<– Day 29 – Apr. 17th: Revenge of the Sushi | OVERVIEW | Day 32 – Apr. 20th: A Sunday Drive to Santa Rosa –>

We found a bunny at Monopoly in the Park in San Jose

Happy Easter Everyone! We found this bunny especially for the occasion!

Our drive from Santa Cruz to Pacifica on Friday.

On Friday, having rid my body of the wicked sushi curse from Scotts Valley, Ann and I left Santa Cruz for San Jose using the notoriously dangerous Highway 17. When I lived in the Santa Cruz area I drove this highway regularly and I can attest to the danger.

Fast speeds + narrow lanes + no shoulders + lots of mountain curves = dangerous highway.

Not only did I witness multiple accidents, but several times I came close, really close, to being involved in an accident myself (while going the speed limit). In each case there was a car broken-down and sitting in a lane of the highway near blind curves.

I learned that avoiding rush hour traffic on Highway 17 is one sure way to increase the odds of making it over the summit alive. On this day, I kept my ‘alive’ streak intact.

Woz way in San Jose named for Steve Wozniak of Apple fame.

Our first mission of the day was to locate the world’s largest permanent monopoly board at Monopoly in the Park. We found it pretty quickly, just off ‘Woz way’ (named for Steve Wozniak of Apple fame). We quickly discovered one downside to the monopoly board’s location. No close parking. Here are some pics once we trekked over to the board, which was smaller than we expected, yet still very fun.

The next stop was the Pez museum in Burlingame, north of San Jose [Ed Note, the Pez museum closed in July 2019]. I can’t remember why I had an inkling to search for this bit of oddness, but it proved worth every dollar we spent on it ($3/per person). Much to my surprise, Ann knew about some of the Pez history, as Pez originated in Linz, Austria, where one strain of her family originated.

The owner and museum guide.

Pez began life as a peppermint candy, or Pfefferminz in German, which the company shortened to PEZ. Several years into production the company added flavors and different heads. The pez museum contains a complete collection of all pez dispensers ever made.

eBay has long been associated with pez dispensers, since for years there was a story going around that ebay was built by Pierre Omidyar so his girlfriend could sell her collection. That’s actually not a true story, but certainly a romantic one.

Among the Pez dispensers is a collection of banned toys, ones considered too dangerous to sell. Here are a few you might recognize.

After enjoying the Pez story and avoiding buying any candy, we drove to the Golden Gate bridge. While I have driven over the bridge multiple times, I have never seen it so full of people. When we reached the north side of the bridge, we pulled off to visit the park where people can view the bridge. It was a crazy mob scene. That’s when it occurred to us that it was Good Friday. Apparently, everyone in America had Good Friday off and were visiting San Francisco! Thankfully, I have a broken wife, so our magic parking pass allowed us to park. But, we didn’t linger long. It was too crazy.

A view heading north over the Golden Gate Bridge.

A view looking south.

A view from the south west side of the bridge.

After the bridge, we met up with Dan Bowermaster. He recently found a Traveller Wagon off of eWillys. It was in great shape when he found it, but there were still a few things that needed fixing so he’s tackling them one at a time. Dan’s been a big help to me when I have wagon questions, so it was real pleasure to meet him and see a real Traveller up close.

One of the more interesting things he pointed out was the screws in the side under and between the windows. He explained that was a sign that the windows were installed as part of a Parkway or Traveller conversion at the factory. If those screws are missing, than it’s likely not an original conversion.

The screws add a piece to help strength the side.

After talking jeeps and wagons, Dan took us out to a noodle shop. Apparently, Ann had never had real ramen. She assumed ramen meant Top Ramen. She was very excited to learn that real ramen is a whole lot better!  She was so interested in the soup, that I started researching how to make the noodles. It turns out that’s a very complicated subject, which makes it all the more interesting.

After we thanked Dan, we drove down to the town of Pacific where we planned to stay with my friend Jack. Jack is an old friend of mine from my ManyOne days. After I introduced Ann to Jack, he took us down to the Distillery at Moss Beach, which I wrote about on Saturday. it was good to hang out with Jack and Ann, watch the sunset, and have a couple drinks.

On Saturday to go back into San Francisco and see a few sights.

<– Day 29 – Apr. 17th: Revenge of the Sushi | OVERVIEW | Day 32 – Apr. 20th: A Sunday Drive to Santa Rosa –>