USA Day 13: Palo Alto, Mountain View, NASA (2014-10-08)

USA Day 13: We started today with a delicious breakfast with fresh bread. Unfortunately, Helene routinely toasted it. Oh no! No, no, no! But it was still the best bread so far.

While packing our things, the near impossible happened. Dennis's Swiss Army knife has reappeared. Oh dear! That demanded some apologies. How did it possibly emerge from the trash bag that Helene disposed of and return to its usual spot in the backpack? A great mystery!

Then we went to University Street, the place to be in Palo Alto. After a brief stop at the Apple Store, which was designed by Steve Jobs himself, we found an outdoor shop selling Keen hiking socks that are supposed to last a lifetime. We will be putting that to the test. (Editor's note: They've actually been holding on for almost a year now!!!)

After a short break at Starbucks, we drove through Menlo Park past Facebook on our way to Mountain View. On the way there, we stopped at NASA's Ames Research Center. Yippee, another playground for Dennis. We visited an exhibition and then continued on to Google. Strolling through the company grounds, we marveled at its size and the in-house wellness area for employees, and enviously continued on to Santa Clara. Since there was unfortunately no more time for the Intel Museum and Helene had already suffered enough in Silicon Valley, we continued on the connecting road to Highway 1 South. This road leads through a beautiful, picturesque hilly landscape, characterized by old farms and giant sequoias. The latter were even more impressive than the trees in Muir Woods. Simply because we had access to them naturally and there were no tourists in the way. Another photo shoot followed.

Next, we stopped at a small state park right on the ocean and enjoyed the view. Or rather, Dennis enjoyed the view. Helene was afraid of the mountain lions because there were warning signs everywhere. A ranger explained to us that the lions are really dangerous, but they only come out at dusk. It was already 6 PM. Great!

Safe to say we arrived back at the car, drove through Santa Cruz, and found a cute little hotel in Marina, a neighboring town, to stay the night.