The Dish at Stanford University is a steerable radio telescope used for satellite calibrations, spacecraft command and telemetry, and radio astronomy measurements. Measuring approximately 150 feet (or 46 meters) in diameter, the steel and aluminum parabolic antenna was built in the early 1960s by the Stanford Research Institute with funding from the US Air Force to probe the scattering properties Read more...
During the summer of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook co-founders rented 819 La Jennifer Way in Palo Alto as their first base in Silicon Valley. A small team of coders worked here on development of the early site, and while there, Facebook raised its first external investment. This period was a central storyline in the movie The Social Network. Read more...
Frenchman’s Tower on Old Page Mill Road in Palo Alto is a doorless red brick folly built in 1875 by Frenchman Paulin Caperon, also known as Peter Coutts. Now empty, with windows bricked-up after years of vandalism, the tower reportedly once housed his library on the first floor and a water tank on the second floor for irrigation. The land is now Read more...
McLaren San Francisco is actually located in Palo Alto at El Camino Real and Arastradero Road, some 35 miles south of San Francisco. The dealership offers new and used car sales and service facilities. Read more...
The corporate headquarters of electric carmaker and renewable energy technology company Tesla are located on Deer Creek Road on the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California. In addition to Tesla’s corporate offices, the site houses engineering and research staff and a powertrain manufacturing facility. Tesla relocated here in 2009 from its previous headquarters in San Carlos. The complex was Read more...
Guests may take water into Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View provided it is in a single factory-sealed plastic bottle no bigger than one gallon (or 4 liters), but alcohol or any other beverage is not permitted. Entry with empty aluminium or plastic water bottles is allowed, which can be filled at water refill stations by the main restrooms. Glass containers Read more...
Google’s global headquarters are located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. Known as the Googleplex, Google first leased office space on the corporate campus in 2003 from Silicon Graphics, Inc. before purchasing the buildings in 2006. Read more...
Former child actress and US diplomat Shirley Temple Black was interred in the Adobe Creek Mausoleum at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto. She died on February 10th, 2014 aged 85 years old. Read more...
Foothills Park in Palo Alto is open to everyone, regardless of residency, following a policy change introduced by Palo Alto City Council on December 17th, 2020. The lifting of admission restrictions has resulted in increased visitor numbers and the park gate closes if capacity limits are reached. Dogs are only permitted in Foothills Park on weekdays and must be on Read more...
Google does not own Moffett Field. The site, between Mountain View and Sunnyvale, is on federal property controlled by NASA. In 2014, Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures LLC entered into a 60-year lease on a 1,000 acre portion of the NASA Ames Research Center site that includes Moffett Federal Air Base, the three large aircraft hangars, and golf course. The corporation Read more...
The Farallon Islands lie some 28 miles off the west coast of San Francisco in the Pacific Ocean’s Gulf of the Farallones. On clear days, the group of rocky islands and sea stacks are visible from the mainland as jagged peaks on the horizon, and despite their distance offshore, they are formally part of the City and County of San Read more...
Tesla offers weekday guided tours of its Fremont factory to confirmed current owners of Tesla cars, and up to three guests. Tours last approximately 60 minutes and it is recommended that bookings are made some 3 to 5 weeks in advance. Bookings can be made by emailing FactoryTours@tesla.com and the registered owner’s name and car VIN will be required to Read more...
Petaluma was branded The World’s Egg Basket during the first half of the 20th century when it was arguably the center of California’s poultry industry. Peaking in the mid 1940s, the region’s poultry ranches produced over 600 million eggs annually. The industry developed here in part due to climate and proximity to river and rail links, but the main catalyst Read more...
The giant electrical wall outlet, plug and cord sculpture is on the side of the PG&E substation on 1st Street and D Street in Petaluma. When the 1920s building was refurbished in 2015, the utility company commissioned Joel Jones of Basal Ganglia Studio to design the sculptural installation for the outside wall which was made from steel and fiberglass by Read more...
After spending the summer of 2004 at a rented house in Palo Alto, the early Facebook team decamped to a new rented property on Westbrook Avenue in Los Altos, California. Dubbed Casa Facebook, the company was based here from September 2004 to January 2005, during the period that site reached 1 million users for the first time and was still Read more...
At a moderate pace, hiking to the Mission Peak summit should take around 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on the starting point. The challenging hike has an elevation gain of 2,100 feet, following either the 3.4 mile Peak Trail from Ohlone College, or the steeper 3.1 mile Hidden Valley Trail or Peak Meadow Trail which start at Stanford Avenue in Read more...
The San Francisco 49ers NHL football team got its name from the nickname ‘forty niners‘ given to the first wave of fortune seekers who flocked to Northern California in 1849 during the gold rush era. The team retained San Francisco in its name despite moving some 32 miles outside the city in 2014 to a new home stadium, the Levi’s Read more...
The 2015 season Super Bowl 50 was played at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California on February 7th, 2016 between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. The Broncos won, defeating the Panthers 24–10, and Denver linebacker Von Miller was named Super Bowl MVP. As the 50th Super Bowl, the league named it Super Bowl 50 instead of Super Bowl L, Read more...
