Winchester Mystery House

Winchester-HeaderWinchester Mystery House is a historic house in San Jose. The still unfinished mansion is full of strange hallways, hidden rooms, and supposedly various ghosts. The Guy and I took a tour there while on our San Jose Staycation a few weeks back.

Winchester-WalkwayThe house is so beautiful, yet so very strange. A woman residing in Connecticut, had quite the untimely death of her 6 week old daughter, and husband shortly after.

The-Guy-at-WinchesterNever getting over the grieving period and mourning of her loved ones, she moved out to California after given the advice from someone she trusted. Apparently she was so superstitious that she needed to keep building and building her home in California. She continued to build for 38 years straight. Contentiously. Could you imagine? Every day. Building.

GardenWhen she died, all building of her home stopped. Her house belongings were sold at auction and took 8 truck loads per day for 6.5 weeks to move all the furniture out. MAN! For one person!

Cherub-and-Winchester-House

Winchester-HouseI’m not one to feel claustrophobic but holy smokes due to the small rooms, narrow switch back staircases, we were on a tour with a group of about 20 people in total, with kids included. A 65 minute tour of the strange house was definitely long enough for me! The Guy couldn’t get enough of it though — he loved it. I mean, I did too, but I felt so strange being in there.

Sitting-outside-WinchesterI definitely got an eerie vibe from the house. I definitely wouldn’t want to go trick-or-treating there or get lost inside. I’d never be found, haha! If you really want to get spooked, do a flashlight tour, which happens every Friday 13th.

Cherub-at-WinchesterMrs. Winchester loved her home, and built it so architecturally sound that it withstood many earthquakes. However, the mansion was 7 stories high at one point, up until the large 1906 San Francisco earthquake which took the home down to four stories.

Bush-13 Fun facts about the Winchester Mystery House I learned on the tour:

  1. 160 rooms in the home.
  2. 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, yet one shower.
  3. The design of the house was so strange. Doors opening into walls. Staircases to go nowhere, or a ceiling
  4. Her séance room had 1 entrance yet 3 exists.

I don’t want to ruin anything for you guys in case you decide to do the tour yourself one day. So I’ll leave it at that, and finish it up with photos of the grounds. We weren’t allowed to take any photographs inside.

Side-of-Winchester

Winchester-Palm-Trees

Door-to-nowhere

Seating-area-outside

Winchester-Grounds

Me-Standing-at-Winchester

Winchester-cherub

pink-flowers\ Winchester

Winchester-Mystery-House

I would say it’s definitely worth touring the house at least once if you visit San Jose, even if you’re not totally interested. I had absolutely no idea what we were getting into on the tour. And I’m still thinking about it a month later. I’m seriously fascinated by it all.

Winchester Mystery House

525 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose, CA 95128
408.247.2101
Facebook / Twitter

Continue Reading

Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose

Tech-Museum-headerWhile 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.

Tech-Museum-excitedThis 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. Although April Showers should bring May flowers, Mother Nature here in California likes to think it’s summer year round.

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

Tech-Museum-ticket

Tech-Museum-quotes

Tech-Museum-rock

Tech-Museum-body-met

Tech-Museum-body-mets

Tech-Museum-nerd-pkGot our nerdy headsets on which ended up recording our brain activity while we walked around the exhibits, 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 — I was starting to get a brutal headache from the thing pinching my ear and ill-fitting my head.

Tech-Museum-bodymeHere’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!

Tech-Museum-earthquakeI took the advice of a staff member to check out the earthquake simulator. It was terrifying. 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!

Tech-Museum-Jetpack-SimHere’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. Kinda felt like you were floating.

Tech-Museum-astronautOoph! There’s an astronaut.

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

Tech-Museum-creep-face2Haha. I mean, check out the faces we were making at the swap-your-face screen. Here are my eyes, some kids head, and my husbands mouth/beard area.

Tech-Museum-Creep-faceCreepy, and hilarious. I was in tears, laughing so hard!

Tech-Museum-funny-faceThis one too!

Tech-Museum-robotsThis 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.

Tech-Museum-wattsMy 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.

Tech-Museum-thermalThis 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 — I certainly am too! And he’s always super over-heated (In case you didn’t know like me, Red = cold, white = warm).

Tech-Museum-loveI took a minute, to spell out LOVE ♥

Tech-Museum-1

Tech-Museum-exhibits

Tech-Museum-bodymetThe Tech Museum of Innovation would be a fantastic spot to check out especially if it’s on a rainy day — rare occasion these days with the California drought.

Tech-Museum-footer

Tech Museum of Innovation

201 South Market Street, CA 95113
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Continue Reading