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!