BACK WHEN COMPUTERS WERE OUR FRIENDS.

This will only be peripherally a travel post—it’s really about friends and family. However, since ‘who doesn’t love Bay Area’, and it all happened there—it’s a travel post. Three or so weeks ago I went to Oakland to visit granddaughter Teresa and revisit Old Friend[s] Paul Simon. AND to spend a most lovely day with some of my Norwegian cousins visiting from Kristiansand. May I just say that they are an exceptionally nice family. It can’t be just because they are Norwegian, after all there is the occasional bad Norwegian, for example the two right-wing politicians (yeah, Norway has them too) wanting to nominate Sleazy T. for the Nobel Peace Prize. My Norwegians, I say proudly, are the intelligent, humane, interesting kind.

We started our exceptionally nice Saturday with lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, my idea of the world’s best restaurant. I’ve eaten there a few times and every single thing I’ve tasted has been simple and delicious. Perfect actually. Yes, perfect. Then on to Silicon Valley to see…? Well, Facebook and Google campuses and the computer museum…finished off with wine in the sun at a Mountain View sidewalk café. So, next time you visit the Bay Area, if you’re tired of the Golden Gate Bridge and Union Square and other famous sites, try the Valley…see pretty suburbia, geeks galore, money oozing from zinnias in front of Facebook, the good life for all—

GOOGLE CAMPUS. EVERYONE’S FAVORITE SEARCH ENGINE OR THE EVIL EMPIRE? BUT IT CAN’T BE ALL BAD, RIGHT. SO GREEN AND PLAYFUL.

Computer museum which included interesting artifacts like those frustrating punched cards with which ancient peoples (like me) learned our first computer lessons. And there were giant machines that managed data and didn’t resemble my smart phone even a little bit. And we’ve moved on to self-driving cars…it’s all good? Probably.

Day’s end…and how fine it has been.