After cleaning up and packing up, the four of us headed to Scotty’s
Restaurant for breakfast. The
service and food were fantastic.
Immediately upon sitting, there was coffee in our cups and water glasses
on our table. When we ordered, they even
asked how we wanted our bacon prepared…
CRISPY of course!
After finishing breakfast, we helped Kevin and Sam remove
Yosemite dirt and debris from their rental car before we parted ways. Kevin and Sam were headed to Fresno to catch
a flight back to New Jersey, and we were headed to cousin Theresa and Justin’s
place in San Jose for a few days.
We spent the afternoon relaxing on their patio, playing with
cats, enjoying grilled burgers, corn on the cob and zucchini. Later in the evening we met up with another
of Dave’s cousins, Jeremey, and wife Shuwei, in Mountain View for dinner. Initially when Dave and I heard we were going
to have “ramen,” we both instantly thought of the good old plastic packages of
cheap flavored noodles. What we found at
Shalala, was much heartier and more flavorful than those packets of plastic
from our college memories. After dinner
we enjoyed a walk up and down the streets lined with shops and restaurants.
Sunday morning, the two of us woke early for a run on the
nearby Los Gatos Creek Trail. Despite
all the hiking and climbing we have been doing, we found our runs (6 miles for
Alex and 8 miles for Dave) on flat ground to actually leave our legs feeling
tired. After returning and showering,
we enjoyed homemade waffles thanks to Justin, with an incredible amount of
topping selections… of which Alex took some of each! We took a walk to a nearby farmer’s market in
Campbell, where we all purchased some local fruits and vegetables to use over
the next week. Alex was jonesing for
some iced coffee, and after some searching, we found la PanotiQ Bakery Café, which served up
some awesome cold brew coffee.
After returning to their place, we ate some lunch before
heading off to visit some wineries. The first winery we pulled into did not last long;
we quickly decided the vibe from the place was very much not what we
wanted. Without being a member, you
could not enjoy their supposedly beautiful grounds, but instead had to remain
in a nearly windowless tasting room. We
left their parking lot full of fancy cars and headed just up the road to the Burrell School Winery. The employees here were very friendly and we
enjoyed our tasting sitting on a porch overlooking their vineyard.
Our final stop for the day was the Winchester Mystery House,
a 160 room mansion formerly owned by Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester
Repeating Arms Company. The house is an astounding maze of rooms, staircases,
and oddities. For example, there is a
stairway that goes nowhere, ending at a ceiling, and a door that opens to the
outside with nothing but a fall if you stepped through it. 38 years of 24-hour per day construction,
funded by Mrs. Winchester’s fortune, ended only after her death. It is
believed that Mrs. Winchester continued this construction in order to keep on
the good side of the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Though the advertising, gift shop, and
entrance to the house see very much a tourist trap, once inside the house and
on the guided tour of the grounds, it is a very interesting.
Monday was a welcomed, lazy day. Dave did some school work, we played with cats, we ran some
errands, and made chocolate truffles with Theresa. There are no pictures of the truffles... because we ate them all. There is, however, a picture of the awesome salad we made. "YAY!" for finally eating "real food" on a regular basis again!
Tuesday, we visited the San Jose Municipal Rose Gardens and Japanese Friendship Garden.
