Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Mountain View (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Computer History Museum, Googleplex, and Shoreline Amphitheatre. Also, be sure to include NASA Gift Shop in Silicon Valley in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Mountain View (California).
Table of Contents
Computer History Museum
Devices dating back to the 1940s. The Computer History Museum is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on society.[1]
Address: 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, 94043-1311 Mountain View (Mountain View)
Googleplex
Google’s large global headquarters. The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. It is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.
The original complex, with 2 million square feet (190,000 square meters) of office space, is the company's second largest square footage assemblage of Google buildings, after Google's 111 Eighth Avenue building in New York City, which the company bought in 2010.
"Googleplex" is a portmanteau of Google and complex (meaning a complex of buildings) and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large number 10(10100), or 10googol.[2]
Address: Mountain View, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater located in Mountain View, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The venue has a capacity of 22,500, with 6,500 reserved seats and 16,000 general admission on the lawn. When the parking lot is utilized for festival stages, the total capacity of the venue can reach 30,000. The venue has hosted popular music festivals such as Lollapalooza and Ozzfest, and also developer conferences such as the Google I/O.[3]
Address: Mountain View, One Amphitheatre Parkway
NASA Gift Shop in Silicon Valley
Museum in Mountain View, California. The NASA Gift Shop in Silicon Valley is a visitor center at the entrance of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The center has the following exhibits:
- The Mercury-Redstone 1A capsule, launched in 1960 in a suborbital flight, it achieved an altitude of 130.7 miles.
- A high-resolution immersive theater with a 14-foot tall and 36-foot wide screen. The theater sometimes shows movies with footage from NASA's explorations of Mars and the planets, and about the contributions of the scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center.
- A model of the SOFIA aircraft, designed for infrared astronomy observations in the stratosphere.
- A large globe of the planet Mars.
The gift shop sells space and NASA-related memorabilia. The hours are Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM, and 10 AM to 5 PM on weekends. It is closed for Federal Holidays.[4]
Address: Moffett Field, 94035 Mountain View
Rengstorff House
Historical landmark in Mountain View, California. The Rengstorff House was one of the first houses to be built in Mountain View, California. It was built c. 1867 by Henry Rengstorff, a prominent local businessman who operated a ferry between San Francisco and Mountain View. It is built in the Italianate Victorian architecture style. The house's three-bay front facade features an entrance pavilion topped by a balustrade and a pediment on the middle bay.[5]
Address: 3070 N Shoreline Blvd, 94043 Mountain View (Mountain View)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Performing arts theater in Mountain View, California. The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts is located in downtown Mountain View, California. It is operated by the City of Mountain View and hosts a variety of art events. Its home theatre companies include TheatreWorks, Peninsula Youth Theatre, and Upstage Theater.[6]
Address: 500 Castro St, 94041 Mountain View (Mountain View)
Moffett Field Historical Society Museum
Museum, Specialty museum, History museum
Address: Severyns Ave., Building 126, 94035-0016 Mountain View
Saint Joseph Parish
Catholic church in Mountain View, California. Saint Joseph Parish in Mountain View, California, is a parish in the Roman Catholic Church. The parish and its church are located in Mountain View in the state of California, under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California and its bishop. It is named after Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus; for whom the diocese and the nearby city of San Jose are also named.
The parish church is located on Hope Street, having been in continuous service since its initial building in 1905.
The parish school, St. Joseph Catholic School, is located on Miramonte Avenue, and is an elementary school for children from kindergarten through eighth grade.[7]
Los Altos
City in California. Los Altos is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census.
Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally an agricultural town with many summer cottages and apricot orchards, Los Altos is now an affluent bedroom community on the western edge of Silicon Valley, serving as a major source of commuters to other parts of Silicon Valley. Los Altos strictly limits commercial zones to the downtown area and small shopping and office parks lining Foothill Expressway and El Camino Real.[8]
Saint Athanasius Parish
Saint Athanasius Parish is a territorial parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California. The parish was established June 19, 1959, by John J. Mitty, D.D. Archbishop of San Francisco, to serve Catholics of Mountain View and Palo Alto. The parish is named for Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria.[9]
Address: 160 N Rengstorff Ave, 94043 Mountain View (Mountain View)
Android lawn statues
The Android lawn statues are a series of large foam statues near the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, currently located at 1981 Landings Drive. They are based on the code names for versions of Google's Android mobile operating system, which is named after desserts and sweet treats. Google used to commission a statue for each new Android version, a tradition that ended in 2019. From 2020 on, they use 3d models.
These statues were originally located in front of Building 44, where the Android development team had its offices, before being moved to their present location a few blocks away next to the Google Visitor Center Beta. The area is open to Google employees and their guests, and visitors are encouraged to take photos.
At least up to 2013's KitKat, all the sculptures were made by a company named Themendous, earlier called "Custom Creations".[10]
Address: 1981 Landings Dr, 94043-0801 Mountain View (Mountain View)