Discovering San Jose

Though we've lived here in San Jose for about 6 months now, we are just barely starting to get out and see the city. These are pictures from the times we've gotten out these past few months.

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

Right in San Jose is a really great Egyptian Museum. My friend Mary Lou and I wanted to get out and explore San Jose, so we came to the Egyptian Museum. We spent many hours exploring the museum, reading the informational signs, and listening to the audio tour they have available.



It was really fun to see some of the art from this period. I've taken a couple art history classes, and I really enjoy seeing the same art pieces I've studied and trying to recall all the details I've learned about it.


They had several well preserved mummies in the museum. The museum also had quite a few mummified animals. One of the animals, a baboon, was not actually a real mummified animal. After scanning it, they discovered that it had a jar as the body and other materials to make the arms, legs, and head.




Egypt has always fascinated me, and it was fun to spend a whole day learning more about the Egyptians.


The Tech Museum

Cindy and Kenny Pratt stopped in San Jose on their way to Santa Cruz to have lunch with Chris and me. After lunch, Cindy and Kenny invited us to explore The Tech Museum with them. Unfortunately, Chris had to head back to work, so he couldn't come.


In The Tech Museum, they have virtual arm wrestling stations. You're supposed to be able to arm wrestle people across the globe where they also have these stations, but when we were there none of the other stations were "logged on" so we arm wrestled each other.


They have lots of cool sciency toys to play with and this one would take the blocks and use them to spell whatever you typed into the computer. It knows exactly where each block is located and what letter it is.


We didn't spend a ton of time here, but it was fun to see what exhibits they had. Chris and I will definitely have to go together sometime.


Almaden Quicksilver

One sunny Saturday, Chris and I decided to go hiking in Almaden Quicksilver park. Almaden Quicksilver park is named for a mining town in Spain (Almaden) which was known for its mercury mines, and quicksilver means mercury, so if you haven't surmised it yet, the Almaden Quicksilver park used to have several mercury mines. Now it is just a park with a few old buildings and beautiful views of the San Jose area.

While hiking, I looked over the edge of the trail to see two cars nearly covered in dirt. Who knows exactly how they got there, or how long they've been there, but we imagine they have been a feature off the side of the trail for a very long time.


Of course we had to climb down and take a look. And in case you're wondering like we were, yes, the engines are gone.


We reached a point that had a great view of the valley.


This is one of the old buildings that used to be one of many that made up the mining community on the tops of the hills.


We ate a picnic lunch looking out over the valley and then realized it was getting kind of late and starting to get dark. So, we raced down the hill pretty quick so that we made it out before it was dark. If we had parked in the small parking lot (like we had at first) we would have also been racing down to get our car out of the parking lot before it closed (which would have been eerily familiar to our Puerto Rico hike), but Chris thought to move the car when he went back for the camera. Smart move - I don't think we would have made it.