Hi All,

Well, I am finally home and starting to digest all that the previous week contained.  From hanging out with Mary Pope Handy and her wonderful family in Los Gatos, to Bloggers and Beer (where the Bloggaratti gathered), through Bloggers Connect and finally the long drive home, this has been one for the record books.

Mary scooped me (With some of my very own pictures no less!  Lois Lane could take lessons from Mary :-) but I shall nevertheless offer my rendition of the events. 

So, here we go on what I think of as my very own personal Blog Tour.  My travels began when I left beautiful Claremont California on Sunday July 29 and hit the road bound for beautiful Los Gatos.  I traveled swiftly up the 5 freeway and saw some more beautiful sights (Not the least of which was a clear freeway almost the whole way up, which is an incredibly beautiful sight to anyone who spends any time at all on the Los Angeles highways and byways.), I also saw, or to be more accurate smelled some not so beautiful ones.  The feedlots along the 5 near Fresno spring to mind and to nose.  And driving through Gilroy during the Garlic Festival is something that can hardly be believed. 

The air is not perfumed with that most magical of ingredients, but rather permeated, impregnated and down right drenched with it.  The experience, even for someone who likes garlic is almost overwhelming.  I love the stuff, but could feel my Transylvanian forbearer's churning in their coffins at the thought of one of their very own having to run the Garlic gauntlet.  I hear tell from the Project Blogger winner herself, that the wonder which is the Gilroy fragrance experience does at times make itself felt as far away as Los Gatos.

After driving through Gilroy where I made the mistake of pulling out my Mapquest printed directions within the screenview of Madge (my Madgellan 360 GPS) I suffered through her wrath.  Madge decided that I didn't need her help and left me to my own devices for about 35 miles.  I should know better, the manufacturer's knew what they were doing when they decided to give Madge a female voice.  99% of the time, Madge is the greatest thing since canned beer but every once in a while she has what I call Chocolate Days and this was one of those.  Fortunately she forgave me and no great harm was done.

After the Gilroy appetizer I arrived at Mary and Jim's home starving.  Jim is a fantastic cook and the wild Salmon he prepared was some of the best I have ever tasted.  People can say that someone is an honored guest, but you really know that they mean it when they have a box of It's Its, and when there are only three in the box and five at dinner, they give one of the treasured trio to you.  For the uninitiated, the It's It is an ice cream sandwich comprised of two oatmeal cookies, with vanilla ice cream in the middle, dipped in chocolate.  Good stuff indeed. 

After a good night's sleep, we woke to breakfast ala Chef Jim and then Mary and Clair took me out to see some of the Los Gatos sights.  I realized that Los Gatos and Claremont have a whole lot in common - both are beautiful places where cultural events, lovely parks and beautiful architecture abound.  It was also interesting to find that our two markets are very similar.   Price, property type and even neighborhood configurations are all very much alike and I felt right at home.

After lunch at a great little Mexican restaurant in downtown Los Gatos we headed for Powells,a candy store in the grandest tradition of candy emporiums.  Name a candy from any country or almost any era and if it is still produced, it is probably available at Powell's.   The expression "kid's in a candy store" was totally apropos.  Mary, Clair and I hit the door and shopped like there was no tomorrow (and like there were no calories). 

We also did some damage at the haunted Border's where I just about broke the bank and bought 12 cd's for a total of twenty-four cents including tax.  I paid cash and yes, everyone suitably impressed.

Mary knows Los Gatos like Einstein knows math and every few feet traveled were punctuated by historical information, anecdotes or the occasional ghostly tale. 

We went back to Mary's home so that she could do some work (fancy that!) and Clair took me with her on her dog walking job.  We hiked the hillside park above Mary's home and I enjoyed a great visit with Clair and got more exercise than have done in weeks. 

A while later Mary, Clair and I set out for Santa Cruz.  The bay area lived up to my expectations and the coastline was blanketed in fog.  Mary was disappointed but I was thrilled.  Living in sunny Southern California I can see fog-less days anytime.  And, gray skies make for beautiful, if slightly surreal pictures. 

You've got to love any place that rolls back prices proportionately to what they were 100 years ago.  For a whopping ten bucks I got to ride the sixth oldest roller coaster left in the world, experience a wonderful sky way ride over the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, saw one of the last Charles Looff Carousels left in the world that still has brass rings, went through the Haunted Castle which is terrifying because if it hadn't been 1907 nights on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk that ride would have cost a whole lot more than $0.75, ate chili dogs, cotton candy, part of a thing called a "Cheese Stick" which bore a whole lot more resemblance to a stick than it did to any cheese I've ever seen, fed seagulls (who incidentally, quite liked the cheese stick) and had a million dollars worth of fun.

Oh, and did I mention the visit to the Santa Cruz Fisherman's Wharf?  No?  Well, I should have as it was truly one of the highlights of my stay.  We saw the lighthouse which now is home to the Surfing Museum.  We weren't able to visit the museum as it was closed by the time we arrived but we did get to see and hear the California Sea Lions who were hanging out under the wharf and therein lay my highlight.  Sea Lions are just neat.  It is easy to forget that the places we live in are also home to a whole lot more than just us.

Despite having lived in California all my life and in coastal cities for most of that time, I have only seen Sea Lion's in the wild once before, so getting to see them up close and personal doing Sea Lion stuff in their natural habitat was pretty powerful and exciting indeed. 

I took a whole lot of other pictures which I will share as soon as I figure out how to get them into a better sharable format.

I am trying to learn how to keep my posts slightly shorter so the first step is to keep them to one topic at a time. 

So, I shall close this post with two of my favorite photos, with two of my favorite people from Los Gatos.

Still to come, San Francisco, Blogger's Connect, Kevin and ARDELL - The Very First Meeting and the Very Long Journey Home.

Take care all, help lots of people and have a wonderful day!

Tisza

Hi All,

There is currently an anomaly on this post which is keeping me from posting my response to any comment where it belongs.  Don't know what is up, but I have decided to respond here until it gets sorted out.  So...

Hi All,

Michele - I am sure that they had Astro Pops somewhere they are one of my favorites as well,  But I am still irked that they moved the stick from the wide end to the poit one.  When I was a kid I remember that part of the joy of those things was the needle sharp point you could suck them to.  And, there was that wax plug that was at the base of the sucker which served no purpose but always seemed like you were getting something extra.

Mary - I will get the rest of my experiences including the pictures up later today. I have to go be Mrs. Realtor Pants now so won't get to it until sometime in the afternoon.

Take care all, help lots of people and have a wonderful day!

Tisza