A California Farmers Market and a Mysterious Mansion

DAY 2

One of the things I wanted to do while I was here was go to a farmers market. I wanted to have a fresh, ripe orange. We decided to take the light rail there only to realize later we had gotten on the wrong train.

Since there wasn't much time we went back downtown and drove their car instead.

Eventually we arrived at the farmers market in nearby Campbell.

I was a little jealous of all the things available that we couldn't buy.

Well, it's 30 degrees back home and they pay five times as much for their homes.

I also loved that most of the vendors had samples of their fruits. I had wanted strawberries, but after trying most of them out none of them seemed ripe or sweet enough.

I was kind of surprised to see no permanent farmers markets. Instead they just throw up some canopies and close the main street.

I decided to pick up some delicious dates to snack on all week.

We hadn't eaten breakfast because we planned to go to the farmers market right away. Luckily there were samples to eat, but we were still hungry. Scott and I got some naan wraps. It was cool to watch the naan being made.

Best naan ever.

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon. We stopped to get groceries on the way home first. I can't believe how high food prices are here. Scott and Katrina made cheesecake while Scratchy thought she'd take a nap on my belly.

Katie and Dennis made us an awesome dinner of steak in chimichurri sauce on a bed of spinach with gaucamole. And cheesecake for dessert.

Well, I helped make the cheesecake, but my sister did most of the work.

Then we watched Skyfall before going to bed. I fell asleep halfway through so I have no idea if it was good or not.

It was good, but borrowed too much from the recent Batman flicks.

DAY 3

Baby has been giving me motion sickness lately. Not fun.

Katrina and Dennis had to work today, so Scott and I wandered around San Jose.

I love all the bungalows and craftsman around here.

Japantown was my favorite area from my last visit, so we headed in that direction.

I was disappointed to see this empty lot still here.

Katrina had mentioned the day before of a haunted mansion that gave tours (nope that was me). We thought we would check it out.

We were heading the wrong direction. It was 4 miles behind us so we turned around. 

I like looking at houses, so I was fine meandering through the residential streets. I wish we had bikes though to make the trip quicker.

I have one of these plants at home, but I've never seen it flower like this one.

I'm pretty jealous that most people had an orange or lemon tree or both growing in their yards. 

We decided we needed to get sunscreen and stopped at a Trader Joe's. The cashier said it was "cold" outside.

It was at least 70 degrees.

Since we were around a lot of chains I suggested In-n-Out for lunch. I had heard of this place a lot in the last few years and wanted to try it out while we were here. We found one nearby on our phone, but realized a mile into we were going the wrong direction and had to turn around.

 

San Jose is a sprawling city with a small urban core. Some areas are not that fun to walk around with an empty stomach.

We were both starting to GET hangry at this point and Scott said, "This better be the best burger I ever had". 

It was cute and cheap.

And of course it was like every other fast food place in the world. Although I will admit Culver's is better.

Come on Californians! In-n-out is average at best.

I hadn't done this much walking in a long time and my feet, and for some reason my butt, were starting to hurt so we decided to take the bus the rest of the way to the mansion.

Of course the transit system here sucks and they don't do transfers so we took the bus as close as we could and walked the rest of the way.

Our bus system is better, but at least they have more rail lines. A few days later I realized that you can transfer with a Clipper Card, which works throughout the Bay Area. I'd highly recommend it.

The Winchester Mystery House was a lot cooler looking and bigger in person. We thought we would try out the tour. 

Unfortunately the tickets were $33 a person. That didn't even include the basement and gardens. That was a separate tour in itself.  I just couldn't get myself to spend $60 even though we really wanted to go. 

We're really cheap and prefer meandering walks to expensive attractions.

We walked around the gift shop debating on going for awhile until we talked ourselves out of it. We decided if we didn't spend much in San Fran we'd go later in the week.

Next door were these awesome movie theaters. 

Across the street was Santana Row.

It's kind of like the West End in St. Louis Park, but a lot glitzier and more successful at this point. When you walk out of the new urbanist development, you're plopped next to a mall.

Once we got back we took a short nap until they returned from work. Then they made us another awesome dinner of chicken wrapped in bacon with a mushroom sauce and asparagus on the side.

We hung out for awhile and then headed to bed early as we had a train to catch to San Francisco in the morning.