Friday, March 20, 2009

The Things We Do For Love

We're doing what we're doing today because I love Allen.

We take a sideways excursion from our northward journey to Seattle to
visit Cupertino, CA.

Regular people don't know Cupertino. If you do know, then you, like my
husband, breathe technology.

Cupertino nestles inside Silicon Valley, birthplace of modern
technology. Inside Cupertino sprawls Apple.

Yes, we visit Apple, but we don't stop.

We drive around and around the large, multi-building campus at
quitting time, looking for Steve Jobs and wondering if we'll ever see
anyone with gray hair. Well, we see neither.

What we see is a sea of 20-somethings (see the pic? She's playing with
her iPod), including 15 or so lined up outside the company store,
waiting to get back on their tour bus. We also see lots of Asians.
And we hear lots of languages, including English.

I fire up my Mac (I'm a little bit techie, too) and pick up 12
networks, all locked, of course. These people know computers.

Cupertino is not Everywhere USA. While I do see Target, Staples and a
few other chains (Starbucks, of course) most of the places sound  
home grown, like Lee's Sandwiches and Didams Amazing Party Store.

The place is so crowded you'd think someone inflated a new dot.com
bubble. Traffic jams up the highways for miles (quitting time,
remember?). We crawl out of town through a landscape filled with much
younger drivers in much smaller cars. We are the only motor home in the bunch, What odd ducks we must look like to these people.

I'm relieved to be rid of the congestion. Yet, I'm tickled to 
visit Apple. Something I get to do because I love my techie husband.

Now I wonder, when we get to Seattle, will we take a side trip to
Redmond?

4 comments:

Ziggy said...

Hi Nancy & Allen,

I want to hear the whole Cupertino story when you get back... the feeling... the energy... whatever it is that there was there. Would you call it techie mecca?

Tom

Nancy K said...

LOL! You are a techie, aren't you! I told Allen to e-mail you his impressions.

Anonymous said...

I'd be interested in hearing them, too!

CZ

Nancy K said...

Al put his thoughts on his blog: http://blog.syracuse.com/technofile/2009/03/hiho_steverino.html