Saw a post on LinkedIn featuring an image from Google’s massive headquarters campus in Mountain View, California, the Googleplex. It transported me back to my first in-person visit there, and a WordPress post was born.

Years ago I was at what were then our Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan offices in Mountain View, California, recording videos for our clients IBM and Carbonite.

When our last video was a wrap, I took off late-afternoon for a powerwalk. Our team pointed me in the direction of a nearby overpass, and the walk was on.

The overpass led to the Stevens Creek Trail and across miles of countryside I couldn’t believe existed in the heart of the Silicon Valley. That countryside actually comprises a series of tech campuses, neighborhoods, and green spaces.

The first major landmark on my quest was the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

A current map in the area around the Amphitheatre shows a Kite Flying Area…

which explains why on the way to the Amphitheatre I powerwalked past someone flying a kite. It does not explain why they were FLYING A KITE WHILE DRIVING A GO-KART, but why not? What a great way to combine two fun activities. And it’s like that familiar phrase: “Go fly a kite while driving a go-kart!”

I would share the video I shot of the daredevil Kite-Flying Go-Kart Rider, but I guess I need special access or something called JetPack to drop a video into a WordPress post, so the image will have to do. Hit me up on LinkedIn and I’ll be happy to share the video.

Anyway, back to the Amphitheatre. The design inspiration for this cultural center came from legendary music promoter Bill Graham, who designed it to look like the Grateful Dead’s iconic ‘Steal Your Face’ skull logo when viewed from the air. From my vantage point at the intersection of Shoreline Boulevard and Bill Graham Parkway, it looked like this:

Another furlong or so across hill and dale and suddenly the current-at-that-time Google logo emerged on a building across the road in front of me. Minutes later I was at the main entrance to the Googleplex, known to Googlers and Nooglers as Plex. My research indicates this iconic glass structure that appears in so many photos may be Google B41.

Walking into this world-famous view, with Googlers and Nooglers streaming in and out of buildings and scrambling on and off vans and buses around me, felt a bit like a spiritual experience.

Stan the Dinosaur is a full-size bronze replica of the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex who menacingly greets visitors to a courtyard at Plex. (Rex at Plex™?) Google’s headquarters used to belong to Silicon Graphics, which worked on the first Jurassic Park movie. One story says that Silicon Graphics installed Stan at the campus and Google decided to keep him after acquiring the complex. Another says Google simply decided to install a giant skeletal T-Rex at the Plex. The first story sounds more logical to me, but either way, word is that Stan’s presence reminds Googlers to continuously innovate in order to prevent the company from becoming a dinosaur.

Stan somehow managed to elude my photographic eye that day, but I wanted you to see him, so I added this free-to-use image to the post.

I would share the video I shot of colorful picnic tables adjoining some gorgeous waterfall steps later in my journey, but again, the photo will have to do.

As I wound my way back from my Plexiful dream to the hardscrabble streets =:-D of the surrounding area, I passed by Google facilities at 1616 Shoreline Boulevard and 1708 N. Shoreline Boulevard.

Industry insiders will tell you The Valley can be ugly in some ways, but on this day, my corner of The Valley was peaceful and beautiful. And at just under 26,000 steps, or about 13 miles, it was a GREAT fitness day!