Tuesday, April 21, 2009

San Jose Museum Tour




We were rolling out the drive way at 5:40 that morning. We arrived in San Jose about 30 minutes before the fist museum on our itinerary opened, they let us in early though. We were at the Winchester Mystery House. This place was beautiful! The gardens smelled lovely and had many unique plantings. The house itself had gorgeous Tiffany glass work all through out. The wood working in this place is phenomenal. This lady was an architectual genius. However the poor thing was also wacko, confused, partially do to a severally broken heart. (new husband and baby daughter died) I'm glad we had the "mystery" of the place revealed to us. Apparently she bought this house right after they died and immediately began construction on the place. She never stopped, the tour guide showed us rooms unfinished upon Mrs. Winchesters death. I don't regret going, but I don't ever need to go to this crazy place again.
Our next stop was definitely the highlight of our day , The Tech Museum of Innovation. which is kinda funny because its the one place the kids were apprehensive about visiting. They believed this place only housed row after row of computer parts. They quickly found out this place was basically a theme park! Being that this was a tech place, everything was tech, even the entrance tickets. To the eye, they just look like a regular paper ticket, but the Tech Ticket, as they are referred to, was our "key" to all the interactive fun. There were so many things to choose from. This place is awesome! To name a few B&R created a roller coaster and then we all took the simulated ride. Ricky had to do his twice though, because the first time around the roller coaster refused to start...the screen just flashed DEADLY FORCE. We all raced toboggans & wheel chairs. We played music by hopping from chair to chair and bouncing up and down. Several machines took pictures in many different venues all of which were placed on our own website. Yes, I mean you can go home and retrieve pictures from the games you played in the museum.
The last tour of the day was the Rosicrucian Museum. This place has an awesome collection of artifacts and a replicated tomb, which was fun to walk through. The mummies showed us just how short Egyptians were. True to life gardens complete with traditional buildings and structures add the the authentic feel making this time period in history come alive. The boys played a round of Senet in the garden. (a giant version). Again, a very neat collection, my favorite being the alabaster bowls or the Rosetta Stone replica. Now its time to leave it in the dust and walk away. It served its goal in educational pursuit.
We love to watch the Food Network show "Diners, Drive ins & Dives" so the day before we left for this trip we looked to see if Guy had reviewed a place in San Jose. He did, Falafel's drive in. We went. When we arrived the place was packed, it was when we left as well. Obviously it is a local favorite. I did try their falafel sandwich with the hot sauce...very good. Jeff had a Gyros sandwich. Billy a fish sandwich and Ricky a corn dog and onion rings. Everyone like their choices. Yes the Mediterranean and American food was good. I hear their banana shakes are heaven, as are their pita chips with humus.
We ended our day at Casa de Fruita's Candy shop, come on now...sometimes chocolate is the only answer.

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