Tag: Thing

Thing

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The 2 Spot

Vasona County Park

Not far from San Jose in Vasona County Park, there is this special train, “The 2 Spot.” This steam powered train was built in 1905. Yeah, over 100 years ago. Number 2, a one third scale steam train, began running in Venice Beach, California. After several years of service, it eventually found itself in a junk yard where local railroad worker Billy Jones found it in San Francisco bound for a scrap yard in 1939. He purchased it, restored it, and ran it for free for children to ride on Sundays around his Los Gatos farm for the rest of his life.

After his passing in 1968, friends and neighbors created a non profit to move it and keep it going at nearby Vasona Park where it continues to run today. It is pretty cool to ride this train and kids love it. The attraction to the tracks is great and so there are now five trains working to help spread the work load. Number 2 comes out mostly on weekends during the summer months. All of the trains are interesting so it is a treat to see and ride any of the four that are there to pull visitors for only $3 a ride.

I like to get excited about all of the trains but find it especially exciting to ride number 2, this bit of history from 1905 that has carried children and adults for decades. I love when it chugs hard to move up the gradient of the park. Walt Disney heard of this train and visited Billy Jones before Disneyland was a reality. They became friends. The logo, still used today, for the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad was designed by a Disney animator. Billy himself was there at the opening of Disneyland to run their train on July of 1955.

It’s a special ride, for sure.

Vasona County Park
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Friendly Plaza, Monterey

Monterey, Ca
Property entrance built in 1832 across the street from Friendly Plaza.

Monterey is a little over an hour by car and well worth the drive, which is itself a pleasure. For those interested in San Jose history, it is impossible not to get excited about several of our nearby cities that are as wound up in the history of California.

Monterey is one of those important cities in our California history. Like San Jose, this is a city that one could spend a lifetime visiting, learning about, and photographing with great satisfaction.

Monterey, Ca
Colton Hall.

Pictured above is Colton Hall in the Friendly Plaza. In this building the California Constitution was written in 1849. It stated that San Jose would be the state capitol, was written in English and Spanish as a bilingual constitution, and led to California becaming the 31st state in 1850.

Monterey, Ca
Moon Tree in Friendly Plaza.

500 seeds comprising four species of trees were sent in orbit around the moon with Apollo 14 in 1971. When they returned, some of what became known as Moon Trees were planted alongside similar trees for research, some were given to states or countries as gifts. In 1976, many were given to cities and states with appropriate climates for the various tree seedlings in order to celebrate the bicentennial of the USA. The Moon Tree pictured above is one of these 1976 trees. In the bay area, the nearest two Moon Trees are in Monterey and in Berkeley. For comparison of two very different earth species, the human species woman visiting the Monterey Moon Tree in the photo above was born in 1976 when the Coast Redwood species Moon Tree next to her was planted.

Monterey, Ca
Bear statue in Friendly Plaza.

One interesting thing about bronze statues is that you can always tell where people are drawn to touch them most by the clearing of any natural tarnishing. For this bear, it is clearly the teeth that people are drawn to touch. It took my youngest child all of seconds before placing a foot in the bear’s teeth and asking me to take a picture.

Across the street from the Friendly Plaza is the Montery Museum of Art. Below are a few of the treasures located there.

Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca

Monterey and Monterey Bay are incredible locations for discovery. The factors that brought people here for thousands of years continue to influence the lives of the people and continue to draw me to learn and discover more with great appreciation.

Monterey, Ca
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Cesar Chavez Park

This is the central park of downtown San Jose, like the town square of its history. Today it hosts big events that bring us together. Well wishers and protestors have greeted presidents from here. Our annual Christmas in the Park takes place here as does a main stage for our huge annual Jazz Festival. Kids play here in the fountains on hot days. In this one place, through a year, we eat, we drink hot chocolate, we enjoy music, children singing, ride carnival rides, watch life, and so much more.

Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose
Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose
This was where one of our City Halls stood in Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

Across the street from the park, where the Fairmont hotel stands today, once stood our China Town. Also, the first Capital of California. Yes, there have been several capital cities of California. Before we were a state, Monterrey was the seat of government for California when this area was Spain, then when it was Mexico, and then when it was an independent territory. Once a state, the Capital moved to San Jose from 1849 to 1851. It had been intended that San Jose would remain the capital but due to a series of issues with land (interesting info here: https://library.ca.gov/california-history/previous-ca-capitals/#), the capital moved to a series of cities from San Jose 1949, to Vallejo 1852, to Sacramento 1852, then Benicia 1853, back to Vallejo, and then back to Sacramento. Due to flood damage in Sacramento, San Francisco was made our temporary capital for the year of 1862 before returning to Sacramento. Lots of moving around. Eventually, the capital settled in Sacramento where it resides today.

Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose
Plaque commemorating California’s first Capital building can be found in the Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
Near Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose
That, on the left, is the Fairmont building where the Capital once stood. On the right is Cesar Chavez Park where once stood the San Jose City Hall.
Near Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose

From this spot pictured above which is across the street from Cesar Chavez Park, you can spin around and see a lot of historical places. The iconic sculpture, The San Jose Museum of Art which was once our main post office, the KQED building where once stood the first radio station in the world are all pictured above. If you were to look to the right from there, beyond this photo, you would be able to see the historical locations of the first State Capital of California, one of the historic locations of San Jose City Hall, the location where once stood China Town, and so much more.

Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose
Looking north over the stage from the northern edge of the park.
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A Bite of Wyoming – a San Jose Restaurant

A Bite of Wyoming

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.

A Bite of Wyoming
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Happy Place on 4th Street

Being introduced to this place this year pleased me beyond all expectations. If I found this place anywhere in any town on any road trip, I would have been so completely proud and happy with myself. So, to be taken here, right in San Jose, on 4th street, where I had never been… well, it blew me away.

4th Street Bowl Coffee Shop
Coffee Shop at 4th Street Bowl

First, I should say that I find Diners and Coffee Shops to be one of humanity’s special places. And, I love to enjoy them, to eat, drink coffee, and basque in the humanity and time within them.

This one, right in San Jose at 4th Street Bowl, is quite special. Let me share some of the beautiful highlights about this coffee shop. Plenty of energy with customers and staff. Lots of windows. A looooong counter and a bunch of booths. A big menu. A glass door and windows that connect and look into the bowling alley. The alley is not updated. There is a cocktail lounge, a pool hall, a few video games, and of course, the coffee shop, all connected to the alley. Despite the simplicity of my words, the reality is a poetry of place and presence. It is a block of time and a splash of nostalgia whipped with distraction and covered in coffee. It is a treasure.

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Almaden Quicksilver Miner Museum

Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum

An interesting place. Also, once each summer they put on a “Play like a miner” event. Crafts, learning, gold panning for kids; its a good time to tour the museum in the historical Casa Grande mansion, as an adult or child, with so many extra activities and staff throughout the buildings and grounds. The displays and artifacts dealing with the historical mercury mining done in the area are intriguing.

Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum
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San Jose City Hall in 1900

San Jose has had several centers of government. From 1889 to 1958, the San Jose City Hall stood where today you find the water fountains in the middle of Plaza de Cesar Chavez that are popular with children on summer days.

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World’s First Radio Station- in San Jose

Many people began playing with radio waves in the early 1900’s, but one man named Charles Herrold in San Jose was the first to set up a regularly scheduled broadcast forming the first radio station.

First Radio Station in the World

Where now stands the KQED building, right between the Fairmont Hotel, Cathedral Basiilica, San Jose Museum of Art, and Cesar Chavez Park, once stood a bank building from where Charles Herrold attached his antenna and began broadcasting his weekly radio show. He may even have coined the term broadcasting, a term taken from farming, when he was “broadcasting for the people San Jose.” On the show, he, his wife, and a friend, entertained with talk, stories, contests, and the reading of the newspaper.

First Radio Station in the World

There are at least three plaques placed on the building now standing in the location of the world’s first radio station including the California State Historical Landmark plaque, the above pictured plaque commemorating 100 years, and one commemorating 50 years.

After the radio broadcasting act in 1921, Charles Herrold obtained a license and his station became radio station KQW. In an interesting circle of fate, CBS eventually purchased KQW and changed its call sign to KCBS in 1949. Then, in 2006, KCBS moved their San Jose news team into the building without at the time knowing the history of the location and how it related to the KCBS radio station’s early origins.

Here is an interesting article to read more about this history and how it came back to light: http://tech-notes.tv/History&Trivia/Radio/Who%20was%20first/San%20Jose%20Broadcast%20.htm . You can also read more about Charles Herrold on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Herrold .