Modesto CA to Mountain View CA

Thursday, May 24, 2012

We were up and out of our motel by 8:00 and at the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in Dublin/Pleasanton and on the train to the financial district in San Francisco by 10:00. This was much smoother than we had anticipated. The train route was 35+ miles and went under San Francisco Bay.  We passed the Port of Oakland – lots of containers! 

 The Montgomery Street Station was four blocks from the Wells Fargo Museum. It was certainly chilly – at least for us – in San Francisco with wind. The buildings were very interesting some very modern and some very old. Quite the contrast! 

Old reflected in the New

The Museum did an excellent job of explaining the story of the Butterfield Overland Mail – the museum of course was the entire story of Wells- Fargo.  The Wells- Fargo Company was in the stagecoach business in California prior to the Butterfield. They were partners – probably financial backer type partners with John Butterfield in the Overland Mail route. They had many very interesting exhibits and two original stages and one that was built as a sample for people to actually sit in or drive…of course we had to try it out! 

We very much enjoyed the stories told from riders on the stage.  We stopped at a deli on the way back to the BART stop for a good lunch. We then got back on the train without even waiting 5 minutes and were back at the Dublin/Pleasanton station by 1:30.  We then drove through traffic – thank goodness for GPS – to Mountain View.  We drove through what I suppose is silicon valley – with every name you can think of in the computer and technical industries. We noticed a huge complex for sale – belonged to Solyndra!

Maybe strange that we were not into seeing all the numerous sites in San Francisco but we had determined ahead of time we were not going to spend lots of time in LA and San Francisco since we had many other priorities for this trip.  We completed our Butterfield Trail adventure today, are now going to visit a couple days with some friends in Mountain View – near San Francisco – and then head back home revisiting a number of Indian sites and other sites. Maybe follow a little of Route 66.  But for the next couple days we are visiting and seeing some local sites with our friends Bill and Marilyn.  We had a great start on our visit with a fantastic Chinese dinner.