Thursday – Gilroy/San Jose area…. and Friday/Saturday –
Solvang area
Thursday morning we got an early start and headed first to Gilroy and found the Black Bear Diner for breakfast and
then drove north to San Jose . We were headed to Winchester House. We had been there before but wanted to go
again with Rick and Janie. It is one of
the most unusual houses I have ever seen. Sarah Winchester was the widow of
William Wirth Winchester, second President of Winchester Repeating Arms, maker
of “The Gun That Won the West”. After
losing her only child to a rare disease only a month after birth, and also after
losing her husband at an early age to tuberculosis, she was told by a Boston medium that she must move west where she must
continuously build a home for herself and the spirits of people who had fallen
victim to Winchester
rifles. It is thought she needed to
continuously build to appease these spirits.
We took the Mansion Tour and Garden Tour, both of which were
interesting. The tour is pricey ($30.00 per senior ticket) but worth it. Next time we will take the Behind the Scenes
Tour to see the basement, stables and other things not seen on the mansion
tour.
Next stop wasStanford University in Palo Alto . It had been many years since we had been on
this campus and I remember it being a grand place. Although the grounds were dried up a bit, it
was still worth the drive. We headed
back home to walk the dogs and then decided to head to Solis Winery to stock
up. We like their Vino Roseo di
Sangiovese and bought Ed a bottle as well. We also got a Cabernet for our
neighbor. On the way there, Janie decided to buy a new phone so we drove to Monterrey , where her niece
works. After that we found a small
Mexican Restaurant, Papa Chano’s, which turned out just ok. We drove back home and took the dogs for
another long walk. Poor babies….
Next stop was
Friday morning we left about 8:30am for the 210 mile drive
to Solvang. We are at the Flying Flags
RV Resort in Buellton. This is the most
expensive park on our route ($70. per night) and we are here for two
nights. But this is also one of the
nicer parks in all of our travels. They
have tons of activities and the place is practically full for the summer season. We are in a nice 70’ pull next to the grassy
tent area and the weather is perfect.
After walking the dogs and meeting some neighbors, we left for
dinner. We always have enjoyed A J
Spurs, a local steakhouse. We had the
second best meal (next to Scoma’s) of ribeye which we split. We did another
round of puppy walking and then went in for the night
Saturday morning we walked down the street to Ellen’s
Pancake House. They are somewhat famous
for their Belgian pancakes, which are similar to German pancakes but none of us
tried themL.
Everything else was good though. (note
for next time – good gravy!). We walked
back and got the dogs out and hung around the park for a while. Then we took off for Solvang. We parked and walked the streets (!). I had
to have my fix of Ebelskivers!
These are
Danish usually round type pancakes. I
like mine topped with raspberry jelly and powdered sugar. I bought some and shared them and everyone
liked them. We bought some souvenirs and
then headed up to the local market to pick up some things for dinner. We got back to the park and rested a while
then broke out the cheese and crackers and wine and had a light lunch. Dinner later would be a chicken, cheese and
pasta casserole from Lydia ’s
kitchen. It was perfect for the last
night of our trip. We took the dogs out
for another walk and then went in to relax and watch tv.
Lydia enjoyed the quilt stores, Schat’s Bakery, shopping in SF, Ghirardelli’s, Winchester House, and going to see ‘Jersey Boys’.
Sunday morning we were up early but didn’t have a specific
time to leave. So we completed our
chores and I took Bailey out for one last walk and then we watched a bit of tv
before unhooking and getting on the road.
The trip was uneventful and we got home about 1:30. It took some time to unload the rig and go
through the mail. Yuck!... Didn’t miss
that!
Totals for the trip
>>>>> 26
days…1,168 miles…6 campgrounds ($794.00)…. Other than leaving the parking brake
on in the car - no issues…… No issues with the campgrounds either. We didn’t
know that the Vallejo
area was pretty much crime ridden with gang ties, but we really didn’t have any
issues nor did we ever feel uncomfortable while there. I fueled up the rv at home and only once more
at Sparks , NV (@$3.85 gal.) so fuel and fuel prices
were not a problem. We enjoyed
the group at Acton and at June Lake
as well as traveling with our friends Rick & Janie on the rest of the
trip. We saw and did many things – some
we had enjoyed before – others we did for the first time. Highlights for me were: fishing the Sierras
(of course!), taking Bailey swimming!,
Devil’s Postpile, tour of Winchester Mystery House again, walking around the San Francisco wharf area, eating at Scoma’s, riding the cable cars, showing Bailey off wherever we went!, going out to eat at new places, and being with our friends.
We will now get back to life as we know it – paying bills,
cleaning house, and seeing the kids again.
Next year, who knows………