tried!

The walk back was a little chilly. I really should have listened to those that warned me of the sharp dip in temperature in the evenings in this place and changed my cropped trousers.

Our last night in San Francisco was finished… but what a day! And what a trip!

 
Our full photoset of the trip can be found at our Flickr pages.