Escape from Silicon Valley
By Kevin Miller
I’ve been spending this week in California’s Silicon Valley. While the area is famous for technology companies like Apple and Google, in my mind the most prominent features of the area are strip malls, office parks, divided parkways and expressways, and traffic. The first three days of my stay were filled with all of those things, plus tiresome restaurants with disinterested staff and odd menu choices (including Duck Confit Nachos the first night’s restaurant, and Duck Confit Gorditas at the second night’s restaurant; I passed on both).
Fortunately for me, I’ve got a cousin who lives “over the hill” in the coastal town of San Gregorio. She invited me to drive out CA-84 after work for dinner and experience her community and its amazing natural surroundings. The dinner and company were great, the natural setting wonderfully refreshing, and the drive to get there was amazing. The following night, with work done surprisingly early and skies sunny for the first time all week, I decided to re-explore those winding roads.
