I'm drinking my coffee out of my San Jose mug this morning. I couldn't get all the text in the picture though, so you'll just have to trust me that it says "San Jose".
My first trip to San Jose was way back in the early 90's. I think it was sometime in the second half of 1992. I was working at IBM in the RS/6000 group doing support for AIX. We attended a trade show in San Jose and I went out there with some other members of the team. I was only 22 and I remember going to a vegetarian restaurant with the rest of the team. It was HORRIBLE! It was the only restaurant we could find nearby. I remember on the menu that there was one dish where it described it as 'tofu injected with ham flavoring'. I was like ugh... I would probably fare better with it now but back then, no way.
Before we actually moved to California, Mike was staffed out there. Technically, that was in Milpitas but it's pretty close to San Jose. I went out there to visit him at least once, especially since we were preparing to move there. I don't have any other California mugs oddly enough so I'll expand this to more than just San Jose.
Winchester Mystery House
One place we did visit that really is in San Jose was the Winchester Mystery House. The house belonged to Sarah Winchester, of the Winchester gun fame. Basically, she believed that she was being haunted by the souls of the people who had been killed by Winchester guns. So, to pacify the ghosts, she felt that she needed to keep the house in a constant state of construction. Here are some amazing facts taken from the Winchester Mystery House website:
Number of rooms: 160
Cost: $5,500,000
Date of Construction: 1884 - September 5, 1922 (38 continuous years!)
Number of windows: Frames 1,257; panes approx. 10,000
Number of doors: Doorways 467, doors approx. 950 not including cabinet doors.
Number of fireplaces: 47 (gas, wood, or coal burning)
Number of bedrooms: Approx. 40
Number of staircases: 40, total of stair steps - 367
Number of skylights: Approx. 52
Number of gallons of paint required to paint entire home: Over 20,000
Number of ballrooms: 2 (one nearly complete, and one under construction)
Blueprints available: No, Mrs. Winchester never had a master set of blueprints, but did sketch out individual rooms on paper and even tablecloths!
It's pretty odd. For example, there are staircases that lead up to nowhere which were built to confuse the ghosts. Very strange!
Strait's Cafe
Another neat place is Strait's Cafe in Palo Alto. It's a Singaporean restaurant. Here is a description of Singaporean food that I found online:
“Deriving from the rich culinary traditions of each community’s ancestral lands with flavours that are often robust, it is natural to follow that the food of Singapore is extremely flavoursome, frequently spicy, and consist regularly of a mix of Chinese condiments, with Indian spices and Malays ingredients of tropical herbs and fruits of chillies, coconut, lemongrass, galangal and the like.
Singapore cuisine was often described as parts Chinese, Malay and Indian. This is somewhat true, yet certain dishes that seems to be “Chinese” or “Indian” are now distinctly Singaporean in character, and far different from their original cousin.”
Yummy!
Wente Vineyards
I would also highly recommend visiting Wente Vineyards in Livermore. You're getting into the East Bay there and farther north but I think it's worth the drive if you're down in San Jose. There is a golf course that winds through the vineyard that is just gorgeous. When my parents came to visit, Mother, Daddy and I went to lunch at Wente and then my father played golf. My mother and I followed along in a separate cart and enjoyed the views. I remember it was freezing though in March so be prepared for any kind of weather!
Their Sunday brunch is amazing. The food is really, really good. I highly recommend going on a sunny Spring day and sitting on the patio. You might even be able to catch a wedding going on in the gardens. They grow their own herbs on the grounds and you will see the chefs going back and forth with a little basket to gather herbs for your meal. It's just a really gorgeous location.
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