Fear the Crab

Thursday, 9/23, would be our last full day in California. We had nothing planned for this day, figuring we’d take it easy and wander around until something presented itself. That “something” showed up as the Japanese Friendship Garden in Kerry Park.

The area was very quiet, likely because it was a weekday morning and everybody was at work or school. We pretty much had the whole run of the place, but unfortunately we did not pack a lunch so there wasn’t much for us to do besides wander the park and eventually leave.

The next place was the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. No one had a real interest in Egyptian history, and we had never heard of the Rosicrucians before, but the museum was in San Jose and we were in San Jose, so… why not?

The exhibits inside the museum were a mix of artifacts both real and replicated. The mummies were definitely real, less so were their sarcophagi. The museum also has a replica tomb, a conglomeration of existing tombs in Egypt all wrapped up into one display tourists can walk through (pictures did not turn out well).

Dinner was at a Red Brick Pizza place. Thin crust specialty pizzas baked in a red-brick oven. Maile and I had half a pizza with barbecue chicken and a half with garlic and pesto. Each booth had a TV for personal enjoyment, but ours appeared to have been broken, so we watched the next booth’s run of Scooby Doo cartoons.

We finished the day by packing up and getting ready for our early flight out. I think if I had to do this vacation again, I’d prefer staying in one city and taking in everything that place had to offer. Driving around to different locations certainly opened me up to new experiences, but the commutes were very draining and I didn’t like spending most of my evenings trying to find the next place to sleep.

Perhaps road trips like this are better for individual couples, rather than large groups. Interests vary between people, and the more people involved the more interests there are. Sometimes those interests conflict, and a place one person might want to visit is instead tabled for another day, and that person feels like they’ve missed out. Or sometimes a person really isn’t interested in going to a certain place or doing a certain activity; forcing them to go because the rest of the group wants to often leads to a miserable experience for all.

Not to say that my group was anything like that. Really the trouble was that we had too many interests and it was hard to fit them all into the busy itinerary. Everybody was really game to go to new places and see new things, but often we’d not be in the right area or we just didn’t have enough time. I guess in our case it wasn’t so much a conflict of interest, but rather like we found ourselves at the buffet table of everything California had to offer, and so we loaded our plate with as much as we could carry. When we got back to our seats, we found we couldn’t eat it all.

Still, what we did manage to take in was very satisfying. I really enjoyed this vacation. Next time I visit California, I’ll try to be sure my eyes aren’t bigger than what my stomach can handle, but at least I can reasonably guarantee that it’ll still be delicious.