Apirl 19th - 27th - Easter and a Week in California

Good Friday we flew out to California to spend a week with two kids and the two grandkids. The flight out went without a hitch. We had a half hour to make a connecting flight in Salt Lake City but our plane from St. Louis was a half hour early and the gate was right across the hall from our arriving gate. Easy.

Easter Sunday, with a two year old granddaughter, we had a big Easter egg hunt and Easter feast thereafter. Here is a picture of Violet finding one of many plastic eggs.

Here is a picture of the two grandkids enjoying the day and their booty.

Kellen made out like a bandit in money and Xbox gift cards.

As part of the Easter celebration Adam wanted to make a lamb cake, which he had always helped his grandma make when growing up. Earlier in the month he had mentioned this to his dad and as luck would have it his dad had grandma's lamb cake mold in the basement. He sent it to Adam. Easter weekend Adam made two lamb cakes. Here is a picture of him with the first attempt. It tasted as good as it looked. He opted for sprinkles on the outside rather than coconut because none of us like coconut.

Monday Adam wanted to get his car washed. I rode along and about dropped over when I saw what a car wash cost out here.

Despite the price there were several lanes of people buying the service. This wasn't a hand car wash, this was a machine car wash. They did vacuum it out, clean the windows, and dry it for that amount. In Florida Kelly got unlimited car washes for $20.00 per month. I picked up one of these coupons in case I drive back some time and need a car wash.

Tuesday Kelly and I went for a tour of the Winchester House in San Jose. It was built by the widow of the owner of the Winchester rifle company after he died at age forty-three. She inherited two million dollars and the equivalent today of $25,000 per day to live on. A medium told her to move out West. She bought an eight room farm house with 45 acres. She lived there and worked on it until she died at age eighty-four. She thought that all the ghosts of the people who were killed by Winchester rifles would haunt her so she had carpenters building on the house 24 hours a day 7 days a week so that the hammering would drive the ghosts away. She designed the place herself and was clearly nuts. There are hallways and stairs to nowhere, doors to nowhere, etc. Here is a picture of the place today. It originally was four stories tall but the earthquake in 1906 made parts unsafe and they had to be torn down.

As it sits it is 24,000 square feet, has 160 rooms, thirteen bath rooms, forty-seven fireplaces, six kitchens, 2,000 doors, and 10,000 windows. She built it room by room, was her own architect for thirty-eight years. Quite a weird place but fun to visit.

Wednesday Erin and Kellen came back over to Mountain View and we went to Facebook where Annie gave us a tour. Kellen had never been there. Facebook is an interesting place. Here is a picture of the Main Street walkway . It is divided with a broken yellow line, like a highway, to handle the foot traffic in both directions.. 

Here is what the work areas look like inside. This is the area for new hires and it was lunch time so no one was at the workstations in the area we went in. 

No one has a private office and with everyone working so close together the rule is "Be quiet at all times". If you have to talk with someone, or be on the phone, or have a conference call, you reserve one of many rooms set up for this, or go outside.

Because of the thousands of workers parking is a problem. We had to park many blocks away at building 54 and take a shuttle to building 41. Employees use the free bikes that are provided everywhere to get around. Here is a picture of some bikes outside one building. They are all painted Facebook blue and you are free to ride them home it you like.

Because cars are such an issue, and because many employees ride their personal bikes to work, there are bike racks inside the buildings. Here is an example.

A perk for bike riders is that you can bring your bike to work and they have a shop where it will be fixed just for the price of the parts. Here is a picture of the shop right on Main Street.

All meals, snacks, and drinks are free all day long. Another perk is a free arcade where you can go and unwind. Here is a picture of Kelly trying her luck at pinball.

After the tour of Facebook we drove to Erin's place in Tracy, California, about 57 miles away. We spent a relaxing couple of days there doing a little shopping and grilling before heading home Saturday morning. One of the things we did while there was go to Carl Jr's and get a "Beyond Burger". It is a meatless burger that looks, tastes, and bleeds like a beef burger. It was really good. Interestingly it had more calories than a beef burger. It is going to be a big hit.

The flight home went like clockwork. We got at the airport around 11:00 a.m. and were getting in bed in Perryville at 11:00 p.m.