Santa Clara and San Jose, California

The ride to Santa Clara was a stressful drive as the road climb steeply up the Santa Cruz mountains and then steeply back down in heavy traffic.  The van does not handle or ride so well on rough roads at speed, in spite of the expensive front shock absorbers that were installed a month ago.  My GPS unit was also not helping by giving me confusing signals in a couple of congested places directing me to stay left when the road actually was going right, or it could be that I was confused, that happens frquently.   My GPS also seems to get lost once in a while as the roads have changed since the last update.

I made an unscheduled stop in the town of Castroville, the Artichoke Center of the World which I remember well from my last time in California when we camped in this area.  I took the same photos downtown again, remember them well, but sadly things seem more run down than before in Castroville.  As I was walking by street arch, a woman sitting in front of the antique store started a conversation with me.  She said they aren’t maintaining the arch anymore, it doesn’t even light up at night like it once did and they have even stopped holding the annual Artichoke Festival.  She said they, meaning the present town politicos, just don’t care anymore. How can this be, the surrounding fields are still filled with artichokes, it’s about the only reason to go to Castroville?

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castroville,_California

The famous Castroville street arch

Also famous for Norma Jean aka Marilyn Monroe who was
the honorary Artichoke queen in 1947

Fading mural on building

Trolley car grille is really an old trolley

Anyhow, I arrived in Santa Clara safely but found it a strange looking town arriving at the motel as the businesses were mostly Asian and Indian looking.  The Quality Inn was fine although the parking was a little tight.  The room was great except the people above me were a little loud and it seemed as if there wasn’t much insulation in the ceiling.  Also some one was tapping on my door at about 3 AM, I thought it was next door actually, but in the morning there was a note left.  They were looking for someone and hoping that person was still there, very odd at 3 AM ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara,_California

I pigged out on the free continental breakfast and stayed in the room until check out time, then headed out to explore.  My first stop was the nearby Mission Santa Clara de Asis located in the Santa Clara University.  It was built in 1777 and destroyed and rebuilt several times, but looks perfect now.  It seems that the church wisely decided to turn the mission into a school which eventually morphed into todays University.  As a result it has been protected and currently maintained  very well.  The university grounds and buildings are equally beautiful, just immaculate, this is a nice campus !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Santa_Clara_de_As%C3%ADs

The Mission is immaculate in every way

Had to get the flowers in the shot

The Mission interior

Lots of artwork

Another adjacent University building

Afterwards I searched for other nearby attractions and found the Santa Clara Train Depot which has been turned into a train museum, but closed on Sunday.  This Depot is a vibrant stop on the CalTrans mass transit rail and bus line.  Also a short distance away is the Triton Art Museum, which wasn’t much to see actually, a very impressive building, but the exhibits were not so good.  Across the street was a very unusual tall tower in front of City Hall with a painted face on top, kind of odd ?

The old Train Depot is now a train museum

The new rail station is a modern transit hub

Ethel dedicated her life to planting Redwood Trees all over town

Museum entrance was a work of art

I just didn't understand this exhibit

But liked this one

This is in front of the Santa Clara City Hall

I then set off the find the historic Hoover Theater which seems to be used as a school now.  Across the street was the most interesting Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.  I went inside where they had great exhibits with very rare Egyptian  burial artifacts and  information about this period of time. The grounds around the museum were a bit mysterious, there was a peace garden and several monuments to important leaders who it seems to have been leaders of this organization (cult) who have assembled this museum, all explained in the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucian_Egyptian_Museum

Not sure how the net zero carbon involves the Egyptian Museum

Lots of beautiful sculptures on the grounds

Seem to be guarding the front entrance

This museum has the largest collection in the western US

Everything was displayed to perfection

The historic Hoover Theater

These appear to be Morning Glories, perfectly blue ones

After the love garden and the Egyptian burial and mummy antiquities I need to regain my mental balance so I drive into this decadent looking area.  There was a really good antique store but they were about to close.  Across the street was a bar with a great name, "The Bears" with an interesting sign which drew me.  It was a dive bar in the truest sense of the word, but mainly just a decent neighborhood bar with a good hike box and pool tables.  This area is somewhere between Santa Clara and San Jose which seems to overlap one another.

The Bears Cocktail Lounge where the $3 PBR was ice cold

Actually a beautiful old bar

I continued on to the Santana Row area of San Jose which is the new hot downtown shopping and dining area.  It was crowded with people, there was a small park with a band playing surrounded by several restaurants.  I sat and listened to the band for a while, they were basically blues, contemplated an ice cream, but the line was insanely long.  Instead I stopped at a nearby grocery, bought a small container of ice cream, mixed in my fresh strawberries and had a real strawberry sundae.

They have made a former street into a pedestrian mall

A mostly upscale mall

The band was good

I camped for the night a few blocks way out on a nearby street near another RV doing the same thing, it was fine.  I moved quickly in the morning across the street, not good to hang out in one area too long, into a shopping center parking lot and did my usual breakfast cereal and fruit thing.

I debated what to do, ultimately deciding to go tour the big attraction in San Jose, the Winchester House, which is very weird and amazing story. The house was built by Sarah Winchester who inherited a fortune after her husband, William Winchester of Winchester firearms fame died.  The story of how this came to be is another story of someone with more money than common sense.  The house from the outside is really beautiful and impressive as is the original portion of the house.  The other 100 + added  rooms on different levels, with fake doors and weird stairways to confuse the evil spirts who were after Mrs Winchester were just crazy !  There was a movie based on this house that could be purchased in the gift shop.  Portions of the house were severely damaged in an earthquake and were left that way.  Overall this is a very sad story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

This front section of the Mansion is beautiful

View from an upstairs window

The eccentric Sarah Winchester

She was well educated 

The man on the far right is one of the ghosts who
is reported to inhabit the house

 I am now really tired of this area, don’t like it much and am ready to head inland away from the crowds.  After much deliberation, I decide to head for the town of Modesto, California.