We do have hiking trails in the area too, particularly up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Henry Coe State Park is a little less than an hour away. There are a

We do have hiking trails in the area too, particularly up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Henry Coe State Park is a little less than an hour away. There are a number of wineries in Los Gatos and Saratoga, around half an hour away. I'm less familiar with the microbrew scene around here, but I know there's mead in Sunnyvale (~30m) and a handful of larger "micros" like Rock Bottom in Campbell and Lazy Dog in Cupertino. NHL is downtown, NFL is ~30 min away in Santa Clara, etc. You're overstating the issue. It's not New York or San Francisco, for sure, and we sure do need better rapid transit but you're definitely not an hour and a half from everything cool. You're more like half an hour or so. You just need to look for it.