downtown San Jose | Page 2 of 2

Explore California: San Pedro Square, San Jose

April 20, 2015 47 Comments

Can you believe we visited the first week of March and it was practically like a gorgeous summers day? I mean, I guess I should get used to it given that we’re in California. But it still boggles my mind how warm it can get during the winter. I love it. Layer on the sunblock though!

I want more people to experience my amazing wonderful new home city of San Jose, which is why I’ve been writing continuously about our weekend staycation.

The Guy and I headed down here for a bite to eat during our San Jose staycation that I’ve been writing about for the past few weeks. He had never been inside the San Pedro Square Market building, so we took a walk inside. For those that live in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Canada part â€”Â you’ll know what i mean when I say this reminded me a bit of the St. Jacob’s Market.

Outside, there is tons of seating and often during the summer months there’s always bands out here giving it a great vibe to just come out here and chill out with your buds for an evening.

After touring around and trying to decide where to eat, we ended up grabbing a Capricciosa pizza (and altered it a bit) at Pizza Bocca Lupo. Do I love me some pizza man. I’m starting to get picky as to where IÂ eatÂ a pizza. I can’t go just anywhere. It has to be highly rated, nothing with a super thick crust either. I’m enjoying my wood fired thin crust pizzas. I substituted a few things from my order, and added chicken. Holy yum.

If you walk outside, it’s hard not to noticeÂ San Jose’s oldest building Peralta AdobeÂ built in 1797! Man, America and their super old history â€”Â never ceases to amaze me. It was roped off since it’s not quite accessible to the public anymore. But I hear school kids get tours inside.Â I love that San Jose built San Pedro Square right around it. Sitting outside with that view

So perfect to bring a bunch of friends, whether they be from out of town or just going out with a couple of buddies after work. The diverse selection of food is fantastic regardless if you want pizza, sushi, burgers, there’s a ton to choose from.

Downtown San Jose really does have a lot to offer. You don’t always have to venture up to San Francisco to see all the attractions. Down here there’sÂ theatres, operas, concerts, sports attractions (NHL games!) ballets, music lovers, upscale hotels, dining and nightlife destination all in the downtown core.Â Definitely a hot spot with the locals, fun restaurants, and easy access to the San Jose Sharks games. I’ve had coffee down in the SPQ at Bellano, which I’ve yet to document and snap pictures for you guys. I talked about their second location up in West San Jose, but I’ll have to venture to downtown again to show you the real loft vibe Bellano

San Jose is currentlyÂ working on their retailers, as there isn’t too much shopping in the downtown core. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit â€”Â come down here for a swallie before the NHL hockey game, or simply for after work dinner with some buddies of yours. Filled with beautiful palm trees, the perfect weather for patio-time with friends.

San Jose is full of amazing history. Apparently we have the worlds largest outdoor monopoly game which is also downtown. I drove past it the other day. Maybe I’ll hop out of my car next time and take some snaps of it. But I’m going to simply ignore the fact it costs a fortune to rent and actually play the game, it’s still pretty cool that it’s even there.

There are so many great places in our new home of San Jose. Keep coming back to my good ol’ blog so I canÂ let you in on all of the fantastic spots I go!

San Pedro Square Market
87 N San Pedro St, San Jose, CA 95110

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Loft Bar & Bistro, San Jose

April 9, 2015 47 Comments

I want to like this restaurant and I will give them a second chance whenever I head downtown San Jose for supper because the food was goodÂ butÂ they goofed right left and center with everything from our appetizers to our main courses. However, they were extra apologetic to us, giving us a couple of free desserts and an appetizer for next time. I wouldn’t blame it on the servers because we got there at a weird time when the servers were switching shifts.

Here’s the downstairs, with plenty of seating.

We ate upstairs. Love the exposed brick and the long restaurant.

Alright, like I said, our food was great. But it was messed up.

The bread was good, super fresh.

The Guy and I cannot stand onions. So when we ordered our turkey sliders we asked if it came with onions (since it’s not written on the menu), our first server said she’d check then make sure there wasn’t any on.

Look what came out. HAHAHA oh man, an onion turkey sandwich, with onion fries. It was laughable at least.Â The only food which luckily both my husband and I agree to despise is onions. So whenever we order anything we make sure to ask the servers if it comes with it.Â Our other appetizer, crab cakes was completely forgotten about! Deep breath. Our second server was such a doll, apologizing and taking stuff off the bill.

What I ordered for my main meal. The wrap was drool-worthy, and the fries kinda reminded me like McDonalds french fries (and I love my McDonalds).

The Guy ordered this. I forget what he ordered, oops!Â The food was great, reasonable pricing, and it converts to a loungeÂ after the restaurant closes where DJs play their music,Â and they move the tables off to the side and the upstairs can have a dance area on the weekends!

Have you been here?

Loft Bar & Bistro
90 South Second Street, San Jose CA 95113

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Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose

April 6, 2015 49 Comments

While living here is still relatively new, I wanted to experience it before I took it for granted. Soon enough, we’d be living here for ten years and haven’t experienced many of the local touristy spots.

This is my excited face. I couldn’t wait to go in. I had a feeling it would be like the Ontario Science Centre The Guy and I went to a number of years ago.Â Although April Showers should bring May flowers, Mother Nature here in California likes to think it’s summer year round.

I was going to first say that the Tech Museum of Innovation would be a fantastic spot to takeÂ your kids (or people of any age â€”Â since we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves) here when it rains. But it doesn’t rain! So come on by anyway, and explore what’s inside!

Got our nerdy headsets on which ended up recording our brain activityÂ while we walked around the exhibits,Â so we could look back on it later. I received quite a few stares from the people who hadn’t realized it was available, one person asked me if I was part of some sort of project! We only wore the headsets for about 45 minutes, I couldn’t wear it any longer â€”Â I was starting to get a brutal headache from the thing pinching my ear and ill-fitting my head.

Here’s the second part of the body metrics thing we were wearing, telling us how we were feeling. I wasn’t anxious though, I was having tons of fun! Perhaps I was feeling nervous because of the next exhibit we went to: the earthquake simulator! Gah!

I took the advice of a staff member to check out the earthquake simulator. It was terrifying.Â Especially if you hadn’t experienced one before. The kids who hopped on after us all seemed to love it and stay on for each additional earthquake that was happening. But when you realize how destructive it could be it hits home and frightens you. I could barely stand up without holding onto the safety bar they had available for us. Me and my husband’s face dropped as soon as we felt how violent an 8.2 earthquake could really feel. Let me just say I am not ready to face that. I still have no idea where to hide when one strikes. Let alone thinking about grabbing our little dog in the midst of it all. Hoooooo… wee!

Here’s the husband and I taking our turns on the jetpack simulator which was really fun. You had a 60 seconds to get your red dot lined up with the green dot.Â Kinda felt like you were floating.

Ooph! There’s an astronaut.

So colourful and fun, but a lot of the stuff there was definitely aimed for younger children. Regardless, we still had a ball!

Haha. I mean, check out the faces we were making at the swap-your-face screen.Â Here are my eyes, some kids head, and my husbands mouth/beard area.

Creepy, and hilarious. I was in tears, laughing so hard!

This one too!

This little robot on the right was from the robotic design basics. We totally fell for the talking robot until we realized the young adult sitting on the bench was talking through a microphone. Completely fooled us, and we laughed SO hard when we realized we didn’t necessarily needed to ask it simplistic questions for it to understand. Hilarious, and definitely something kids would absolutely go bonkers for.

My husband, the 5x Ironman Triathlete spends endless hours on his bike every week. It’s not a surprise he can crank up the watts to make everything light up here.

This was another awesome exhibit, it was all thermal. The Guy always jokes around with me that I’m constantly cold (which I am). Truth be told by the thermal exhibit â€”Â I certainly am too! And he’s always super over-heated (In case you didn’t know like me, Red = cold, white = warm).

IÂ took a minute, to spell out LOVE â™¥

The Tech Museum of Innovation would be a fantastic spot to check out especially if it’s on a rainy day â€”Â rare occasion these days with the California drought.