100702 San Jose & San Juan Bautista

2 July 2010 - I drove in to San Jose this afternoon (about a 45-minute drive) to visit my friend Kathleen at her brother's home in San Jose. I picked up my mail, and Kathleen put one of her motion sickness patches on me. I've never used one before. She says they work for three days. I'm hoping they will work for our sailboat trip tomorrow morning.
This evening I decided to drive over to the little town of San Juan Bautista nearby, to check it out, and to see the San Juan Bautista mission there. This mission is one of the original 21 missions on the Camino Real, which is translated "Royal Road", or "King's Highway", or "Mission Trail", that ran from San Diego to San Francisco. Each mission was a day's walk from the next one. I've been driving along the historic Camino Real since Los Angeles. San Juan Bautista is a lovely little Spanish town. I enjoyed walking the mission grounds. Like a typical Mexican town, there were roosters, hens, and chicks wandering all over the town, crowing, stopping the traffic as they crossed the street. I ate at a local Mexican restaurant; I haven't had such an authentic Mexican experience since I left Texas last fall and it was a treat - the authentic food and authentic atmosphere, complete with mariachi singing!

I continue to be amazed at the diversity of the flora here in California. Every day I see new amazing plants I've never seen before. I mean, I've lived in the southern part of the country for over 30 years now, I know what a mesquite looks like, and palms, and prickly pear, kumquats, etc., etc. But there is so much variety here, and so much new to me, so many different kinds of flowering trees, such abundance of vegetation. Tonight I saw prickly pear plants as tall as trees, with golden orange fruits and yellow flowers; and trees loaded with little orange fruits (I have no idea what they are); kinds of fir trees I've never seen before, with humongous pinecones on them. I'm still seeing these huge gorgeous trees covered in brilliant purple blossoms, and have no idea what they are either. [Finally identified them: jacarandas.] I'm just amazed every time I go outside.

There is a haze that hangs in the valley here. If we were closer to Los Angeles, I'd say it was smog. But it doesn't look like smog. If we were closer to the coast, I'd say it was fog. I'm not sure what it is. [Captain Christian says it's marine mist - or water hanging in the air from the nearby ocean.]

Someone mentioned to me recently the little micro-environments you find in this part of California. This valley will be cooler and windier than the surrounding valley, or that mountain makes for a wetter climate. You can drive a short distance here and find a substantial change in the weather and environment. More diversity.

Diversity of land and weather (mountains to desert to seashore to valley), diversity of flora (fir trees to palms to prickly pears to redwoods), and diversity of people. I am enjoying all the diversity here.