Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

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I had been humming Diane Warwick's classic, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose," for some time as I waited and planned for weekend trip to San Jose, California, and now I need a new tune in my head. Daughter Heather is suggesting a trip to Las Vegas, so Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas," could be an easy one, but I'm not so sure. For many, California seem like a paradise, and coming from the dry prairie, seeing exotic plants is always a treat. The Bird of Paradise plants line the entrance to the Double Tree Hilton Hotel where we were staying this last weekend. We are familiar with this beautiful tropical plan only because it sometimes shows up elegant floral arrangements, but it indeed does resemble a beautiful, exotic bird.

So what took us so far from home? Last winter I mentioned to Heather that I thought about going to the Good Sam Miniature and Dollhouse show in San Jose and before I knew it she had the flight booked, the hotel room reserved and a rental car. Actually, I would not have made such a trip had she not taken the reins and booked everything. 

We left Thursday morning  on Alaskan Air with a stop in Seattle. The flight kept changing over the months with the last change a 4 hour lay- over there, and I was ready to cancel the trip. Two days before we were due to leave, she got the flight changed with a shorter layover and we were back in the air on our way. I had a window seat on the second plane. With a heavy cloud layer covering the pacific, the coast line was barely visible, but it was quite a sight to see.

We arrived late in the day, picked up the rental car and were set for day two. Heather had a well planned day. Our first adventure took us on an hour's drive to a redwood forest, traveling very narrow, windy roads in the hills outside of Santa Cruz. 

As an arborist, of course, she would want to visit a forest, a very unique forest of giant redwoods, Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Along the way before we reached the park, we began to see burned trees and realized that there had been a wild fire in the area. The park's gate keeper confirmed our guess. In 2020 the park was decimated by the CZU fire that burned nearly all the park's 18,000 acres. Here are links to learn about the wildfire that did so much damage to this beautiful woods.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/czu-lightning-complex-including-warnella-fire/

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/16/two-years-later-czu-fire-recovery-continues-in-santa-cruz-mountains/

Our first view of the  forest as we park the car.

Neither of us are very tall so you can see how huge this fallen tree at the bottom.

Despite the burn scars on these giants, they are recovering, believe it or not. The ones that weren't killed by the flames or the heat are now putting forth new growth. Who knows how much they eventually recover.

A gate the restricts access to one of the several trails in the park.

The forest was unusually quiet without the song birds, and this fellow moved silent across the charred tree trunk. I had to look it up to see what it for I've never seen a slug the size of my hand: a California Banana Slug, second largest slug in the world and this may be its only home.

Another sign that the forest is recovering. These young trees may be either suckers from the still living roots of the charred parent tree or perhaps seedlings. Heather told me that the Redwoods drop their seeds and in order to sprout they must have rain then be burned with the heat activating the seed. This seems so odd and unreal.

What might look like a shelf on the side of this trunk is actually a burl, outgrowth from a tree and highly sought ofter for bowl making.

While all of the structures in the park were destroyed and have not yet been rebuilt, there are a few signs to help visitors know more about this beautiful forest.

Our hike ended and we headed back to town to tour the Winchester House in Downtown San Jose. You may have seen stories on TV about this strange house owned by the widow of the man who grained immense wealth from developing the repeating Winchester rifle. His wife built the house after his death, a house of continuous hammering and sawing creating continuous noise to drown out the voices of those killed by this rifle that she heard in her head, some speculate. So the tour shows stairs to nowhere and doors with nothing behind them. We saw 110 of the 160 rooms. I'll write about more the house next week.

I'll leave you with my favorite purchase from the Miniature show. I want to build a replica of Betsy Ross' house in Philadelphia, but I needed to find my Betsy for inspiration, and here she is, an exquisitly  handmade porcelain with hand sown clothing by a lovely doll artist in South Carolina. She is so beautiful and perfect. 

I'm so glad that that you stopped by. Thank you. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.