Not far from the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, heading a bit north, is Cupertino and the newly built Apple Park. This is Silicon Valley on steroids. A bazillion dollars later and they have created an office building which could be mistaken for the Large Hadron Collider in France assuming it was above ground and not buried. But like all things larger life, Zuckerberg's Folly is a must-see.
The above is a stock shot since there was no way we were going to be able to take anything approaching this angle. Pentagon, move over (in more ways than one).
The grounds around the new visitor center. Regrettably, there are no tours available of the "ring" itself. The visitor center is it.
Tres moderne.
When we first saw this building/grounds tabletop layout we thought "Geez! why so bland?". It's certainly minimalist. And why the grid lines?
An Apple docent then handed us an iPad with special software loaded - point it anywhere on the layout and voila! the tabletop pops to life. Move the iPad around, in, out. Point to buildings and the top comes off to reveal the interior. Nifty.
All Apple, all the time. Paradise. Except those T-shirts on the wall back there, at $40.
Only offerings in the cafeteria are Apple Fritters, Candied Apples, Apple Tarts, Apple Cores and Apple Juice. Well, why not?
So near, yet so far, far away.
That's the reception center over there, high security. Visitors such as we will not be received.
An Apple cult-employee smilingly took this photo of us to memorialize our proximity to this phenomenon of our Age of Wonder. Once again, the hairy rodent could care less.
Traveling further north, magnificent Burlingame and yet another museum.
Wimsey, nostalgia, bygone times, whatever - when a photo such as this presents itself ya gotta take it.
Yes, Dorothy, there IS a PEZ Museum in this fair land of ours. Not the biggest museum we have visited, but probably the most downright personal since the guy who takes our 2 buck each entry fee is also the owner of the place and, in fact, the owner of the entire contents.
PEZ was an Austrian mint first produced in the early 20th Century. For years it came in one flavor, peppermint...that's "pfefferminz" in German. To shorten things up, the name was changed from its first iteration by taking the first letter and last letter of the flavor and dropping in an "e". P E Z.
Owner Gary Doss, who gave us a personalized history lesson (there was no one else there). His place is at, or toward the top of, various lists of top things to do in Burlingame. His place is well known in PEZ circles. Go to Ebay and find over 27,000 PEZ entries selling PEZ containers, candies, you name it. And collecting PEZ containers doesn't take up much room, like stamp and coin collecting. Gary figures he has at least one of 95% of the PEZ containers ever manufactured. And they just keep making them.
This is the main room of the museum, off the entry room where the entrance fee is collected. As a matter of fact, it is the ONLY room. The back area is blocked off with a folding chair. Peeking back there shows a cornucopia jumble of wondrous bric-a-brac.
If these look something like period cigarette ads its because PEZ was a healthy alternative to smoking...but since they are pretty much 100% compressed sugar, the old saying still applies: "There's no free lunch".
This is what separates the collector from the Collector.
Carrie Fisher and Star Wars - immortalized PEZ.
Millionaire "Marvel Universe" author/artist Stan Lee squints through sunglasses to sign a Spidey PEZ container. Too much!
Who can forget "Lost in Space"? Not PEZ.
"Garfield" creator takes a moment from cashing royalty checks to sign the cat.
Every kid lusted after...a Wonder Woman PEZ container. (Gloria Steinem in your ho-hum Playboy bunny suit eat your heart out.)
Every kid at heart fantasizes about becoming the Hulk at will and gobbling PEZ from a green container. Better than Popeye's spinach fetish.
We all remember where we were when we first saw the Seinfeld Tweety Bird PEZ episode.
Norm somehow got his hands on a Yoda PEZ container, part of an unwanted gift for once buying a MacDonald's something or other. He has since thrown it away. Your loss, Ebay.
Collectible PEZ groupings such as this are sure to change in value from what you paid for them. For historical reference, check out the current prices for Jim Beam collectible whiskey bottles...or prices for your closet full of Beanie Babies. However, if you just like all things Elvis, gotta have it.
Somehow the graphics on these two machines could just as well be offering prophylactics.
Somewhere Gary became interested in toys that were subsequently banned after they were released. He has gathered some of them in a display case. Sort of like a mummified monkey's paw, or an alien baby skeleton. Oddities.
This set included a working Geiger counter - unfortunately the four bottles in the upper left corner of the set contained actual radioactive powders. Wow, Billy - snort this!
The scents were great, so great that kids ate crayons. Still, not as good a high as from those marking pens. Or inhaling a nose full of spray paint.
Just fun, fun, fun until.....
Mattel received a rasher of crud from those who complained that bullfighters actually KILL bulls. So Barbie kills helpless kittens and bunnies? Those were the days when Americans were still offended by something.
Seems like from a more innocent time. By cracky!
The "first" of anything is always a must see, if not a must have.
Whew!
No doubt that "PEZ" collecting didn't just drop off the banana boat.
With one last glance at one man's obsession, we departed for our nearby hotel, nicely situated on the Bay near S.F.'s airport. Even though we could see the airport out across the water from inside our room, we never heard a thing.....but outside?
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