It's Easter weekend, which I was completely unaware of until someone at work told me to explain how damn busy we were. Since my place of work only closes on Christmas, we're going to be busy as heck on Sunday. (I work that day. Of course I work that day.) I don't blame the guests, of course. When someone has time off and people visiting from out of town in San Jose, the first place they think of going is the Winchester Mystery House. When you're visiting San Jose, you do that and the Tech Museum and maybe Great America, and then you drive up to San Francisco. Our tourism industry in this city is a joke, to be honest.
But it's my spring break, too, and I'm too poor to travel up to San Francisco. There are other things to do in San Jose, and in the spirit of... much better bloggers than me, I'm gonna do a top ten list! But because I'm shit at thinking of the order of things, it's in alphabetical order. Enjoy! And do consider taking your out-of-town friends/family to one of these places.
1. Ainsley House
Okay, I admit Campbell is not technically in San Jose, it's more a suburb of San Jose I think? But fuck it, it's a five minute drive from my work and if you're into historic architecture, this is way worth seeing. Like the more well-known Winchester House, Ainsley House is a historic mansion on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in the 1920s in the Tudor Revival style, so it looks like something out of 16th Century England filtered through a Roarin' Twenties lens. Or, more simply put, it's gorgeous!
Ainsley House was the third house of the wealthy local John Colpitts Ainsley - who made his fortune through canning - and his wife, Alcinda. The large house remained in the family after their deaths in the late thirties, but with the exception of occasional social events over the years, the house was pretty much vacant for decades. The Ainsley family donated the house, its original furnishings, and the carriage house to the City of Campbell in 1989, where it soon became a museum open to the public.
Even though it's right down the street from Downtown Campbell, it's never really crowded here (probably due to their limited hours - if you decide to visit, check ahead of time to make sure they're open!) - when I visited, I was the only person on my tour, which I loved because it allowed me to spend as much time as I wanted in the rooms. And photos are allowed inside, which is something my work does not allow. All in all, the house is very pretty and I think it's worth visiting if one is into that sort of thing.
2. Downtown Campbell
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| Creative Commons, Photo by Michael Patrick on Flickr |
I haven't been to Downtown Campbell in a long time, and I plan to go sometime this week because I do really like it a lot. Oh, and on Sundays they have a fabulous farmer's market that spans the entire downtown area.
3. Downtown Willow Glen (and La Villa!)
Like Downtown Campbell, this one is also a little boutique-y shopping district, there are quite a few of those in and around San Jose. This one is one of the cutest. There are quite a few clothing boutiques if that’s your thing, but it’s never really been mine. If I wanted to shop for overpriced clothes, I’d go to a mall. (And I abhor malls). What makes San Jose’s shopping districts like Downtown Willow Glen special are the stores that you can’t find at your local mall. (Or at least none of the malls around here, anyway.) It's great fun to poke into all the specialty stores!
Off the top of my head there are four antique stores, two candy stores, a very unique children's bookstore, a "dog boutique", a metaphysical/new age store that promises to bring "balance, healing, love and light" into your home with the power of crystals and incense, a Petroglyph to paint your own pottery, and a candle-making shop to make your own candles. Oh, and there are so many restaurants!
Special mention has to go to La Villa though. It looks more like a crowded Italian grocery store when you step in than an actual restaurant, but they are well-known in San Jose for their raviolis. I shit you not, these are the greatest raviolis you will ever taste, they're like sinking your teeth into little pillows of heaven. I have a lot of really great memories connected with this place because Sarah and I have gone here together for those ravs so many times, but even if I didn't have those memories I'd still go back just for a taste!
4. Kelley Park
Kelley Park is actually three parks in one. There's Happy Hollow, which is for small kiddos and thus something I will not focus on. There's the Japanese Friendship Garden, a monument to San Jose's sister city relationship with Okayama in Japan, done up like a traditional Japanese garden. And my personal favourite section, History Park, an "open air museum" consisting of a bunch of historic old San Jose houses and buildings (they've even got a trolley!) laid out like a historic town.
The Japanese Friendship Garden is a very peaceful experience to walk through, and if you're into the Japanese gardens it's a pretty big one. It's beautiful there. They have a very large koi pond and you can feed the koi, which are also very large. Last time I visited there was an all-white iridescent one which let me pet it. There's also a tea house which has never been open when I've visited, but the architecture itself is pretty. The bridges over the water near the tea house are not straight because in Japanese folklore any evil spirits that might be following you will only be able to traverse in straight lines, so by crossing the bridges you can make them fall off into the water and drown. There's also a moon bridge and a couple rocks with haiku written on them hidden throughout the park.
History Park, as I said (and as the photo shows) is a bunch of old historic buildings. Mostly it's old houses that have been moved here to preserve historic architecture instead of being torn down by the redevelopment of this city. Every one of the old houses has a little museum in it, there's a few heritage museums (Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, the one above is Vietnamese) which showcase cultures who live in San Jose over time. There's an old Bank of Italy (the bank that eventually became Bank of America, some more fascinating local history). There's even an old electricity tower that used to stand downtown and a historic trolley that runs through the park on weekends! The Pacific Hotel - the park's oldest structure, dating back to the gold rush - has a restaurant in it done up in Edwardian fashion which serves delightfully creamy milkshakes, too.
5. Moveable Feast
I couldn't find any decent photos of this one, but it's basically a league of food trucks that park in certain areas of the cities on certain days of the week. On Fridays they're usually near the Curtner lightrail station. Noooot a lot to say, I just think food trucks are neat because sometimes you get really neat foods (like Chinese/Southern soul food fusion) that you wouldn't normally find anywhere else...
6. Municipal Rose Garden
Coming here is like stepping into the Queen's garden in Wonderland. It's so many roses! Now admittedly if you're not into flowers, this one probably won't be your thing. And it's really only worth going when it's not the dead of winter when all the flowers are dormant. But if you want to explore a beautiful garden with hundreds of varieties of roses (I'm not exaggerating, the garden itself lists over 300 varieties last I checked) and it's not the middle of January, then hell yes come here. The gardeners take really good care of the place, and all the roses smell fantastic.
The garden allows you to picnic there, and it's right down the street from the Rosicrucian (the next entry on this list), so I'd recommend coming in the mid-morning with a picnic. All the flowers leave countless opportunities for photography. And maybe this is just me, but I get a particular amount of joy wandering around and reading the name plaques for different varieties of roses. Some of them are simple and sweet names, but sometimes people get really creative with what they call their varieties of roses! I've seen names that are references to fast food and to horror movies on previous visits.
7. Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
The museum is located in a block-sized park owned by the Rosicrucian Society – a not-so-secret secret society that (somewhat dubiously) traces their lineage from Pharaoh Akenaten and the Amarna period of Ancient Egyptian history. Whether or not you buy into the society’s claims of spiritual enlightenment, the Rosicrucian Park and Museum are definitely peaceful places to go knock out a day, especially if you’re into ancient history or mythology.
In addition to the museum itself – which has one of the largest Egyptian collections outside of Egypt – the park also contains the “Egyptian Peace Garden” (a modern day replica of an Ancient Egyptian Garden, complete with plants the Egyptians actually had – California’s Mediterranean climate is ideal for this, even if our drought isn’t), a research library, a giant sized Senet board (Senet is an Ancient Egyptian board game), statues and shrines, a planetarium built in the Islamic Moorish architectural style, and even a labyrinth! It’s a really peaceful grounds to walk around, so much so that modern San Jose almost seems out of place when compared to the Egyptian architecture that surrounds you.
But the Rosicrucian is more than just a collection of ancient Egyptian treasures. It’s a bizarre experience, a museum filtered through the lens of a not-so-secret society, a trip back in time. I fell in love with it the moment I first laid eyes on its pseudo-Egyptian architecture, and I am going to miss the hell out of it. Though... I’d skip the planetarium show here. It’s not that great, it deals more with the Rosicrucian society’s view of a certain myth than with actual astronomy. The museum itself more than makes up for it though, so I’d definitely check it out, even if you don’t have a lot of time in San Jose!
8. San Jose Museum of Art
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| Creative Commons, photo by flickr user Don DeBold |
It's a modern art museum! Now I admit I don't always understand modern art, but it's very thought provoking, and I've met the curator here, she is very nice. The exhibits are constantly changing, too. Last time I went there was a very chilling exhibit about living in the age of digital surveillance, but they've also had a very fun exhibit that was robot themed, and one that was Greek mythology themed with an 80s-style arcade machine as part of it! (It... it made sense in context.) So it's worth coming not just once, but multiple times, because it's a different experience every time.
9. San Pedro Square Market
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| Creative Commons, photo by flickr user matt_bruensteiner |
In all seriousness, it's a very hipster version of a food court, in that it's a couple common eating areas (two indoor, one outdoors next to an old Spanish colonial adobe house) surrounded by multiple restaurant options (and one old-school barbershop for some reason?) But you're not gonna find, like, Starbucks or Panda Express or anything like that. It's all independently-owned places. The pho place, Pho-Nomenal, more than lives up to its name. I also really like the baked potato bar which has huge potatoes with unique toppings - the Indian one with curry and paneer is my favourite. There are other places too, whether you want coffee, beer, steak, artisanal pizzas, high-end Mexican food, falafel, oysters, or poutine. It's all served in a hipster atmosphere that would feel very at home in Brooklyn or Portland. And they have trivia nights sometimes! So if you're with a group of friends downtown who all want something different to eat, this is by far your best bet.
10. St. Joseph's Cathedral
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| Creative Commons, photo by flickr user David Yu |
I don't really have a lot to say about it. It's just a very large, ornate, beautiful old building.
Honourable mentions: Oak Hill Cemetery, Hayes Mansion, Mission Santa Clara, Downtown Los Gatos, Vasona Park, Santana Row, Bernal Ranch, Almaden Quicksilver Mines, James Lick Observatory, Hakone Gardens, Cafe Stritch, Cafe Frascati, Good Karma, Psycho Donuts/Camera 3 Theatre, Hotel De Anza.
I hope I've inspired someone out there to want to visit at least one of these places.
-Nym-
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