When you arrive in the Bay Area you don't necessarily know a lot of people. The culture in Silicon Valley is very open and newcomers are always welcomed and supported.
Getting connected to people can most easily happen through work, hobbies or your neighborhood community.

A few resources that may be helpful:

• Meetup - these are meetings organized by a group of individuals based on interests. There are plenty of meetups around technology topics. However, many of the groups also meet for leisure activities such as hiking or visiting concerts together.
  


• Business Associations such as the German American Business Association. They organize lots of events including a 'Stammtisch' open to the public.
  


• Your neighborhood. While Americans in the Bay Area value their privacy, there are still lots of opportunities to get to know your next door neighbors. Neighborhood associations such as the following are a good starting point: http://paneighborhoods.org/
  

As always, when you arrive in a new city or country, it takes time to find friends. However, entering existing circles of friends seem reasonably easy in the Valley.

Image by eVo photo via Flickr

The weather in San Francisco is relatively mild and dry in comparison to the rest of the US. However, as the City is surrounded by the sea/water on three sides, it is windier, foggier and colder than further south in the Bay Area.

Current weather in San Francisco:


Click for weather forecast
Overall climate:

• The coolest month is January
• The wettest month is February
• The weather can be pretty nasty in summer, starting in June, when it often gets often foggy and cold (but nevertheless dry)
• It's beautiful in September and October, with September being the warmest month

More:

• Sperling's BestPlaces: Climate in San Francisco, California
• WeatherSpark: Historical Weather For The Last Twelve Months in San Francisco, California, USA

The weather in the Bay Area can simply be described as sunny, mild, rarely too hot and rarely very cold. Most of the time it's less windy, foggy and cold than the weather in San Francisco due to the protection by the Santa Cruz Mountains on the western side of the valley.

Current weather:


Click for weather forecast
Overall climate, for example in Palo Alto:

• An average of 261 sunny days per year
• Less than half of the average rain in the US
• Winter (December-February) is the coolest period with most of the rain
• There is hardly any rain between mid-April and October

More:

• WeatherSpark: Historical Weather For The Last Twelve Months in Palo Alto, California, USA
• Sperling's BestPlaces: Climate in Palo Alto, California

There are plenty of iconic sites in the Bay Area - especially if you are in the IT sector or have an interest in the IT scene. Below is a list of places that you might want to check out or show to friends who come visit the area.

• HP Garage - 367 Addison Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 - The birthplace of Hewlett and Packard's company HP. Also considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
• Facebook - 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025 - Facebook's headquarters in East Menlo Park.
• Google - 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043 - Google's big campus on Shoreline. You will see some of the google bikes on the sidewalks.
• Apple - 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014 - 1 Infinite Loop is one of the best know addresses in Silicon Valley. It is Apple's headquarters, but in a few years from now they will move to their new big spaceship donut they are now building in Cupertino, bound by North Wolfe Road, Tantau Avenue, Calabazas Creek and Homestead Road.
• eBay - 2145 Hamilton Avenue San Jose, California 9512
• Parc (Palo Alto Research Center Incorporate) - 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA - The company that helped with innovations like: laser printing, ethernet, graphical user interfaces and more.
• Tesla - 3500 Deer Creek. Palo Alto, CA 94304 - The company that pushes the boundaries when it comes to electric cars. Not much to see except for a few company logos. Located next to a nice horse ranch close to I-280.
• Intel - 2200 Mission College Blvd., CA 95054-1549 Santa Clara - Also very iconic logo available for pics in front of their main building.
• Venture Capitalists - Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park - The reason Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley might be the seemingly limitless amount of venture money. The most renowned venture firms (e.g. Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Accel Partners) of the world are located on Sandhill Road in Menlo Park. The coffee shops around Sandhill Road are filled with VC partners and other people in the know.
• Computer History Museum - 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043 - Nice exhibits guiding the visitors through 2000 years of computer history. Also worth checking is the frequent ByteNights event organized by the Next Generation advisory board. Appetizers and access to the museum in the evening is included.
• Twitter - 1355 Market St #900, San Francisco, CA - Headquarters of the social networking and microblogging service.

Controversial question - here a few good starting points:

• In-N-Out Burger (not-so-secret menu)
• Five Guys
• The Counter

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