That’s right, i’m blogging backwards..starting with my trip home first. It’s been a hectic few days back with work and catching up that I haven’t really gotten the chance to go thru and sort the photos I took. At first glance I didn’t take alot, to be honest. I love SF but I’ve been there so many times that on this trip up there, I didnt do any touristy type activity worthy enough for photos. We mainly just ate and ate and hung out. But more on that later.

On the way back down to LA I bugged Sandy to let me take the 280 freeway towards Gilroy (the garlic capital of the universe) where we would take route 152 back over to i-5. The reason I wanted to go down the 280 was 1) it’s a beautiful BEAUTIFUL highway. on the west side of the road is nothing but trees and mountains and a few bodies of water that could have been lakes or rivers or whatnot. GORGEOUS road. I really love northern cal because it’s so much more green and ‘nature-ish’ compared to socal. I guess we have our fair share of mountains and forests – and beaches galore – but it’s just nice to see all the trees and greenery and feel that cool weather.

But I digress. The REAL reason I wanted to take the 280 was because it cuts through Cupertino. And if you love them like I do…then you know what’s there….APPLE HEADQUARTERS!

Ever since I was 14 years old I’ve been a Mac fanboy. I filled out my 1st application to work there when I was 16 (downloaded from my 2400bps modem connected to my Macintosh Performa 636CD!!) and I think I did so every year til I was 21. Back then I wanted to be a software developer, but honestly I didn’t care if I was the cafeteria lunch man or even the guy responsible for cleaning the Apple toilets…I just wanted to be a part of this great company.

So needless to say, I was like a big kid when we got there. I was nervous that we’d get kicked out by security or something, so at first we just drove around the “Infinite Loop”. I actually felt a bit shy about it, kind of like a kid meeting Santa for the first time! As we rounded the circle, we discovered the Visitor’s center, accompanied by a company store. This must have been the 1st store ever opened…it was pretty much like any Apple Store across the world, except it was called The Company Store and in addition to software and computer stuff, they sold Apple gear. I bought a shirt and a few mugs, and Sandy got a hat. We then tried to go inside but security told us that we needed badges, which we’d only get if we were invited or had an employee swipe us in. Oh well. He was nice about it though.

Afterwards, we took some pics out by this famous sign. A very nice employee even offered to take a photo with the both of us in it, but that came out blurry. I set up a tripod to grab a shot of us, but I cant find it for some reason so I’ll edit this post and add that later.

What a great way to end a great trip!

Sandy looks way cuter than I do next to the sign. (But I love Apple more than she does.)