California geography

[naomikritzer]

I am writing a near-future short story set in Silicon Valley and need some help figuring out where everything goes. 

 

The specifics:

 

1. The protagonist works for a tiny Silicon-Valley-based biotech company with a lab where they do 3D printing of animals (basically). Where are some likely locations for a lab? (Do people put the actual labs in San Jose or do they put them somewhere further out and therefore cheaper?) 

 

2. Her business partner has a house (and mostly telecommutes). He's not rich; he lives somewhere that he can get to Silicon Valley if he needs to, but far enough away to be affordable. I'm guessing that the obvious place for a house is Modesto?

 

3. Someone later develops a creature that escapes the lab and winds up roaming somewhere that's trees/natural stuff/parkland, rather than houses. It gets called "the [Location] Hippogriff." I went with the Saratoga Hippogriff because Saratoga on the map looks like it's bordering a bunch of park land. Does that seem plausible? Or is there a location that would be better? (The main thing is, it needs to be somewhere that a cryptid could plausibly hide, and where the protagonist can hike in, find it, and lure it back to the parking lot. The original lab it escapes from can be pretty much wherever, because it's run/financed by a tech bro with lots of money and zero sense.)

Thanks to anyone with input!