Friday, August 20th
Our trip began in Nanaimo early in the morning. We had travelled there to leave the dog with my Mum. It took us about two hours to drive to the Victoria airport and we were there by 10:15 a.m., about two hours before our flight. We did the usual check-in stuff and waited for our flight to Seattle but about half an hour before the flight it was suddenly cancelled, so we had to be rebooked to different flights. Now we would be arriving in San Jose after 9 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m. There was no explanation for the cancellation. Since we had arranged to pick up a rental car at 5 p.m. in San Jose, we contacted Dollar Rental to let them know we’d be late. We also emailed the hotel so they would hold our room.
We suddenly had over 3 hours to kill at the Victoria Airport and we hadn’t had lunch, so we walked over to the Spitfire Bar and Grill. It was good to get out in the sunshine and stretch our legs although the route wasn’t really designed for pedestrians. At the Spitfire, we had a halibut burger (huge) for husband and a Mediterranean focaccia for me. Husband also had a Lighthouse beer (local) and I had iced tea. After a pleasant lunch, we walked back to the airport and waited for our flight to Seattle.
The Horizon flight arrived this time and we found ourselves sitting in the third row in a small Bombardier Q400 named “The University of Washington”. I had a window seat and had great views of Saanich Peninsula and Victoria, the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle. However, the flight only took 25 minutes, so it was soon over.
We haven’t been to the SeaTac Airport for a while and it is huge. There are short subway (people-movers) sections to connect the various parts of the airport. We had no difficulty at immigration or customs and the officials were very friendly. While we waited for our next flight, we walked about the terminal. It isn’t as attractive as Vancouver’s Airport, although it does include some art pieces. There are many restaurants, food services and small shops. We had dinner (sourdough bread, steamed mussels and barbequed prawns) at Anthony’s, a seafood restaurant that is part of a local Seattle chain. The bread and mussels were good but the prawn dish only came with five small prawns and lots of potatoes, which was disappointing.
Our flight left on time and we arrived in San Jose about 10 p.m. but it was 11:30 p.m. by the time we got our suitcase, picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel in Morgan Hill (over 30 minutes drive south of the airport). We have rented a metallic blue Mustang convertible for the next two days. The car looks very sporty and I’m sure husband will enjoy driving it. By the time we got to the Ramada Hotel, I was exhausted and ready for bed.
Saturday, August 21st
Out hotel room is quite nice – roomy and comfortable and last night I had a good sleep. Our accommodation includes hot continental breakfast, so we joined some noisy families in the breakfast room this morning. There is a big wedding party staying at the hotel and I think all these families are here for the wedding. The breakfast included a reasonable selection of cereal, breads and muffins, bacon and pancakes. The coffee is Starbucks and the juice is real. Of course, it should be in California.
After breakfast we drove to downtown Morgan Hill and walked along the main street. We also found the Saturday Farmers Market and saw some amazing produce – huge melons, perfect strawberries, beautiful flowers, and so on. Of course, we didn’t buy anything but it is always fun to look. From the market we continued our walk up to the Civic Centre (City Hall, Library, etc.) which has been built fairly recently and includes numerous energy/water saving features. We went into the library to see if we could find the location of a tourist information centre but all they could suggest was the local Chamber of Commerce that is closed on weekends. Obviously, Morgan Hill isn’t a tourism centre. We did a short drive around the outside of the town that is largely agricultural – fruit trees, corn, and other crops. Then we returned to the hotel to check email (free wireless provided) and get ready for the Buchser High School reunion.
The reunion was held at the local Guilgielmo winery that was hosting a harvest festival and the hotel provided a shuttle service to the winery. We went there with another Buchser graduate who is now a musician and performs “world music”. The reunion included students who graduated in 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1975 and I would guess there were about 200 people in our group. There were other guests as well, so there were about 500 people in total at the winery. Tickets to the event cost $50 per person and included appetisers, 3 glasses of wine, dinner with dessert and afterwards dancing to a live band called Sage. Although we didn’t really know anyone at the event and husband didn’t recognize any former classmates, everyone was quite friendly and made us feel quite welcome. This was husband’s first time at a reunion, although many of the guests had attended other events over the past 45 years. Many of the students have continued to live in the Bay Area, although a few have moved further north in California or to northern states such as Washington, Oregon or Idaho. The evening was mostly warm until the sun set when it cooled off quickly. One woman at the reunion told me that California has had an exceptionally cool summer this year. Afterwards, we walked 2+ miles back to the hotel which was a very non-California thing to do as most of the roads didn’t have any sidewalks.