Alviso (home to Alviso Marina County Park) is just minutes from the Silicon Valley tech hubs of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale and Mountain View. And yet -- it feels like a bit of a time capsule, a part of the bay that was forgotten once the shipping business gave way to the railroad, and the once prominent cannery was no more. But there are salt flats, and old buildings, and views for days.







It's a great place for birdwatching, kayaking, and bicycling too -- you can ride along the margins of the wetlands and wave to the Amtrak trains as they speed by.