Traveling around in #SanJose and #NearbyToSanJose at 825 mph on our spinning planet.
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These amazing works are part of the Surreal Sublime exhibit comprised of surrealistic landscapes on display at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art on 1st street. These particular pieces photographed above are ink on paper by Justin Lovato.
San Jose’s first city park, it is also the first municipal park in California. Alum Rock Park was founded in 1872 and is 720 acres large. It reminds me of a county park in that it is so large with so many trails and has a visitor center. It also has a Youth Science Institute that opened in 1953 and continues to offer programs for school aged children.
This place used to be a nationally known destination as people would come to soak in the mineral baths for what they believed to be its curative properties. Most of the natural mineral springs have dried up to a trickle or completely. The park stresses nature now so many of the old structures are gone such as the restaurant, mineral baths, and indoor public swimming pool with a two story pool slide. The old stone bridges remain, as do some of the other stone structures and train supports. With train service gone for many years now, the people of San Jose could at one time get on a train in downtown and come to Alum Rock Park to enjoy what was essentially a resort.
When it was realized that over use of the land was causing damage, the decision was made to return the area to a more natural state for people to enjoy. And so, today, it is a great mix of interesting history, stone structures, barbecue gatherings, kids in playgrounds, people, and the nature of the canyon along the Penitencia Creek that make up Alum Rock Park.
Yes, the food is good at A Bite of Wyoming. The green salsa in the squeeze bottles is also excellent. But for me, it is the memory of eating here with my Nana and Tata as a kid that makes it so wonderful. I take pictures for this blog in an attempt to capture some of the beauty that is everywhere here in San Jose and the surrounding area. But some of the beauty found anywehere by people comes from the memories that have aged well and continue to be appreciated. This restaurant represents some of those memories for me. It is also pretty neat to show my children their first jackelope, the very same that was my first jackelope, as they sit in a booth I sat in when I was their ages.
Wow. That was all 28 Santa Clara County Parks. That was a great adventure for us. We saw so much wildlife, so many reservoirs supporting our drinking water, played and explored in some of our favorite places, found new places, and learned much. In fact, I continue to learn as I research the parks we visited and things we read, saw, or heard from park rangers and other visitors.
Visiting them all, one after the other, was an arbitrary challenge I came up with… And it turned out wonderfully… And it became a sweet and memorable family experience.
