In 2017 I started my series of 50 things, a challenge to find 50 interesting things to explore in one city. Mountain View, CA was the first city I chose and it was about time to update it.
Many attractions I had previously mentioned changed. Places closed down, Android figures disappeared, and new gardens came to my attention. It’s clear that this project is constantly in motion and I will do my very best to keep everything up to date.
Luckily some of my favorite things are still around, like relaxing at Shoreline Park, the in-person festivals, and the farmers’ market on Sundays.
What are your highlights in Mountain View, CA?
Please let me know if there are any places you would like to see on this list, or have any comments.
Little free libraries are present in a lot of neighborhoods and worth seeking out. Not only do they offer free reading materials, but some extended their selection during the pandemic with canned foods or seeds. I also admire the creativity people invest in making these small cabinets.
The little free art galleries are an extension of this genre. The principle is the same as the little free libraries, come to see some art, grab something that catches your eye, or contribute to the fun. As far as I know San Jose now has two of these neighborhood gems. One of the galleries is stocked by Jennifer Hart, a local artist, who enjoyed the challenge of creating small art. The gallery is located on Booksin Avenue in Willow Glen. You can also see the current inventory at her Instagram account “Hart Little Free Gallery”.
The second gallery is nearby, in the Reed Elementary School area. SJFLAG is also on Instagram, but it asks that if you want to know the exact address you should PM them. I did not realize this on my quest, so it took me a little while to find the SFMOMA inspired box.
Junipero Serra Park is a 108 acres of trails and other outdoor enjoyments, like two playgrounds and picnic tables. Its hilly location leads you to an impressive view over the Bay right in view of the San Francisco airport. The Meadow View playground is near its highest point. There are some climbing structures, but the two parallel 54-feet metal slides are the focal point of this playground.
Imagine a speedy slide while watching planes landand take off. The playground is in the middle of a woody area and has plenty of shade. Parking is $6 and you can pay right next to the playground.
I also hiked part of the 1.2 mile Quail Loop Trail which starts next to the playground. On my visit I saw some wildflowers, but not the Douglas Iris that an information sign talked about. Overall it was a pleasant hike with some elevation and a spectacular view!
Junipero Serra Park is just east of 280 at 1801 Crystal Springs Rd, San Bruno, CA 94066. Parking is $6, dogs are allowed on leash.
Are you a slide enthusiast? If so, you should also try the Magic Mountain slide in San Mateo. At 55-feet this is the metal longest slide in Northern California!
I enjoyed the article by thesixfifty about the Domini Hoskins Black History and Learning Center. Somewhat fitting for Black History month, Redwood City has enabled Carolyn Hoskins to display her collection of African American historic artifacts downtown at the former World Market. Lucky for us they are open for another month!
Admission is $5 to see this vast display of what American black culture means. The volunteer at the door explained the history behind the collection. Carolyn Hoskins was asked by her grandson Domini about any other famous Black people, because he was tired of writing about Martin Luther King again. I am not sure if Carolyn suggested her late husband, Robert “Bob” Hoskins, a former 49er, as one example. Nevertheless Bob has a special place right at the entrance.
The exhibition begins with historic figures from the slave trade, mixed in with literature references, for example Alex Haley’s Roots. There are tables with black inventors, sports legends, famous women, the first black president and the first lady. The pop culture section was designed by Carolyn’s daughter Kathy. In fact you can see Black history displayed over 22,000 square feet.
This amazing collection of Black achievements can be seen until the end of March, 2022, at 890 Jefferson Ave. in Redwood City; or hopefully longer. It is open every day except Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friendly volunteers are on-site to answer questions. No photographs are allowed, except of the Black Lives Matter mural by Jose Castro in the back.
I found the 12,000 sq ft native plants garden by accident the last time I was in Bol Park to visit the donkeys. Beyond the playground near the intersection of Laguna Ave and Roble Ridge Rd busy volunteers have created a treasure trove of native plants. There is signage for every plant. It is great to learn the names of the flora. The walkway is a path covered in wood chips and bordered by branches.
One info sign teaches the passersby the benefits of a native rain garden, installed in 2018. The practical reason here was to capture stormwater and reduce the flooding of the nearby bike path. An added plus is that the habitat creates homes for birds, insects, and wildlife.
I was delighted to see a blooming manzanita, one of my favorite trees from the Bay Area. But the other plants are also getting ready to impress. It is definitely fun to see the variety of native plants. If you would like a tour of the garden the Growing Natives Garden Tour offers docent led tours on April 2nd, 2022.
I also enjoyed the bench to relax in the shade.
The native plants garden is open year round and located at 3502 Laguna Avenue, Palo Alto.
The exhibit at the East Asia Library at Stanford has about 4 yards of wall space and two cases, but the impact of the collected history is immense. With rising hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) this seems a very timely choice. But racism is historically embedded in the United States. It begins with the Naturalization Act of 1790, granting naturalization to “free white persons”, excluding everyone except white men from citizenship.
It took until 1943 to repeal all Chinese exclusion laws (Magnuson Act). After this, the immigration quota was still limited to 105 new entry visas per year.
As much as I’m impressed with Stanford University and the fact that they present this exhibit, it feels odd that one of the panels tries to defend Leland Stanford as a person taking a stance for the Asian community. It becomes clear very quickly that the president of the Central Pacific Railroad was not interested in the rights of immigrants but cheap labor.
The history lesson furthers the accord on violence and incarceration. Riots, massacres and ethnic cleansing between 1871 to 1907 are documented. The Executive Order 9066 that incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans has its 80th anniversary this year on the 19th of February.
Cupertino AAPI Rally, April 2021, Photo by Zhang Qidong
Nevertheless this exhibit is named Rise up and elegantly shows important Stanford alumni of Asian descent, labor disputes, and other noteworthy demonstrations. It ends with pictures from various Anti-Asian Hate rallies from 2021.
While the East Asian Library is only open to Stanford students right now due to COVID protocols, they are happy to let you view the exhibit in their entryway. ‘Rise up’ is open until June 30, 2022. You can also access the virtual exhibit: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/riseup
The library is located in the Lathrop Library building, 518 Memorial Way, just east of the Oval. Open hours are Monday – Thursday from 9am to 8 pm, Fridays from 9am to 5pm.
Heritage Park at 771 N. Rengstorff opened in 2016 to show off Mountain View’s history as a farm town. The grand jewel of the 1.2 acre park is the 1880s-area Immigrant House. Once thousands of these tiny houses were homes for the immigrant workers of the Valley of Heart’s Delight. With a footprint of about 400 square feet it is basically a tiny bedroom and a kitchen area. Immigrant House is Mountain View’s last such cabin.
Thanks to the Kiwanis Club, a grant from Google, Santa Clara County, private donors, and the Friends of the Immigrant House, the Immigrant House moved twice and landed at its permanent location. Currently, due to the pandemic, there are no guided tours for the inside of the house. But you can take a peak and see the lovely decorated interior. The front room shows a table with two stools, a shelf and a kitchen cabinet. The bedroom has a tiny bed.
The oven was also used for cooking. The information signage in front briefs us that the cost of rent in the 1930s and 1940s was $11 per month. A whopping $161 in today’s terms. To put this in perspective, farmworkers.org lists the farmworker wages between 1929 and 1933 to $1.90 a day.1 Assuming a 6-day workday, monthly wages are about $46. This means rent would have been roughly 1/4 of their income, and clearly counts as affordable in today’s terms.2
Other amenities of the park are the 80-year-old windmill, bees, and a community garden. The 130 trees originate from the previous owners and include 30 different varieties. There are tree identifiers placed next to them. Hopefully the annual Harvest History Festival, celebrated in September, can resume this year.
It is great to see the historic significance of the workers of the Valley of Heart’s Delight in the focus of this park.
Have you been to Heritage Park?
If you’d like to peek into local history I’d also recommend the Los Altos History Museum. They have another tiny house example of this time period, a tank house.
Footnotes
1“As the Depression deepened, the growers slashed wages and laid off workers. Between 1929 and 1933, wages dropped from $3.50 to $1.90 a day.” https://www.farmworkers.org/strugcal.html
The Android Lawn Statues were always an interesting excursion to show visitors. On my last visit, about a week ago, this place looked appalling. Caution tape was around the perimeter. The figures, which are larger than life sculptures of each new Android operating release, were either busted or completely removed. Named after sweet treats and candy, like Kit Kat and cupcake, these Android figures are made from foam.
After the 2018 pie release, Google decided to go on a more boring route. The releases are now designed by numbers, starting with 10, which has an Android head peeking out of the zero.. For 11 and 12 you can see a virtual 3-D model. Interesting maybe to a nerd to find some inscription on the back – but unfortunately, it lost its cute appeal.
The lawn statues garden is located on 1981 Landings Drive; the Google merchandise store used to be steps away. Google decided to close down the store and now only has an online version.
Hope is on the horizon
Hope is on the horizon
Google’s Charleston East (Google’s futuristic new campus) is almost here and they promised to open the first floor to the public. Watch this video by Tech Insider (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGx-sYIFHmE). The circus-like canopy shape introduces another interesting office building to Silicon Valley, joining Apple’s spaceship and Nvidia’s triangular headquarter. Or like the Bjarke Ingles Group architects call it: “smile-shaped clerestories”. In a report from the Mountain View Voice in February of last year, Charleston East’s public access could be revised to just allowing non-Googlers to enter on the west side of the building. Amid security concerns the tech giant might also put a, none the less pretty, wall around its campus.
Funny also, that the Android Lawn Statues have a neglected Facebook page, with a link to an Android fan site, but no official Google page.
I understand that these are office buildings and there is no responsibility to share anything with the public. Nevertheless, visitors to Silicon Valley long to see evidence of the high tech giving back to the community – even if it’s only in the form of some large foam statues.
Start of the New Year with a hiking challenge at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. First Day Hikes is a nationwide program to promote a healthy lifestyle. To start off easy I recommend the 40-acres Redwood grove at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The loop trail is a 0.8 miles flat hike. The loop starts at the visitor center, which is only open Friday – Sundays from 10am to 3pm. During the rain it gets muddy, so it isn’t wheelchair accessible, at least in the wet months. If you’d like to learn about the park while on the trail I recommend downloading the audio tour and then start on the right hand side of the loop. This way the audio clues are counting up. The parking fee is $10 per vehicle.
We did enjoy the rain and were somewhat covered by these 1,500 year old trees. There are a few possibilities to ‘hide’ inside one of the giants. The largest is the Fremont tree, it was the campside of the Fremont exhibition which surveyed the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A whole family can fit inside the Fremont tree. You should bring a flashlight to look around while inside. The other options are more covers than hiding spots. But nevertheless they give you a close encounter with these majestic trees.
In addition to the 0.8 loop there are a few other trails with different difficulty levels and terrains.
In January, each Saturday at noon, there will be an Old-Growth Redwood Tour. Check out their event page for even more educational fun.
A few years ago, in 2017, I wrote about the light installations in downtown San Jose: See the light throughout the tunnel. The Sonic Runway had just been installed as a temporary installation as part of the Playa to Paseo partnership to bring Burning Man art to San Jose. Now it is back! By popular demand this light show can be enjoyed for at least six more years and will revitalize San Jose’s City Hall Plaza.
The artists team responsible includes lead artist Rob Jensen and co-lead Warren Trezevant. They first presented the Sonic Runway at Burning Man Festival in 2016. This reactive light installation “converts audio signals into patterns of lights that shoot down a corridor of arches at the speed of sound”, according to the Sonic Runway website. With 554 LED, the archways light up with electronic music traveling down the 25 arches with the speed of light (about 343 m/sec). The archways can also be activated by live music. San Jose plans events starting in March 2022.
I recommend going down starting from both sides. At one end you travel with the speed of light, starting at the other end, the lights come at you. Of course, if you ever wanted to run at sonic speed, just imagine, as one kid I watched there did, you are Sonic, the blue hedgehog, and run!
The Sonic Runway lights up at 5 pm until midnight, every day.
Located at San Jose City Hall Plaza, 200 E Santa Clara St, San Jose
Have you experienced the Sonic Runway?
More information
I made a short video of the Sonic Runway Check it out on my YouTube channel and give me some love and subscribe 😉
There is also a Sonic Runway in Chengdu, China. Read this article by one of the creators, Rob Jensen: The Sonic Runway: From Playa to China in the Burning Man Journal.
In 2017 I started my series of 50 things, a challenge to find 50 interesting things to explore in one city. Mountain View, CA was the first city I chose and it was about time to update it. 
