19 July: The end of the Golden Gate
In May of this year a company began offering Silicon Valley tours, so we thought we'd spend our last day here doing what they term a half-day tour, which for us meant a 7.30am uber pick-up and arrival back to our tiny little beach bach at 5.00pm. (Did I tell you we were supplied with 2 plates, 1 bowl, 2 forks and one spoon?
There were 9 of us in a mini-van and we scored front seats. Of course we were decades older than the others but our advantage was that we have lived through much of the explosive history.
The Silicon Valley  area used to be agricultural specialising in growing prunes. One of the founding fathers was Mr Stanford himself. His precious only son died of typhoid in the 1880s and the Stanfords decided that the best way to memorialize their son was to turn their mansion in the area into a co-educational centre attracting people with innovative minds. The US Defence department already had a technical centre in the area in the early 1900s, and thus was born the mighty Stanford University. More than 10% of the population of the area were ham radio enthusiasts, so there was an estalished culture. Most of my Crimson students aspire to study at Stanford so it was of particular interest to me.
We first had a quick walk to the entry to the Facebook empire housed in the old Sun Microsystems buildings .Mark Zuckerburg  has kept the old sign and just put his logo on the other side when he took over in 2003.  His mantra is "Fail fast and fail often" He has built his enterprise on a super-dynamic flat structure system and prides itself on 2 billion users world-wide . Visitors are not welcomed on site and no photos are permitted apart from the famous logo at the entrance way.
From there we were driven to the Computer History Museum and allowed 1 1/2 hours to wander around there. Peter entertained anyone who would listen to stories of the historical exhibits he used to use. He was riveted by the displays.
And so we continued to Googleplex which is a whole village of its own sporting vast blocks of extensions in the making. The complex prides itself on providing absolutely every comfort for its employees so they do not have to step outside its boundaries. You may well have seen the facilities on YouTube clips. Mind blowing. A short life but a merry one in there for the employees until they are superceded by the next batch of teenagers.
Thus we come to the end of a remarkable month of experiences and discoveries. I am so glad to have this diary to remind me of how much we have covered. I hope you have enjoyed  sharing it with us. See you sometime .