CA Day 4: San Jose- Happy Hollow and My Hometown!

On Tuesday, our little family took an adventure to my hometown where I lived from age 2 to 14...San Jose! It's always so fun for me to go back. I think this was only the 2nd time since 1996. The crazy thing is, my Mom and Bree haven't been back once! Anyways, I was so looking forward to showing the girls this cute amusement park and zoo geared towards 3-5 year olds called Happy Hollow. Since we have  a Thanksgiving Point membership, we got in for free! Yay! Everything is so clean cute and whimsical, like this classic carousel.

There were different "lands" with animals or rides, and fun things to play on.

The petting zoo was a favorite spot. Lexi fed the miniature horse bravely.

And brushed the goats.

Love that mane!

They had fun pushing Dad on the swing.

We took a break for a picnic lunch, and somehow, Lexi ended up choosing 2 sandwiches and squishing them together. Peanut butter, jam, ham and cheese- gross!

MY favorite part of the whole place was this awesome anteater. I don't think I can say I'd ever seen one in real life till this moment. They are honestly one of the ugliest, weirdest, coolest creatures ever!

 One of the cutest rides was this Granny Ladybugs ride. Lexi sat backwards, smiling the whole time, and at one point she shouted out excitedly, "I kissed the ladybug's bum!"

I just liked this orange drinking fountain. :)

How awesome is this playground? It's like a big giant treehouse!

The one ride I went on was this caterpillar, which meandered slowly through some little woods and had storybook scenes to look at. Family selfie!

The Wizard of Oz!

They went on this fun rollercoaster a few times and loved it.

We watched a puppet show in this cute theater.

And here's the crooked house! I remember this from when I was a kid, but they've renovated it!

They wanted to ride the carousel one last time before leaving. This was the best picture I could get! haha. I just really loved this rainbow "sea horse".

It was then time to go back to my old neighborhood and see my childhood house! I grew up right across from these foothills. This is the corner and if you turn right, there's our house. 

Side story: One time, when I was about 9, we had just gotten home from somewhere as a family, and I was just walking up the driveway to go into the house. From the corner, there was a big loud screeching, and I saw bright headlights swerving down the street. All of a sudden, a car crashed right into the tree of our front yard, just feet in front of me. Car parts flew past me, and smoke filled the air, and as I turned to run into the house, my dad ran out of the house and we collided and fell on the sidewalk. He got up and ran to the car to take the keys away from the DRUNK driver, and as he turned away and was going to call the police, the driver reached into his glovebox and pulled out a second set of keys and somehow drove away. Can you believe that?? I was a little traumatized, but I do remember us kneeling down as a family that evening and praying, thanking God for protecting us! Our poor tree was never the same, and they put tar patches on it to act as a bandaid, but it never healed. 

ANYways, these foothills provided countless hikes, adventures, and sliding down the weedy hill on pieces of cardboard. Those hills were where Nathan, Bree and I formed the "Bottlecap Kids Club", and mountain lions were sighted. 

Here it is! The house is different, the yard is different, solar panels were added, but it's still a house full of so many fond memories I'll never forget. Endless games of "Hide From Cars", Cartoon Tag, basketball, Red Light Green Light and What Time Is It Mrs. Wolf were played in this yard. We had Chelsea, Toby, and Abby, our 3 dogs over the years, in this house. The treehouse, swingset and trampoline in the backyard...aww makes me so nostalgic.

 Let the nostalgia continue! This is my elementary school, Randol.

 It's a privately run charter school now, which is weird, but I sure loved this school, and all that it had to offer. I seriously loved my school years here, and walked to school with my friend Kristina pretty much every day.

 Lest we not forget my favorite ice cream shop, just down the street from our house! Right next to 7-Eleven, and down the strip mall from Little Caesar's and Super Video, this was the hub of my growing up years. We got pizza every Friday night at Little Caesar's, played the Simon Says video game while waiting for the pizza, and rented a video next door. It was a super small, dark and stinky video rental place with an x-rated section blocked off by a curtain. Oh my! But ohh the memories.

Sweet Retreat was our go-to place after every band concert, choir concert, piano recital, dance recital, etc.

 YAY- I love that we got to eat here! The ice cream is seriously so good, and the place has hardly changed in 25 years!

 Mmmm cookie dough.

 Mint oreo. I'm so jealous.

 Luckily, mercifully, they had raspberry sorbet that I was able to enjoy! Haha that's an upside down ice cream cone wake boarding.

 As little kids, our favorite flavor was the blue bubblegum. You'd take a bite, suck off the gumball, and place the gumball gingerly on a napkin to save for later. Genius.

 My all time favorite, however, was and always has been and will be, OREO. Cookies n' cream. Whatever you want to call it. I have found a dairy free gluten free version of So Delicious Almond Milk cookie's n cream ice cream, which was a dream come true in the past few years. But still...I'll never forget Sweet Retreat's huge cookie chunks resting in creamy white ice cream, sitting atop a sweet sugar cone. Mmm. Nathan's favorite was cookie dough, Bree's was chocolate peanut butter, Britt's was peppermint fudge ripple, Mom's was pralines n' cream, and Dad's was black cherry. Long live Sweet Retreat!

One last stop in San Jose at Cahalan Park down the street from my house...

 brought a sweet reunion with my bestie Kristina Butera! We've been best friends since 1st grade, walked to and from school together (passing the ghostie car- a car who's seatbelts moved on their own), trick or treated together, swam on the same Almaden Alligators swim team, sang in Middle School Silver Tones choir, and now she's married and has a son. It was so fun to see her again after 20 years!

 I'm so glad we found the way to San Jose. :)

The road back down to Aptos on Highway 17 is SO winding, though! Not a super fun drive. But we made it back in time for dinner at The Burger with some of the rest of the fam. Lexi enjoyed this mac and cheese, which I took a picture of because it's so beautiful and creeeamy!

 And how's this for beautiful! A bacon avocado burger on a gluten free bun? YUM.

 The day ended with cookies at the beach house and games with cousins. Good day!