Traveling: Northern California {Palo Alto and San Jose}

Adventures are my favorite.  Whether with kids or without, I love adventures.  So does the rest of my family and I love that it ranks high on our must do list.  It gives us energy and brings us joy.  I hope that these travel posts inspire you as much as they are getting me excited reliving last year's adventure and anticipating our next one! 

The last part of our adventure had us exploring the San Jose area and Palo Alto.  Palo Alto is a cute town between San Francisco and San Jose and is the home of Stanford University.  We left San Francisco shortly after breakfast and drove South a bit for some adventure and to check into our hotel in Palo Alto.  Our main plan for the night was to attend a San Jose Earthquakes vs LA Galaxy soccer game at Stanford University that night.  Once we checked in, we spent the day shopping at their beautiful outdoor mall and meandering down their cute downtown.  Also, we ate so much food and it was worth it!  We even had time to rest and veg out in front of the tv (and air conditioning) before heading to the game.  We can call that a win. 

Palo Alto was fun!  I definitely want to go back and explore some more (because Jon told me we couldn't move there. . . ha ha!). Plus, now they have a Shake Shack and a Salt and Straw (which recently came out with some amazing dairy free ice cream!).  Whalburgers was definitely a highlight and hopefully we can get back and eat their again! Stanford University was absolutely amazing.  Ethan decided that's where he wants to go. . . until we showed him how much it cost.  eek! Maybe we should start a go-fund me to get Ethan to Stanford in 8 years. . . ha ha!  We ate so much food during the day that we weren't really hungry at the game, but after the game. . . at 11:00, we were starving.  So we stopped by the PF Changs that was conveniently located on our walk home so we grabbed some take out and ate before heading to bed.  The kids still talk about how cool that was! 

The Next day we headed down to San Jose for some more fun and adventure.  San Jose is a place we go often, because we are San Jose Earthquakes fans.  But, apart from attending the game and trying to find parking at Santana Row to eat my favorite ice cream (Pressed), we haven't really done a lot here.  This was our chance!  We purposely stayed downtown in the cutest hotel so we could be spend our time walking around and exploring the town, and it's architecture.

Our first goal of the day was to spend time at the Tech Museum. On the way, we found a fun little park across the street that had several lawn games set out and some ping pong.  We may have spent a bit of time here enjoying the cool mid morning shade until we headed into the museum.  We have heard some really great things about it and had a blast!  So many hands on activities for the kids, as well as us parents.  Jon even had a blast working on their Cryptography exhibit with Ethan.  We spent a couple of hours hanging out here and then headed in search of food.  We found an Earl of Sandwich not far from the museum and went to grab some delicious sandwiches (we love the one at Downtown Disney) and then went exploring for a bit and then back to the hotel for some resting.  

 One of our favorite things about our hotel was the bocce ball area.  The kids were obsessed! I am pretty sure that they could've done without the walking around and just played that all day!  We spent some time before heading to try a local coffee shop and finding dinner.   We got to try out Academic Coffee, which got bonus points for having Oatly and a non dairy option (insert happy dance here).  While we drank coffee, we headed over to San Pedro Square, which is a street that is filled with delicious restaurants. We finally decided on eating food at the San Pedro Square Market, which is filled with a couple of bars and several different restaurants, where we could all eat something we wanted. . . kind of like a really nice food court and an old Adobe house in the outside picnic area. We even got delicious desserts at Treat Bot. . . which was a trailer inside the building.  Then we headed back for more bocce ball and some drinks before heading to bed. 

The next morning, we headed over to the Santa Clara Mission to add another mission to the list.  It took us awhile to find parking since it was located on the University of Santa Clara, but once we did, it was beautiful. My favorite things about the missions are the Verandas that run along side the mission.   

 Then we headed for a longer than normal drive home.  We decided to head South to check another mission off our list.  The Mission Soledad is out in the middle of lush farmland and is completely free to see.  It shows the ruins of the original location before it was moved 100 yard to where it was rebuilt.  It was definitely worth the trip!

 Then, we headed further South to the Western side of the Pinacles.  It was really hot by then, so we drove to the visitors center, let the kids (who were by then really hot and tired) get their National Park badges and then headed home. 

This trip was so much fun!  It as nice to take a break from explore other states and do some things we've never take the time to do and with the kids.  I hope that this trip gives you some inspiration on ways to explore Northern California with your kids or even explore your own state.  


Sources:
Palo Alto hotel
San Jose hotel
Tech Museum of San Jose