First day I drove to Freemont and took the train to SF. It was less cost and drive time to go by car.
I was working in Silicon Valley!
It's all changed since I was there as a kid. You would be shocked! But it's Cali! Beautiful place and beautiful people!
It was my first duty station. I was 19 year old and from rural Georgia. It was culture shock for sure. I had never seen so many cars before in my entire life as I did the first time I got on 101 during rush hour traffic.
I kind of liked California. If you wanted anything you were within minutes of finding it anywhere. I was too young to drink so I couldn't hang at bars until the last couple years I was there. ST James was a hoot. We used to hit Colonel Lee's Mongolian BBQ once a week to try and get the Colonel demoted by eating him onto a loss on the $7 buffet.
Round Table Pizza rocked as did most Pizza places out there.
Used to get $5 tickets to Candlestick for Giants games and $7 to Oakland. One time I went to MWR to get tickets to a Giants - Braves game and they were $8. The lady said they cost more because of a concert after the game. Turned out it was Jimmy Buffet and he played for 3 hours
I moved over to Freemont with some friends of my grandparents. I had never met them before so when I got out there I went to meet and visit. They were the coolest people and my roommate and I ended up going over there every weekend for a year. They had moved to CA many years before and had a HUGE house. The barracks sucked so after my first deployment they said they would be happy for us to rent rooms. It was great except for the commute across the Dumbarton Bridge and through East Palo Alto.
It was a good time.