The Traveler's Channel on WebWorld Tv welcomes you to El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe – Ooops! That was it's name back in the olden days, when it was a Spanish colony. Now it's just San Jose. Welcome to San Jose. Drive around this lovely town and see if it feels like a big city. Not, right? Believe it or not, San Jose is the third largest city in California – larger than San Francisco and Sacramento – and the tenth largest in the whole United States. It is also the capital city of the fables “Silicon Vallley”, and, as such, the central city for computer activity the world over. OK. Drive around the town again. it is amazing how the CITY of San Jose can look and feel (and treat it's residents and visitors) like it was a TOWN. Enjoy it. It's a very nice place.
AND THE WINNER IS………………..
San Jose is a winner. Really. Recently named one of the “Most Fun Cities in America”. That's because the place is well filled with great museums, wonderful venues for entertainment, the arts, and sports, peaceful parks, excellent learning institutions, world class hotels, a mega convention center, and restaurants to die for. The Partners for Livable Communities has named San Jose “America's Most Livable City”. Money magazine calls it one of the “Best Places To Live” in the country. The FBI has also bestowed an honor on the city. It has, for over ten years in a row, named San Jose “The Safest City in America with a population of over 500,000”. But the BEST accolade comes from the citizens of San Jose themselves, who, in a recent survey, voted living in their city to be “good or better” – and you know how folks like to dis their own town.
HAIL CAESAR!
San Jose offers many fine parks to enjoy – to stroll in, to sit quietly in the shade, to challenge your buds to a game of frisbee, to restore the human spirit. None of the fine parks in San Jose brings more pride, nor more fun activities (including a cool spray from the beautiful fountains), nor more civic activities and festivals, nor more public gatherings of all stripes and types, than the lovely Plaza de Cesar Chavez – located right in the very heart of town. Commomly called “Chavez Park”, the plaza was named for the great labor organizer and heroic lifelong fighter for human rights, Cesar Chavez. Year-round, you will find the park buzzing with festivals and events. Mr. Chavez would be proud.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY WEIRD
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 36 years, Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt winchester, the creator and manufacturer of the legendary “Winchester Rifle”, spent contructing the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Told by a medium, after her husband died, that the spirits of thousands of people killed by her husband's guns were angry and wanted revenge. The only way to appease them, she was told, was to go west (she lived in New Haven, Connecticut) and build, and build, and build… Only constant, never ending construction would satisfy these wronged souls. Ms Sarah died in 1922 and construction stopped then. Currently there are 160 rooms, but prior to the great earthquake of 1906 there were even more because the house had stretched to seven floors. Now there are only four, but it is amazing. Doors opening to solid walls, staircases going, well, nowhere. Can't really describe it. It is truly a must see.
