Travel Guide to California

2015 Travel Guide to California

Issue link: http://globelitetravelmarketing.uberflip.com/i/444404

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 97 of 195

With its Mediterranean climate of warm summers and mild winters, and location 50 miles south of San Francisco and 30 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, it's no wonder that Silicon Valley developed as a world center for innovation, drawing some of the best and brightest engineers in the world to a quiet valley where once only fruit trees blossomed. City and Town San Jose, the county seat of Santa Clara County, was founded in 1777 and today is the largest city in Northern California and 10 th largest in the nation. Downtown has undergone significant revitalization over the last decade, with historic buildings such as the California Theatre on the same block where dozens of software compa- nies have relocated. The adjacent city of Santa Clara features historic Mission Santa Clara de Asis and its lovely grounds on the campus of Santa Clara University. In the fall of 2014, the $1.2 billion Levi's Stadium opened, the new home of the San Fran- cisco 49ers NFL team and the venue for the Super Bowl in 2016. Heritage and Culture San Jose offers a big-city cultural scene with first-rate museums that include the Tech Museum, where visitors discover what made Silicon Valley successful, the Children's Discovery Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art and the West Coast's largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium. About 10 percent of San Jose's population is Vietnamese, and this ethnic group has a strong presence particularly in restaurants along Story Road and at the Museum of the Boat People in charming History Park, which also features buildings representing Portuguese, Chinese, Italian and other ethnic communities that were instrumental in the city's long history. The Great Outdoors Wherever you are in Silicon Valley, beau- tiful open space is not far away. In downtown San Jose, Guadalupe River Park is a convenient greenbelt. Nearby Alum Rock Park offers 720 acres filled with tree- lined walking paths. Miles of roads in the Santa Cruz Mountains lead to a diverse col- lection of county and state parks and open space preserves in redwood forests ideal for camping, hiking, mountain biking or a simple picnic. 96 2 0 1 5 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A INSIDER'S TIP ยป Don't overlook downtown San Jose, which has a bustling arts and culture scene, including on the first Friday evenings of each month, when galleries and museums host receptions and live music. For a peek into Santa Clara Valley's long history (San Jose was California's first incorporated city, in 1850) visit the PERALTA ADOBE , built in 1797, the Victorian-era FALLON HOUSE and the 14-acre HISTORY PARK . Also downtown is the TECH MUSEUM and CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM . Sports fans might want to nab a ticket, don teal and black and cheer the hometown Sharks who take to the ice at SAP CENTER . sjdowntown.com MARIUSZ S. JURGIELEWICZ ; SAN JOSE CVB. OPPOSITE SAN JOSE CVB DINING at Santana Row, right; San Jose Museum of Art, below.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Travel Guide to California - 2015 Travel Guide to California