Making my way out to Vancouver for the Global Scavenger Hunt, I detoured to San Francisco to visit with my son Gordon.
I checked out his office at google’s headquarters in Mountain View, about 35 minutes south of the airport.
Its acres of low rise buildings and tree lined paths suggest a college campus or a resort complex. The resort feeling comes from the sandpit volleyball court in front of the main corporate headquarters.
I arrived before lunch, while the food trucks were setting up. On my way toward his building, I passed a chocolatier unpacking its goodies next to a taco truck. We took our brunch in an indoor restaurant with the decor of a rustic hunting lodge. I had the asparagus tomato frittata and he had a yogurt fruit thing. Food is free for google employees and guest (i.e. me).
We walked around and he pointed out things along the way. Like a van that provides haircuts.
And the unmarked white buses which transport google employees for free every day for the hour-plus commute from San Francisco.
Google’s main headquarters is in Building 40. It was the first building in the then new complex. Lore has it that rather than call it building #1, the designation of building #40 sounded much more established.
We picked up a couple of free bicycles that are scattered all around the sprawling campus and rode them back to his office.
Sure beats working in a windowless cubicle. And many, many other places, too.