San Francisco and Sausalito

We went back to San Francisco today to take the trip to Alcatraz.  We got there at 10:30 and they had already sold out for the day. So, we went to Ghirardelli Chocolates, bought some candy and had a latte.
We then went down to the National Park pier and using our senior pass, got in free.  We toured the Balcluth, an 1886 square rigger and the Eureka, an 1890 ferry.  We saw, but did not board the tugboat Hercules and a 1914 tug called the Eppleton Hall.  The Balchuta was all redone and it was quite a tour.  We visited all 4 decks. We decided to ride a cable car, but at $12.00 for a round trip up a mile and back, we decided to spend the money on lunch.  I'm told that the cable cars are only ridden by tourists. We went to Hooters for lunch, drove across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito and then headed home.

Deb at Ghirardelli's

Chocolate & Chocolate Sea Salt Hot Chocolate

The Balclutha

Captain Vince at the helm

                                                                                 

Cable Cars

First Mate Debbie

The Golden Gate in the fog

Our trip acrossed

                                                                                 

Main Street in Sausalito

The view of the bay from Sausalito

                                                                                      
                                                                               

                                                                                       

The San Jose History Park inside Kelley Park, San Jose, CA.

San Jose has taken 27 buildings from the area and brought them together in a wonderful history park.  They also have a trolley service to bring you to and from the parking lots.  The trolley we rode was # 143 that was built in 1923 and totally restored in 2005.  Some of the buildings we toured were O'Briens candy store, the gas station, The Umbarger, Paulson, and Pansetta houses, the Print shop, the trolley house,  the City Store, and the gardens.

Kelley Park

Our trolley to the History Park

Gas Delivery Truck

Print Shop and Gas Station

Deb in O'Briens Candy and Ice Cream Shop

The Chinese American Museum

                                                  

A Horse Drawn Trolley

A San Jose Trolley

                       


                         

Empire Fire Station

Banco D' Italia

The Pacific Hotel



 

Portugese Museum

  




                                                                                                             

Los Gatos, California and the Intel Museum

We went to the upper crusty town of Los Gatos today.  Those high paid executives from Silicon Valley must all live here, as everything in this town of 30,000 is upscale and expensive.  In Los Gatos, the poor folk have to shop at Williams-Sonoma and those type of stores.  They have no mall.  How dare Wal-Mart or Target even think about coming to Los Gatos!  No McDonald's or Burger King.  They want to keep the stores in downtown full, and it is working. There are two car dealers in town, they sell Bugatti, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lotus and Lamborghini.  The poor folk buy down the street at Mercedes.  They do have a vibrant town with great restaurants, nice shops, boutiques, bakeries, salons and spas.  Deb bought a few things at Sur la Table, a kitchen store, and with the money we had left we ate a nice lunch at the PurpleOnion. Even the dogs do well here.  Most stores have a bowl of water or water with ice out in front and the restaurants have large dog biscuits set inside the door, and they are free.
We then went to the Intel Museum in Sunnyvale to see how computer chips were invented and how they continue to improve them.  We went past Yahoo, Intuit, Oracle, Citrix and lots of huge corporations.

Downtown Los Gatos

The PurpleOnion

                                                                          

Auto Dealer

Deb at the Intel entrance

Deb at an Intel workstation

Deb in her Clean Room Suit

                                                                                   

Deb using the touch screen wall

Me in my Clean Room Suit

Some guy who visited here recently and lost his nametag

                                                                     
                                                                    

Pinnacles National Monument

We have been held hostage by the rain the past two days, stuck in the RV.  Today the weather report was for the rain to stop at 10 a.m., so we headed south to Pinnacles National Monument.  We arrived there at 11 a.m. and it was still drizzleing, but we headed up the trail to Bear Gulch Cave with our umbrellas in hand.  The caves here are made by the giant boulders that were left here by glaciers or those that have rolled down the mountains since then. 

Pinnacles entrance

Teens repelling

  

Fish face?

Heading toward the caves





Deb inside a cave

Deb "borrowed" my hat & larger umbrella!

                                                                                   


Deb in an opening

Me in a crevice

                                                                                



Lunchtime!

                                                                             
                                                                                     
                                                     
                                                                          
                                                                                                                             

San Benito County Fair

It's Saturday and what better to do than to go to a county fair!  We drove south just past Hollister to Tres Pinos to the San Benito County Fair.  We had a great time.  We listened to steel drum players while we ate lunch.  Debbie had deep fried artichokes and I had a polish sausage.  We went to the pavilion and saw all of the entries in the many different categories.  They also have the the county Saddle Horse Museum on the fair property. We saw cakes, wines, beers, jams and jellies, all sort of jarred and pickled veggies and fruit.  They had categories for all sorts of art, pastries, cookies, gift baskets, and senior crafts.   We saw a group, with a mascot,  that entertained kids on stage and we watch a hypnotist hypnotise six willing participants.  It was funny.  They had lots of carnival rides, all of the carnival games, and an auction of cattle, swine, etc. We left before the tractor pull competition, as Debbie wanted to cruise downtown Hollister. It was a good day.

County Fair, here we come

Steel Drum entertainers

The midway & rides

The fair trolley

The Hypnotist at work

little cowboys

                                                                          

Deb at a Humvee

a BIG rabbit

Deb at the Saddle Horse Museum