Monday, April 20, 2009

The old stomping grounds



We are at the Elks Lodge
in San Jose, California (map). We've stayed here many times before; long-time readers know that we lived in San Jose before we hit the road full-time back in 2004.

We come back to this area fairly regularly; historically, all our primary doctors are here, and we try to set up our annual visits when we are in town. We also own rental property here -- the downtown condo we used to call home when we lived here. And, of course, we each have a lifetime of friends and business associates in the area, and we like to visit and catch up whenever we can. We also have four "nieces and nephews" here -- children of close friends who call us aunt and uncle -- and we see them whenever we are in town.

We had a pleasant drive up from Monterey Friday, after availing ourselves of the dump station at the Monterey Elks Lodge (there is none here in San Jose). Since arriving here in San Jose, the weather has been perfect, or even a tad hot -- it's in the 90's today and we have two air conditioners on -- we're taking advantage to get some al fresco dining in before it drops back down into the 60's in a few days.

We have a pretty full schedule while we are here, and we paid for a full 14 nights. In addition to doctor appointments and family and friend visits, we have some condo business to attend to, and there are some meetings involving our restaurant in Phoenix (long story -- all the owners are here in San Jose). We'll also be meeting with our financial planner, who is likely wrung out from meeting with all her clients since the great meltdown.

I don't expect to post much while we are here in town, although we've both been tweeting occasionally. We will be back on the road around May 1st, when we will head north along the coast. We're leaving ourselves a couple of weeks to get to Sumner, stopping for some visits with old friends along the way.

Photo by kalyan3

4 comments:

  1. Enjoy your time in San Jose and the time off from the blog. I enjoy your posts but know you will enjoy your more relaxed posting schedule.

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  2. Isn't it great to be back and remember why you left?

    As much as we love visiting San Francisco, the craziness of it always reminds us why we moved away back in '98.

    Hey don't know if you guys enjoy dim sum but if you do, check out Ming's in Palo Alto. We LOVE their dum sum, best ever!

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  3. I can't believe we missed out on going to the Winchester house in San Jose. Have you guys been there?

    I hope that you enjoy the homecoming. Sorry to hear that its so wrought with work. At least the weather is nice. We are freezing up here in Yakima, Washington. I wouldn't be in any hurry to go north, if I were you.


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  4. Don't know why I missed responding to these when they got posted. Probably because we were way overbooked in San Jose...

    @Rene: We've been to Mings many times. In fact, I remember going there when I first moved to the area, back in '82. They do have good dim sum, but I prefer the Hong Kong Tea House or Ocean City in SF.

    @Jenn: Here again, Winchester Mystery House is one of the first places I visited back in the 80's, and have been several times since. We even have a good friend who was a docent there for several years. I wouldn't sweat missing it, though -- it's pretty cheesy, as these things go. Once you've read the Sarah Winchester "occult" story, you hardly need to go...

    Still hoping we will catch you in WA.

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