One of the nicest experiences in North San Jose, lately! I was planning some 'Lets check all these…read moreparks in Santa Clara' activity for these Christmas days of forced vacation when I found out about James Lick Mansion. In fact, I thought it was just the house of someone and for some reason appeared on my Google Maps search (not easy to find from the street as you actually need to enter though an apartment complex to find it). I learned about James Lick, an entrepreneur that moved to Santa Clara in the 1800 and started several business, and died at the end of that century being considered the richest man in California. This mansion is registered at the National Register of Historic Places. This type of Victorian mansion style is called Italianate and it seems was popular during those times. The house (24 rooms) was built between 1858 and 1860 next to his flour mill, out of native redwood trees. Not only you will find this pretty house but also the rebuilt granary and mill that was used to create paper that was used on the fruit packaging when the Valley was in full production splendor. It is a pleasant experience to just be there imagining another era, observing the elegant palm trees and having a calm time with yourself. I could not enter inside the house, but took a peek at how the interior is and for around ten minutes I went daydreaming.

On April 11, 1853 the paddle Steamboat Jenny Lind departed San Francisco for the port of Alviso. As…read moreit neared its destination it suffered a boiler exposure. Passengers had just set down for dinner. The majority of the 31 killed were women and children. The explosion was the impetus to build a railroad between San Francisco and San Jose. That rail line is the present CALTRAIN trackage. The memorial is the only reminder of this disaster forgotten to history. It is located in the western part of the parking lot of the Alviso Marina County Park. The views of the Bay looking north are fantastic however, and it located at the entry point to the trail system. As with most things like this it is better part of a larger trip than a destination untoo itself

Went for a jog here while in the area, and took some time to explore the park and the historical…read morebuildings of Oracle... auditorium, mansion (Agnews State Hospital superintendent's residence), clocktower (formerly the treatment building), and visitor center. The info center had plenty to share about the history of Agnews as a state hospital for the mentally ill, destroyed in the 1906 earthquake killing 106 patients and 11 staff members, rebuilt and reopened 5 years later, and becoming the first modern psychiatric hospital in California. You can't enter the buildings (except the mansion and auditorium by reservation), but there's sufficient signage near each of the buildings, noting its history, to educate visitors. And there are beautiful trees and well maintained grassy fields with a few picnic tables and benches on site. Still, access to this park is very limited, as it's the location of the Oracle Santa Clara campus. Not the ideal park due to its inconveniences and lack of offerings, but still cool to learn a bit about its history, or just a simple peaceful spot for picnicking.

It's nice that they now have dog waste bags stations at the park. They also posted dog leash…read morerequired signs a while back. Can't wait for the Spring when all the flowers are blooming.

We tried to visit Mission Santa Clara de Asís during our road trip, but it was very hard to find…read moreinside Santa Clara University, and parking was nearly impossible. Even after asking for directions, we couldn't locate it, and with limited time we eventually had to move on. Disappointing stop on an otherwise great trip.

Just a nice place to stroll around. Peaceful. School was not in session so it made it even more…read morespecial.

This is indeed a nice piece of artwork. I work in the building behind this artwork and I think it's…read morereally nice. How even within the building the company did a nice job paying homage to Atari. There is a video game room filled with Atari games in it and on the outside wall, there is a map of what used to be the Atari campus showing where all of the buildings used to be and what the buildings function was. I used to work down the street from here at another site that was also Atari and we were very much aware of the history of the site and the innovation that came from that company that led to much of Silicon Valley today.

Mothership is a public art installation located in Sunnyvale, California. Mothership is the work of…read more Michael Whiting. Mothership is a homage to the legendary gaming company Atari. Atari's headquarters started here and was in place till 1984. On a personal note our scout troop twice a year, thanks to one of the parents who worked there, we were able to make use of the huge game room. The Game room was basically a huge room filled with multiple copies of every arcade game they made rigged for free. Whiting incorporates early pixel based video games and images into sculptures and art. From the Author: My ongoing work explores this connection between early pixel-based video game images. Recent developments include the implementation of dimensional palindromes; sculptural "twins" where the exact same form renders a different relationship to the viewer after surface treatment and flipping the orientation of the second form. These combinations broaden the scope of my post-minimal exploration, seeking to further the aim to create work that finds an area between abstraction and representation." The sculpture features a 3 Dimensional alien mothership from the iconic game Space Invaders perched on a colorful pole that mimics the colors Atari used as part of their branding. This particular art installation is better part of a larger trip. There are numerous public art installations in the area as well as other historical markers. It is also located near bay trail access points. There are no services here. It is nice that Google paid homage to the one of the legendary companies of SV.

Update: I was biking buy the old site and noticed that one fo the old gates was open to park Google…read moreBuses. I headed on in and and took some pictures which I have posted up. I was marveling at the huge slabs of concrete that are rumored to 6 feet thick and were simply left in place when the demolished the base when I stumbled across something unexpected I was poking around and found hidden behind some bushes, a previously unknown memorial to the Astronauts of STS-107 aka The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster. Markers for Brown, Chawla, and Husband were still visible, and 4 missing one were clearly for McCool, Ramon, Anderson and Clark. Its a kind of a cool little find. The monument is is really bad shape and I'm hoping to contact the community collage that now controls the land and see if either they or The Moffett Field Museum are interested in preserving the remaining markers. Previous review included below: One of the things people tend to forget with all of our Silicon Valley and dot com hype is that this area also was host to huge advances in aviation and space exploration. From the first spy satellites to submarine launched ballistic missiles it covers a lot of territory. While Southern California rightfully gets most of the spotlight in aviation, the Bay remains an unheralded pioneer. Onizuka AFS, is one such hub. Named after Air Force Lt. Colonel Ellison S. Onizuka, who died in the Challenger disaster, the base served as a primary control station for military satellites. In aviation circles (and conspiracy circles too) the station was simply known as 'The Blue Cube' The Blue Cube using its 3 satellite dishes controlled vast areas of space and served as an NSA downlink node as well. Its windowless walls and mysterious function was the stuff of legends. Multiple power sources, super thick concrete walls (To prevent electronic eavesdropping) , limited access all added to its lore. Even my father who was a navy engineer, had to be re-cleared to provide engineering services there and was always escorted such was the nature of the goings on there. The base closed in 2010 as part of BRAC and its functions were swapped over to Vandenberg AFB and the structure was subsequently demolished. However, it remains part of the Bay Area's link to Space.

Rengstorff House is located on the premises of the Shoreline Parklands. This is a historic…read moreVictorian house / mansion and it is Mountain View's oldest home. There is a shared parking lot. My bf wanted to do docent-led tour, but unfortunately we showed up shortly after they closed on that Saturday afternoon (they closed at noon). We walked along the outer perimeter of the estate - hoping to get some photos, but there were some people taking photos at the front of the house, so we ended up leaving. Overall 3 stars, but rounded up to 4 stars because we did not get the full experience for a fair review.

Beautiful location. Our wedding was picture perfect! We had the wedding of our dreams…read more - The Archies, 9.6.25

1 of only 3 Public Frank Lloyd Wright sites in CA and they only allow visitors twice a year so…read morecount yourself an architecture nerd and a lucky-one if you do get a spot on the tour. Older review from before Covid, you can email hannahouse@stanford.edu for next tour dates. You can take as many pictures as you want outside but no pictures of the interior so I added some I found online. This is what makes this design unique compared to other FLW works: -Hexagons/honeycomb, back in 1936 imagine the precision that had to be done by hand to make the huge structure a honeycomb as well as small details like the stone tiles. One cut slightly wrong would have snowballed into huge misalignments. -First FLW work in non-rectangular structures -First FLW work in the Bay Area It's not as epic and grand as Fallingwater or as contemplative as Taliesin West and it is smaller than some of the US public FLW sites but it's only 1 of 3 in Cali you can see the interior of and you get a more complete picture if you can see inside/out and hear the docents anecdotes about the design and house.

Hanna House is one of the few northern California buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Located…read morein a residential neighborhood within the boundaries of the sprawling Stanford University campus, the home is currently occupied by a private party and is not open to the public. However, it once served as the official residence for the Provost where the university regularly held alumni and fundraising events and one might reasonably assume the home may someday return to it's previous semi-public stature. Although visitors are discouraged from trespassing on the property, the house has been magnificently maintained and is visible from the street below. A relatively new arrangement with the Stanford Historical Society will enable the public to tour the house twice each year. Interested parties should contact hannahouse@stanford.edu to receive information about future tour dates and booking arrangements.