Sunnyvale, California, 2024

Some random pics from Sunnyvale, California...

We visited one of the Google offices, got some snacks and saw some sights on the campus. They have bikes in case you need to get from building to building quickly.

Google bikes

A lot of the buildings have secret rooms that are not on the floor layout maps. We discovered two rooms, though one was occupied by someone else so we didn't go inside.

Secret room that felt a bit Mediterranean

Door to nautical-themed room (also occupied room)

The office buildings have recreational rooms. This one had a ping pong table!

Game room decor

Team #1

Team #2

Serving

One of the rooms is a blinged-out private movie theater with a jungle theme.

Jungle theater

A lot of other cosy spaces provide a break from the usual office decor.

Is it an alcove or a couch?

An odd vase

Mass transit just outside the buildings

Hammocks!

My daughter relaxing

Two boys snoozing

We went to Sunnyvale's downtown hoping to get some mochi donuts but the shop was sold out of donuts at 7 p.m. The place was way too pink anyway.

The picture doesn't do it justice

We walked over to Murphy Street for other options and wound up at a gelato place.

Restaurants on Murphy

View in the other direction

Ice cream shop

The Shrine of Our Lady of Peace is also in town. A three-story tall statue of Our Lady was commissioned by Msgr. John Sweeny in 1980. Delaware artist Charles Parks worked on it at his workshop, building it outdoors. The work drew crowds in Delaware, so when the statue was completed and moved to California in 1982, it again drew crowds and became a pilgrimage site. 

Immaculate Heart of Mary statue

Regular, life-sized statue of St. John Paul II

We went to Laughing Monk Brewing for dinner one night. I had a personal flight (the official flight is ten samples!) of four beers. In left to right order below: Hefeweizen (wheat ale, 5.3% ABV) was a very good hefe; Irreverent Wit (Belgian-style white ale, 5.3% ABV) was not as good as the hefe; Holy Ghost (Pilsner, 5.2%) was a charming name but just a regular pilsner to me (I am not a pilsner fan, but at least I give it a try now and then unlike IPA); Midnight Velvet (Stout, 5.8% ABV) was a smooth drinking stout that I enjoyed best of all the beers.

Beers!

We also got the Bavarian pretzel which was very nice.

Pretzel on a hangar

The logo

Omescape is a local escape room with one room that has a cooking challenge. The room is called Undercooked. We had a very large group, nine people, so we ran the room twice. In it, players need to make menu items by finding ingredients and recipes hidden throughout the room, which included the main kitchen, a pantry, and a garden area. Group #1 finished with $180, 15 completed dishes, sous chef status, and five stars. Group #2 finished with $130 at 17 completed dish and five stars, though the computer that tracked recipes reset during their time so the employee had to input some data manually. So the results are not conclusive. But my team won.

Group #1

Group #2

We had dinner at Metro City Restaurant and Bar where I had a delightful peanut butter porter. That's the only picture I took there!

So nice, I drank it twice!

We had another visit to Google, this time by the Visitor Experience, located near the main Googleplex. Gradient Canopy is the newest showcase building created by Google. It blends aesthetics with practicality and efficient use of environmental resources. The roof is covered with solar panels but they are arranged to create a tile effect that gently slopes to the edge. This helps to use solar energy while allowing natural light into the building for the workers. It also gathers rainwater for use in the building and surrounding gardens.

Gradient Canopy building

Unimpressed tourists

In addition to work space for employees, the building has a Google merch store, a cafe, and the "huddle" space for special events. The events space includes a small theater that runs a promotional video for the building when other things aren't going on. 

The Huddle logo

In the walkways and gardens around the building are several works of art. The first we saw is Quantum Meditation II by Julian Voss-Andreae, made in 2022. The creator's background in quantum physics inspired this statue that "disappears" in a direct view.

Quantum Meditation II

The vanishing bit

Back to a solid

Further on is Curious by Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson Art from 2022. The bear's fur is made of more than 160,000 pennies. 

Curious

Doesn't disappear with a front view (though my child is almost invisible)

Go by Hou de Sousa (also from 2022) is inspired by the ancient Chinese game. Each of the pieces (600 in this work) has a question asked by Google users, though that is a small portion of the 3.5 billion queries they get each year.

Go

The Orb by Marc Fornes is a self-supporting aluminum sculpture hand assembled.

The Orb

Zachary Coffin's Rockspinner is a multi-ton boulder that can be rotated by just about anyone thanks to ball bearings and engineering ingenuity. 

My kids spin the rock

On the way to the Googleplex we saw Halo designed by SOFTlab in 2022. The thin films inside reflect different waves of light causing a multicolored show that was rather amazing.

Halo

Inside Halo

We finally made it to the Googleplex, the main headquarters buildings of the company. The area has several statues of the Android operating system mascot, one of which is seen below.

Googleplex and Android

The complex has a dinosaur skeleton. Rumor has it that the T-Rex (named Stan) was attacked by a flock of pink flamingos. Apparently he ate his assailants, if his scat is anything to judge by.

Stan got no nutritional value from the birds

Dino poop (why doesn't Google clean this up?)

The central area also has a volleyball court though no one was using it while we were there (and we did not bring a ball, alas). 

Exercise room and sun room in one?

I was amazed to see this tree growing out of the underground garage. I'm sure in a hundred years it will cause trouble.

Has it been imprisoned for some crime?