After the Winchester Mystery House, I took the boys on an Urban Adventure Quest
-San Jose version. It is kind of a scavenger hunt that takes you through town. We have done the Sacramento one and really enjoyed it. This one was a little frustrating. We kept getting challenges/puzzles wrong and for the sake of time, just started skipping them and moving on to the next location.
The quest began at the Children’s Discovery museum and led us to a path along the Guadalupe river (like a creek) that runs through town. One of the clues was took us to this plaque and shoe sculpture. The boys thought is would be fun to pose in the shoes.
Another clue took us to this little playground that had animal structures and a huge Monopoly board. Ryan is working on the clue in this photo…
A nice water feature we found on the way to another clue…
Another clue took us to this Veteran’s Memorial…
Then…wait, what? “Mom it’s Adobe! This is where Adobe is! Can we go there???” (Alex uses their products regularly)
So, we detoured from the Quest and went to explore Adobe Headquarters…
The building was called the “Customer Experience Center”, so we decided to check it out inside. We walked into the lobby and immediately moved to the right and saw this beautiful piece of art…
Next to this was the cafe. It was lunch time so I asked if they wanted to have lunch in the Adobe cafe. They were so excited! We ordered our sandwiches and learned that our fountain beverages were free! They make their own chips; the boys called them “King of all chips”.
Their water options were still and sparkling…
After lunch, we went back into the lobby and I went up to the reception/security desk. I asked the security agent if they had any tours or anything to see for people visiting, and she said that there was nothing. I then asked if we could walk around the rest of the lobby and she said that we weren’t even supposed to be in there. (She was polite about it.). I then questioned why they named the building the “Customer Experience Center”, yet customers could not interact with the space. Ironic and misleading, in my opinion. I am not not even sure if we were supposed to have eaten in the cafeteria. Oh well. Still a lovely experience.
Back on the Quest, a clue led us to the Tech Museum. This interactive exhibit was located outside the entrance. We were really interested in this museum and would have spent the rest of the afternoon their, but unfortunately, they were closed through September 15th. We will have to come back to see it some other time.
It was nearing late afternoon and we were only half way through the quest. We were getting hot and tired, so we decided to end the quest and head for the hotel. Checked into the Hampton Inn in Mountainview. Had dinner delivered to our room and watched HGTV for the rest of the night. (We don’t have cable, so when we travel, I binge watch HGTV.)