Sash bark pattern on a Redwood Tree
Pacific Grove
Inside the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum, one of the many interesting things to look at is this well aged donated collection of carefully labeled sand from around the world. There is a list with the location of sand origin and the corresponding label number.
There are a lot of sand samples that this collector had gathered.
Sandy, the gray whale, was celebrating a birthday during our visit. Sandy was used for years as an educational model that could be disassembled and reassembled to spread knowledge. Today, Sandy rests permanently assembled to greet visitors of the museum.
San Jose Facts
In the 1970’s, San José was known as the “Feminist Capital of the Nation” in national publications. The first female mayor of any major US city with a population over 500,000 was San José Mayor, Janet Gray Hayes, who won office in 1974. (1) After her victory, many more women won powerful local positions. “Within two elections, eight of the 11 San Jose City Council members and three of the five Santa Clara County supervisors were women, as were the county executive and the president of San Jose State University.” (2)
Sources:
(1) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=lib_pub , 2020.
(2) https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/21/san-joses-first-female-mayor-janet-gray-hayes-has-died-at-87/ ,2020.
Santa Cruz Boardwalk
Almaden Winery – A First California Winery
The first winery in California is in San Jose. So much agricultural history is here and around here and still I was extremely surprised to learn that we had a historic winery in our city as well. The first winery…
Now, to be fair, there are several “first wineries” in California. For example, there are the first wine producing wineries created by Spanish missionaries, the first commercial wineries, the oldest and still producing winery, the oldest still producing that has continuously been producing winery, and so on. Lots of first wineries in this state and a lot of words on the internet declaring such firsts. So, where does this particular oldest winery in California fit in; the one with a plaque that you can go and visit as a city park called Almaden Winery Park here in San Jose, California?
This historic San Jose winery established in 1852 was, I gather, the first commercial winery in California to go into operation having planted French sourced grape vines that were praised for their qualities in making wine. This style of quality focused wine making in California would eventually become the norm and expand to make it a hub of some of the finest recognized wineries in the world. The missionaries who established vineyards before this in California had used a type of Spanish sourced grape vine that was known for being hearty but was not as impressive in wine making.
So there you have it. One of the several first wineries in California is right here in San Jose and you can enjoy a picnic, play on a swing, and admire some pretty old trees and structures while walking around the old property. Most of the old vineyard is now a neighborhood around the city park that centers around the wine cellar of the old Almaden Winery.
Divided Road
Tree Bud
Fresh new tree branches and future leaves starting as these red buds on this young tree.
San Jose Facts
Native people were in California for over 10,000 years. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the people that would became known as the Ohlone moved in to the bay area and San José. The Ohlone then did something few groups of people have ever done in the history of earth. They enjoyed approximately 4,500 years of peace. A peace that evidence indicates amounted to approximately 4,500 years without an epidemic, significant conflict or war, natural catastrophe, or famine. Wow, that is a long run of peace, good management, and fortune.
Source: The Ohlone Way, book by Malcom Margolin, 1978, pages 58-60.
NASA
Cactus
