Three days in San Jose, CA

After shopping chores on Friday at Costco in Gilroy, CA, Alan came to pick us up for a winery tour. We went to Kathryn Kennedy Winery where Marty, the vintner and friend of Alan's, honored us by opening his winery for a personal tasting. He was testing the sparkling wine which sits in the cellar for 10 years being turned every so often. We tried the sparkling wine in two different stages of the fermentation process before tasting the final product. Marty was an excellent educator answering all our questions about creating high quality wines. (Katheryn Kennedy sells between $18 and $200 a bottle).  Marty's family has been in the winery business for several decades.  For many years, wines were kept in the family's bomb shelter built in the late 50s before the bottles were moved to other storage.



Wine tasting at Kathryn Kennedy Winery




Specially crafted label





Marty explained to us about proper pruing and soil composition to produce fine wine.

Real corks aren't cheap.  The champagne ones cost $3 each wholesale and the traditional ones are around $1.80



Marty, Sonny and Alan (Morgan the dog)

The hills around San Jose are beautiful with narrow roads winding among the orchards and vineyards. Deer are often seen grazing in the fields with flocks of turkeys nearby.  Right now, the hills are green but will turn "golden" as the summer comes on. Alan took us to another winery called Cooper-Garrod Winery and Stable.  We tasted the wines and checked out the family history before driving further up into the hills to Paul Masson Winery.

Horse and rider waiting outside the barn.



I'm sure we were doing 45 or 90 mph in a 15 mph zone up the windy
  road to Paul Masson Winery.

Alan skillfully rounded the curves and we arrive safely at the top for the

 fabulous view of Silicon Valley on a clear, blue sky, warm afternoon.  We could see 180* from San Francisco Bay on our left to Mt Diablo and Mt Hamilton in front of us on

to nearly the South end of the Valley where 2.2 million people live.

Saturday, Alan and Jennifer cooked us breakfast in their lovely kitchen.  We enjoyed scrambled eggs with ham and fresh asparagus.  I headed off to Kelley Park to visit a historic village while the boys went on electrical jobs and tackled moving 250 bottles of wine to the new wine rack closet. Of course, there was some taste testing going on there, too.

Jen has blooming orchids inside and outside .

Flowering Maple or abutilon.  Jen has several varieties and colors in her yard.

1905 San Jose one room school

Boys went in one door and girls through the other

 The museum docent on his way to open a 1900s Victorian home

Victorian kitchen and bath

Backyard garden

The town trolley

 The "Virgin Electric Car" owned by sisters in San Jose who never married
and only used the car on Sundays


The trolley track inspector's ride

There was a riot at this gas station in the early 1900s

when gas prices went up 3 cents.

Victorian home door

 After spending 3 hours at the San Jose Historic Village, I walked through the Japanese Garden next door before driving downtown to a Chicana/o art exhibit and the Quilt and Textile Museum.  There were traditional quilts; quilts made by survivors of domestic violence as therapy and displays of "quilts" as art featuring hand painting, machine quilting, dyeing and abstract creation.  One that stood out was made by a woman from Massachusetts titled "Mt Desert Isle", I'm guessing, from the Maine coast.  It depicted the blue water, tan sand, green trees and reds, I'm guessing, for the cranberry bogs or the Fire of 1947??  I'm not sophisticated enough to actually see the island in her work (other than the color) but it was fun to study it for awhile.

Gas is already over $4 here!

Sunday, Sonny and I drove over Hecker Pass down to Santa Cruz to the Natural Bridges State Park and the Wilder Ranch State Park under blue skies but temps only in the high 50s.  From the valley view at Madonna Summit, we could see the ocean and the fog bank on Monterey Bay.

Icicle plant with a grackle? sitting on the flower

 

Surf along the Natural Bridges State Park

There are cormorants, sea gulls and even a pair of Canadian geese
 sitting in the wind on top of the rock formations

Wilder Ranch State Park.  Mr Wilder was a Stanford University Engineering graduate whose farm was cutting edge for the time.  His place had electric power before the City of San Jose did because he could generate water powered electricity at the farm.  The house has closets where the light comes on automatically when the door opens and doors that open with a switch that could be operated with your elbow when your arms were full of firewood.

The second floor stairway seemed structurally odd to me-why didn't the floor go to the wall or the post to the ceiling?

This doorway has a built in boot scaper

Old dairy barn with young cows

Aloe plants in the front yard with tunnels for children to play in



This is one tree planted 100 years ago in the front yard of the Wilder Farm


We have a technical problem with the trailer brakes so early tomorrow morning, we will go into San Martin to Camping World in search of a new black box before we move on to Paso Robles.  We've had a wonderful time here in the San Jose area thanks to our good friends and thoughtful hosts, Alan and Jen!  

Leaving the Sacramento River Delta on to San Jose

There were hundreds of birds and ducks at the Delta Shores RV park in Rio Vista.  They chirped and sang all day long-not annoying but just always there.  We noticed little blue birds and purple finches among the many crows and grackles.  Sonny played a round of golf while I hung out at the campsite.  The sunset was amazing.


Sunset over the Sacramento River Delta

The trip down US 101 to San Jose yesterday was pretty smooth.  Traffic wasn't too bad. We were able to shed the winter coats and roll the windows down.  It's very dry with 50% less rain than normal and fire danger high.  We set up camp at Thousand Trails in Morgan Hills 20 miles outside of San Jose in the pretty Santa Cruz mountain range.  Our friend, Alan, came out to check in on us. Once we got set up, we drove into San Jose to Alan's house for a steak dinner. He's a great cook and his dinner included fresh local artichokes.The drive into Alan's place was along a narrow, windy country road through the hills passing ranches and large homes. We saw deer and a big flock of turkeys along the way. Alan and Sonny are old Navy buddies from the 70s. 

This morning, the "campground turkeys" were checking out the campsites for a meal.



After breakfast, we found Costco in Gilroy to stock up a few frozen food items.  Sonny spent the afternoon playing golf while I wandered around Morgan Hill checking out the shops and enjoying the sunshiny warmth.

Exploring Scotia, California

Saturday was a travel day along US 101. There were heavy rain showers in the morning making us thankful that we were in a warm truck and not traveling with the bikes. Great surf views, rock formations, seals on the beach and no traffic. By noontime, the sun was trying to shine and there was more blue sky. We found a Starbucks with lots of parking parking space at Fred Meyers in Brookings, Oregon. Saw 2 large elk herds in Orick, CA, more flowering trees, goats and sheep on our way to Scotia, CA to camp at Stafford RV Park. It felt like really camping in the woods with huge old growth redwood stumps with many trees growing out of them.

Old growth stumps

Trees growing out of trees

On Sunday morning, we woke up to blue sky and sunshine though in the high 30s. The field had over 30 robins and a small flock of quail looking for breakfast in the grass We took a walk through the neighborhood to see the sights.

Old Corvette frame beside the road

Sonny petting the pony who wanted a treat

Cabin in the woods

For exploring, we drove to Ferndale, an old Victorian town about 20 miles north on 101. As we were getting out of the truck, a car pulled up and the man asked if we were from Maine (Sonny had on his Maine sweatshirt). Turns out the couple was from Brunswick, Maine where they had been in a lobstering family for a couple of generations. They moved to CA last year to be near their 3 year old grandson. Their son was living in their Maine house and they had lived in an Army tent at the 2200' level for 6 months while they built a foundation for a new home outside of Garberville, CA. They lived in the cellar foundation last winter and plan to get more done on the house this summer. They were truly a Maine (hippie) couple, and like we did when we first arrived on the West Coast, were getting used to milder winters and early springs. They asked if we were in Fernadale for the Firemen's Rodeo but we said, no, we didn't know about the firemen's fund, we were just exploring the area. The rodeo turned out to be interesting entertainment.

Two teams of runners are racing to hook up firehose to see which team can knock the duck off the blue barrel.

Though not seen in these pictures, one team was soaked when someone yelled "water!" before they had screwed on the hose and water blew up all over them. It was quite a job to get their line hooked up-needless to say, that team lost and was pretty cold. Later on, there was a bucket brigade and some kind of firemen polo.

We walked around town looking at the interesting old architecture. One square block of the town is on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery was high on a hill that we climbed for a view of the town and countryside all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

First house in Ferndale

We drove out to a bluff to see the 9 miles of beach and surf. Trumpeter swans spend time in the marshes along the road but we didn't see any this time of year. Beautiful dairy and sheep farms along the country roads.This view is looking inland to the farming country.

The next stop was in Loleta, another small town where there was a cheese factory. The owner was a former teacher now dairy farmer milking 700 head of cattle a day spread over several farms. He had many interesting things to explain about milking, cheese making and the economy. He and Sonny hit it right off talking politics. I learned about cow anatomy and we both tasted many cheese choices.

Stopped for gas before getting back to the campsite.  Diesel was $4.45 a gal-$130 to fill the truck.  Even so, we think we are still about even traveling with a trailer as opposed to hotels and restaurants every day.

Monday was a 280 mile travel day continuing along Rt 101 through the redwoods.  We didn't go on the Avenue of the Giants for fear that the road would be too narrow. There were many signs about "30' king pins" that we didn't understand till later. We have watched scary videos of people driving under bridges that rip off the air conditioners when drivers don't read the bridge height signs or just aren't paying attention or the road has been repaved but the height signs haven't been changed. So many different things to look out for different than riding motorcycles.


The sky was overcast but dry.  For many miles, it was a study in trees---sizes, shapes, limb growth and shades of green. Hard to capture in a picture.  Rt 101 was rolling hills up to 1500'; saw turkeys and vultures along the way.  Coffee break in Latonville, CA.  No Starbucks but pretty good just the same. A few miles north of San Fransisco, we turned on Rt 37 heading East to the Sacramento Delta region to camp.  Huge windmill farm nearby.  We had planned to connect with our San Jose friends here, but we will now move from here tomorrow to Morgan Hill, much closer to San Jose.  I could see the stars from my bed last night. Sunshine blinded me this morning when I stepped outside and it is 66*....loving the warm, dry weather.

Hard to see the many shades of green

Pretty straight and tall

Windmill farm near Rio Vista, CA

We stayed here 2 nights

Yesterday was a travel day.  We drove about 250 miles from Chinook, WA to Coos Bay, Oregon along 101 to Midway RV park. We were lucky to get the last pull through site.  Most of the other sites are actually residents.  One motorhome has the newspaper holder bolted to the side of his motorhome.  As usual, we are the smallest rig here.  This morning, after talking to the camp host about interesting sights to see, we head South to Shore Acres State Park.  Asa Mead Simpson from Brunswick, Maine (our home state) bought 320 acres along the coast during the Gold Rush to build a huge summer cottage-17 bedrooms with attached baths.  He had traveled West from Maine for the California gold rush but decided the real money was in selling supplies to miners.  He built lumber mills all over Oregon and into Washington.  Simpson Lumber Corporation owned the land behind our weekend cabin in Hoodsport, WA.  The views of the surf from the observation deck were spectacular!

Surf at Shore Acres

We walked for a couple miles along the Pacific Beach trail to Simpson Reef.  We stopped at this beach to watch the amazing surf on the rocks.

Surf at the Beach

Rock Formations along the coast

At Simpson Reef, we could almost see the Sea Lions but since we left the binoculars at home, we weren't quite sure they were sea lions or elephant seals.  Again, the surf was impressive.

We circled back on the trail to the 100 + year old  Shore Acres garden. A few heathers were in bloom plus a few daffodils.  Other times of the year, it is possible to see 8000 tulips, hundreds of rhododendrons and azelas, 800 rose bushes, 250 dahlias and 300,000 LED lights between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. We continued South in the truck to Cape Arago where the wind was blowing at least 30 knots.  It was a quick stop!

Coastal Surf



Lobster on the pier???



There are 5 sea lions on the beach beneath the largest rock

Back in Coos Bay, we walked along the Board Walk looking at sea tugs and the waterfront when we spotted this lobster. Never seen one climbing the pier!

In the late afternoon, the sun looked like it would shine for a pretty sunset after the afternoon rain storm.  We had been to Big 5 to purchase binaculars since ours were at home.  We drove back out to the Simpson Reef to look at the sea lions and to view the pretty sunset before heading back to our rig for a fresh crab dinner.

Beautiful sunset

Surf at the  beach



Sonny by the fountain at Shore Acres Gardens