Busy in the San Jose Area

Another famous catch-up blog post!!! Here it is by the week:

Jan. 16/17- waited for the comcast guy. Went to Avatar. Loved the movie- love the cable. Also visited the Basilica of St Joseph, and while it was very lovely, decided this is not the church for me. Silly enough, I'm eliminating it because I have to parallel park in the city (the church has no parking lot). I'm always running late for church-add parallel parking to the mix and I'll have to ask for a lot more forgiveness than previously planned for. But it is a beautiful church and worth visiting if you are in the area.

Jan. 23/24- Capitola, CA, Seacliff State Park and the San Jose Art Museum. I had visited Capitola during my stay up north, but it was so cute that I had to revisit it. It had rained a week straight and Saturday was my first sight of the sun here in California.



On the beach at Capitola the locals had used the washed up driftwood from the storms to build small house-like structures that they planned on burning in the evening-- I did not stay for the burn but I admired their handwork.



SeaCliff State park was beautiful- another place to visit often if I was a local. I even figured out how to sneak in without paying (quite accidently I assure you!) Sometimes it is benificial to follow a crowd over a barrier. The art museum was small and a bit over-priced at $8 for the amount of art they actually have on display. I did love the modern art portion- being a fan of that genre- but only one floor of art does not a museum make!!!! They should merge with another museum.

Jan. 30/31- Carmel-by-the-Sea. Sigh. Such a cute little uppity town. There are no colorful signs, no fast food joints, the roads are pedestrian friendly, the streets lined with little boutiques and unique little browsing shops and the restaurants that I visited had on average 18 tables. I ate lunch at La Bicyclette, a small French bistro that served a delicious grilled monk fish and veggies. I visited the Mission museum and dreamed of old Spanish California with its struggling missions.



I browsed the shops and pretended to have money. I ate at Basil for dinner, another small cozy restaurant that served short ribs that made me want to "slap my momma". At Basil I shared my table with another couple who huddled by the warming lamp outside- we had both failed to make reservations and had elected to sit on the outside tables despite the chill. They were very lovely and they were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They were from San Jose, were planning to retire to Carmel, and stated that San Jose offered "absolutely nothing to see". Shame on them! I'm out to prove them wrong.

Feb. 6/7- after struggling through a cold all week (sniffy nose sinus type cold that flared my asthma out of retirement), I looked forward to a weekend where I had to work. Eck. So I schedule a massage for Saturday and worked my arse off Sunday. Really? 24 consults? You have got to be kidding me! I had 12 swallow consults and the paperwork for each takes about 20 minutes. The massage in no way prepared me for the onslaught of work Sunday. Usually hospitals are quieter on the weekend- the nurses are relaxed and the patients are a happy bunch because of the increase in visitors. Not so much at the one I'm working at now- no one was relaxed and no one was happy. I ignored the speech/language consults and tried to eliminate as many of the "NPO" patients as possible. 9 were seen and the other 3 cancelled for change in status reasons. It was a rough day.

Feb. 13/14- Yesterday I traveled down to Pillar Point by way of the camera store. I finally bought the telephoto lens I'd been salivating over and headed to the Maverick's Surfing Competition to break it in. Good thing I had it- they had closed the beach closest to the contest due to a rogue wave that tried to carry off some on-lookers. The perch I found to watch the contest was far away from the 50 foot waves. From my cliff side perch, I could see small waves in the distance and a couple of specks- with the telephoto the specks turned into boats, more specks on specks were identified as waverunners.




In the center of this next photo there is a tiny little speck on the inside surface of the wave with a little white line behind him. That's a surfer. A very brave and stupid surfer.



A South African man by the name of Chris Bertish won the competition. I think this is him in the pictures- he was the only guy in orange that I saw and he was doing interviews post contest. My telephoto lens is working well!



I am still trying to find that perfect Pacific sunset picture. I've yet to see the famed green flash on the horizon, and I'm beginning to think it may be a myth along the lines of Snipes. That's no reason to stop looking for it, is it? Here's the best sunset from the last few weekends.