Day 19: San Jose, CA

The previous day, we went on a side trip to San Jose to see my Lola Vicenta. My Mom made a request that we need to see her. She is the sister of my Lolo Pulding which the father of my mother. I heard her name before since she and my Grand Ma at one time were exchanging letters.

The urban legend was that after the war (the second one), she decided to move to the Americas by hitching a ride on an American ship. I thought that is very gutsy for a single gal during that era. My guess was she found a dashing prince and eloped. She has confirmed this, only the hitch on a ship story, without giving any details and has been living in the San Francisco area ever since.

We planned to stay in South SF, an area somewhat close to the airport. When you stop on a travel center along the major highway, there is always a book full of coupons and a list of hotels nearby. In the coupon book, there is a cheap rate for a name hotel. The only catch was its on a first come, first serve basis based on availability. It means that they don't take reservations and you have to show up during the check in time. Bad idea. It turned out that there were no available rooms even if we went to a couple of hotels nearby.

Somehow, we ended up in a Best Western hotel in Santa Clara, a town next to San Jose. It was a great find since we got really cheap rates and had decent accommodations that we ended staying for the next 3 days. The only catch was the hotel was going on renovations. It didn't really bother us since the hammer pounding was done in the middle of the day when we are out sightseeing.

We made this an easy day that we started around noon time for dim sum. In the afternoon, we went over to see a good friend in Oakland. By night time, I am cramming for a list of places to see and where is the nearest Jollibee in the area. I am in need of a Jolli spaghetti fix.

Tomorrow, is the big day on sightseeing around downtown San Francisco.