From Here To There

From the McDonalds in Millbrae,

Charlie and Jim went down El Camino Real (the name smacks of the conquistadors but it's all suburban commerce in stucco)

and thence to Redwood Shores which was where, once, Marine World/Africa USA (one of those 'watch the killer whales and other cetaceans perform tricks kind of "parks"') was located (I well remember going in the early 1970s, eating cotton candy and pondering the differences between it and Disneyland, which was superior because it had all the rides especially the Dumbo one and a store where I could get an Aristocat cat).

Marine World is now inland in Vallejo rather than on the Peninsula and recalled only by a road called 'Marine Parkway.' In its selfsame spot has risen the glistening headquarters of Oracle -- what would Apollo say of such an entity with a moniker referring to his priestess at Delphi? -- and here, after twelve good miles under airplanes and amid bumps in the road and searching for the bike path (which kept breaking off onto local streets), Jim and Charlie rode up.