Public Art at Wallenberg Park
Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch
Now part of the Santa Clara County Parks, this 20 acre San Jose, California ranch was once part of the nearly 10,000 acre Rancho Santa Teresa. It was run by Bernal and his descendants continuously from 1834, when this was still Mexico, until 1980.
It was purchased by IBM and then traded as part of a deal so that IBM could build a research lab up in the Santa Teresa hills of San Jose that had belonged to the Santa Clara County Parks.
Rock Art
I think it is fantastic that someone would take the time and resources to make art on the street. This isn’t even the front of this house. Someone placed this rock art along the street at the side of their house that sits on a corner lot. A simple thing perhaps, perhaps not, that adds beauty and interest to the lives of those who pass by. I found this place by accident wondering around a neighborhood. I am inspired.
Tractor
Happy Hollow Park & Zoo
That’s Danny the Dragon. The most famous member of Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.
The playground here is awesome. It would have been my favorite when I was growing up. I definitely spent many happy hours at Happy Hollow exploring as a kid but this playground is new since the recent renovation. My kids love it. Well, they love the whole park. If I just follow them around they can spend the entire day here happily… which is what we did on our most recent visit.
They still put on daily puppet shows! With actual puppets. They even do scenery changes during the plays. I took these plays for granted growing up and I am grateful that kids today will continue to have the same opportunity to see this kind of creativity and performance as a normal thing. They can, perhaps like myself, find the time to reflect and be grateful for places and experiences like these when they are older.
Danny the Dragon is an original member of the park from 1961 and was designed and built by the same bay area guys who built most of the famous rides you will think of when you think of Disneyland, among other theme parks. If you look close you can see that Danny the Dragon does not have tracks on the ground to roll on. One of several innovations at the time, Danny the Dragon drives himself by following the invisible electro-magnetic field pulsing along a wire buried underground in the concrete. You can look up more about Arrow Development on the internet but some of their other famous rides from the first years of Disneyland include Dumbo, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Autopia, Matterhorn, It’s a Small World, and Pirates of the Caribbean. They did many rides for other places around the country including several local attractions like Great America in Santa Clara, Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, and the Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. One ride they made for Alum Rock Park in San Jose, years before Happy Hollow existed, was a merry go round. That same merry go round later moved to join Danny the Dragon at Happy Hollow Park where you can ride it today.
This beautiful bridge takes you to and from the Happy Hollow entrance over the Coyote Creek.
The renovations added lots of cool features, some subtle, many obvious, and many having to do with preservation and careful use of resources. The walk way above is an example of a pretty use of recycled materials. Something else I appreciate about this park is the incredible number of trees. It really is an impressive place for children to explore and adults to appreciate.
Yellow Flower in West San Jose
Emma Prusch Farm Park
An animal petting area, playground, animal barn, park, garden, exotic fruit trees… and always free! What more could you ask for. Emma Prusch donated her farm to the city in 1962 to teach future generations about farm life. Thanks to the City of San Jose and the non-profit organization dedicated to this farm site, the park remains open daily and free to all while it continues to teach and provide for the community with activities, food, events, and countless field trips. Special places like these add so much to the richness of our neighborhoods and lives.
Chuck E. Cheese smiling on Highway 101
A familiar site in San Jose is Chuck E. Cheese smiling at those driving by on highway 101.
Nolan Bushnell started Atari in 1972, making video games with a partner in the bay area. In 1977 he opened the first Chuck E. Cheese in what is now the Santana Row shopping center in San Jose. The second opened on Blossom Hill in San Jose and the third was this huge and locally famous one off of 101. Since then this giant Chuck E. Cheese has been smiling at us all as we have driven by. Before the giant smiling rat, this large restaurant and video game arcade building had once been a toy store with giant toy soldiers facing the highway. The location realized its great potential, however, when it opened up as a two story Chuck E. Cheese restaurant with seemingly hidden worlds and passageways for kids to discover between playing what appeared to be infinite video games, structures to climb in, time for loosing and finding staircases again and the miniature Chuck E. Cheese apartment that kids could crawl through. Then, of course, there were the animatronic stage shows. The place was mind blowing for a kid.
It has changed quite a bit in the decades since it oppened. The animatronics and stage are gone; replaced with a wall projecting a video of Chuck E. Cheese. The miniature apartment is no longer there. Well, if it is, it’s not open to the public. The play structures are gone. There is still food, plenty of space, and a whole lot of video games; more games than even there were when the place first opened. You could say Chuck E. Cheese accomplished its mission. Nolan Bushnell conceived of and opened the business as a way to make video games accessible to families and ultimately, to build video game customers. At the time, when video games were just starting out and Atari was just building its fame, video games were found in pool halls and bars where future customers, kids, were not able to get to them. Nolan wanted to mix a family restaurant with a little Disneyland together as a backdrop to providing video games to future generations. The model was copied often and expanded far and wide, spreading the connections of kids and video games.
The first video game I ever really really wanted to own was Super Mario Brothers. I had played Mario Brothers in the local pizza shop and suddenly found out that I could actually own it and bring it home. Yes, I think Nolan’s plan worked.
Mural in Discovery Meadow
Mosaic on 2nd Street
