Sightseeing for Geeks

On recent trips to Los Angles and the San Francisco Bay Area, my coworkers and I found a few places that any true geek will probably want to check out. The focus of this list started out on electronic surplus stores, but worthwhile sellers new electronic parts and military and areospace museums are represented also. There are probably may other such places out there also - do you know of any better ones?

Places We've visited or intend to visit.

California - San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley

Electronic Surplus

• Excess Solutions
  430 E. Brokaw Road San Jose, CA 95112 Tel:408-573-7045 Fax:408-573-7046
  Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, Saturday 9am-4pm. Looks like mostly new surplus electronic components. Also mail order.
• Halted Specialities Corp. (HSC)
  3500 Ryder Street, Santa Clara, CA 95051, tel:408-732-1573 fax:408-732-6428,
  Monday-Friday 8AM-7PM, Saturday 9AM-5PM. New and used electronic surplus parts, subassemblies, and computer stuff. They do mail order.
• Wierd Stuff Warehouse
  384 West Caribbean; Sunnyvale, CA; 408-743-5650 X324
  Monday - Saturday, 9:30 am - 6 pm. The recently-expanded "as-is" area is much more interesting than the stuff out front. They also have a Fremont store that I haven't been to.
• Triangle Machinery and Tool
  Commercial St, San Jose, CA. 408-452-8666

RIP

• Alltronics. Formerly on Zanker Road, San Jose. Still around but web-only.
• Haltek Electronics, formerly on Linda Vista Avenue, Mountain View.
• Mike Quinn Electronics, San Leandro, CA.
• RA Enterprises, formerly on Walsh Ave, Santa Clara.

Other

• Fry's Electronics, Arques St near Lawrence, Sunnyvale, CA, and several other bay area and southern california stores. The famous outlet for new parts, computers, entertainment electronics, etc. Folks say that it isn't as good as it was back in the heyday of the home computer hobby revolution, but still a required stop for geeks visiting the west coast. Wish we had one back home in North Carolina.
• Western Aerospace Museum, 8260 Boeing St, Oakland, CA 94621. A funky little airplane museum, with a mix of jets and props. The highlight of the place is the flying boat, for which guided tours are available and well worth the time.

Florida - Orlando

• Skycraft Parts & Surplus, Inc, 2245 W. Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. (407-628-5634).
  This place is astonishingly well organized for a surplus store, and also appears well-staffed and popular. Take I-4 to exit 45, start heading east on Fairbanks, and look for the building with the UFO on top just as soon as you clear the interchange.
• No trip to central florida would be complete without a stop at Kennedy Space Center.

California - Los Angeles Area

• All Electronics.
  14928 Oxnard St., Van Nuys, CA 91411-2610, (818)-997-1806
  Also web and mail order.
  The All Electronics store in Los Angeles, formerly at 9th and Vermont, is now closed.
• Apex Electronics,
  8909 San Fernando Road, Sun Valley, CA, 91352, (818) 767-7202
  The best surplus place so far on this list. Must be seen to be believed. Rows of 16 foot high shelving with moderately well organized parts, piles of stuff everywhere, and back lot for the big stuff. Hasn't changed much over the years, still going strong.
• Fry's Electronics, Burbank, CA. See description above.
• Planes of Fame museum, Chino, CA. At the Chino Airport.
• March Air Force Base museum.

New Mexico - Albuquerque

• Electronic Surplus Company Incorporated,
  Located in a little strip mall on the south side of central. Reportedly expanded and improved since I was there last.
• Surplus City, 10805 Central Ave N, Albuquerque, NM, 87123-2727, (505) 292-7131. A warehouse-sized building that's pretty well organized, and a backyard where the big and weirder stuff is located.
• Jones Surplus Barn,
  10921 Central Ave, Albuquerque, NM.
  A combination of new hardware, military surplus clothing and gear, with some electronic surplus thrown in. Just a few hundred yards east of Surplus City on the same side of Central Ave.

• National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio
• Voice of America Museum, In VOA's former Bethany Station transmitter site, West Chester, Ohio. (near Cincinatti). Operated by the Veterans VOA Fund.

New York, New York

• New York Transit Museum
• New York city transit links and some historical information.

Other Lists

• Geek Travel Guide