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Domini Hoskins Black History Exhibit

Hand Down Black History – Domini Hoskins Black History Museum, Redwood City

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Open sign for the Domini Hoskins Black History & Learning Center. Sign reads: Black history is American history. Hand dwon the history. March1-March31 from 11 am - 5 pm, closed Mondays (Special Groups by appt only) For more infromation, contact 650-921-4191 Carolyn_Hoskins56@yahoo.com https://www.facebook.com/hbhlc

I enjoyed the article by thesixfifty about the Domini Hoskins Black History and Learning Center. Somewhat fitting for Black History month, Redwood City has enabled Carolyn Hoskins to display her collection of African American historic artifacts downtown at the former World Market. Lucky for us they are open for another month!

Part of the mural by Jose Castro, showing a black fist with the words: Power to the people.

Admission is $5 to see this vast display of what American black culture means. The volunteer at the door explained the history behind the collection. Carolyn Hoskins was asked by her grandson Domini about any other famous Black people, because he was tired of writing about Martin Luther King again. I am not sure if Carolyn suggested her late husband, Robert “Bob” Hoskins, a former 49er, as one example. Nevertheless Bob has a special place right at the entrance. 

The exhibition begins with historic figures from the slave trade, mixed in with literature references, for example Alex Haley’s Roots. There are tables with black inventors, sports legends, famous women, the first black president and the first lady. The pop culture section was designed by Carolyn’s daughter Kathy. In fact you can see Black history displayed over 22,000 square feet.

Part to the mural by Jose Castro, showing George Floyd and the words Black Lives Matter

This amazing collection of Black achievements can be seen until the end of March, 2022, at 890 Jefferson Ave. in Redwood City; or hopefully longer. It is open every day except Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friendly volunteers are on-site to answer questions. No photographs are allowed, except of the Black Lives Matter mural by Jose Castro in the back. 

MLK of course still plays a role in this museum. To dive deeper into his writings and accomplishments you might want to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

Soil & Water garden plot at the Heritage Park in Mountain View.

Plant with Soil & Water, Mountain View Heritage Park

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Sign in garden box: Smelling me calms the body - lavender

How did I miss this? A true community garden at Heritage Park is now in its sixth year. Earlier this month I discovered Heritage Park in Mountain View and wrote about the tiny house. But the city also reserved room for a garden project. You can volunteer for Soil & Water every Saturday from 10 am – noon. This is a family friendly event that will teach you about gardening. Once a month Soil & Water will try to offer a kid-focused event. But in any case they will provide easy activities, like watering, for the little ones. Teenagers are also welcome and can earn community service credits. Volunteers will share the harvest. 

View from the entrance of the Soil & Water community garden plot, Heritage Park.

To get started you can sign-up on their website. Due to COVID-19 the number of volunteers is limited and masks might be required. If you plan on helping, you should also bring gloves, a hat and a water bottle.

Heritage Park is at 771 N. Rengstorff in Mountain View.

If you like to expand your garden volunteering you can help out at the SCU Forge Garden, Wednesday 10 am – 1 pm, Friday 9 am – 11 pm.

Native Rain Garden sign at the native plants garden in Bol Park

Learn about Native Plants, Bol Bark Palo Alto

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A path in the native plants garden

I found the 12,000 sq ft native plants garden by accident the last time I was in Bol Park to visit the donkeys. Beyond the playground near the intersection of Laguna Ave and Roble Ridge Rd busy volunteers have created a treasure trove of native plants. There is signage for every plant. It is great to learn the names of the flora. The walkway is a path covered in wood chips and bordered by branches. 

A sign explaining the native rain garden system.

One info sign teaches the passersby the benefits of a native rain garden, installed in 2018. The practical reason here was to capture stormwater and reduce the flooding of the nearby bike path. An added plus is that the habitat creates homes for birds, insects, and wildlife. 

Flowers of a manzanita

I was delighted to see a blooming manzanita, one of my favorite trees from the Bay Area. But the other plants are also getting ready to impress. It is definitely fun to see the variety of native plants. If you would like a tour of the garden the Growing Natives Garden Tour offers docent led tours on April 2nd, 2022.

I also enjoyed the bench to relax in the shade.

Path with bench in the background

The native plants garden is open year round and located at 3502 Laguna Avenue, Palo Alto.

Do you know many of the native plants?

A signpost showing two errors with the word trail

Chase a Waterfall, Castle Rock State Park

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Rain is always welcome here in the Bay Area, since droughts seem to contribute to an ongoing misery. This means waterfall hikes are a special treat in the winter, as proof of enough rain to make a stream. 

Recently we drove to Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The roads wind up, inviting expensive cars to test out their speeding abilities. On our way there, an array of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances blocked one lane of this challenging road. Assuming some car went off the cliff, we carefully resumed our journey, only to get passed by an impassioned speeder.

Climbing rock at Castle Rock State Park.
Waterfall at Castle Rock State Park

Castle Rock State Park is a destination for rock climbers and hikers. The large boulders on the Castle Rock loop trail are perfect for any climbing skill level. The hike to the waterfall overlook is 1.2 miles, out and back. You’ll walk by a stream and experience an elevation loss of 265 feet (and gain on the way back). When you arrive at the overlook you are looking down at the waterfall. So, be careful if you are afraid of heights.

The waterfall itself is not as gushing as you might come across in Yosemite or Hawaii, but nonetheless nice to listen to. 

Be prepared for an uneven path with rocks and roots poking out. 

Sunset

Parking fee is $10, preferably paid by card. The parking lot holds three restrooms and electric car chargers.  The Castle Rock State Park is open from sunrise to sunset, the address is: 15451 CA-35, Los Gatos, CA 95033. We stopped at the nearby vista point, just outside the park, for an amazing sunset. 

Have you seen the waterfall at Castle Rock State Park?

Another hike I can highly recommend is the loop trail of the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

Immigrant House at Heritage Park in Mountain View

Admire the Tiny House at Heritage Park, Mountain View

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The entrance to the Immigrant House at Heritage Park in Mountain View and an information signage in front.

Heritage Park at 771 N. Rengstorff opened in 2016 to show off Mountain View’s history as a farm town. The grand jewel of the 1.2 acre park is the 1880s-area Immigrant House. Once thousands of these tiny houses were homes for the immigrant workers of the Valley of Heart’s Delight. With a footprint of about 400 square feet it is basically a tiny bedroom and a kitchen area. Immigrant House is Mountain View’s last such cabin.

Interior of the Immigrant House, a kitchen setting.

Thanks to the Kiwanis Club, a grant from Google, Santa Clara County, private donors, and the Friends of the Immigrant House, the Immigrant House moved twice and landed at its permanent location. Currently, due to the pandemic,  there are no guided tours for the inside of the house. But you can take a peak and see the lovely decorated interior. The front room shows a table with two stools, a shelf and a kitchen cabinet. The bedroom has a tiny bed.

The oven was also used for cooking. The information signage in front briefs us that the cost of rent in the 1930s and 1940s was $11 per month. A whopping $161 in today’s terms. To put this in perspective, farmworkers.org lists the farmworker wages between 1929 and 1933 to $1.90 a day.1 Assuming a 6-day workday, monthly wages are about $46. This means rent would have been roughly 1/4 of their income, and clearly counts as affordable in today’s terms.2

80-year-old windmill at Heritage Park, Mountain View.

Other amenities of the park are the 80-year-old windmill, bees, and a community garden. The 130 trees originate from the previous owners and include 30 different varieties. There are tree identifiers placed next to them. Hopefully the annual Harvest History Festival, celebrated in September, can resume this year.

It is great to see the historic significance of the workers of the Valley of Heart’s Delight in the focus of this park. 

Have you been to Heritage Park?

If you’d like to peek into local history I’d also recommend the Los Altos History Museum. They have another tiny house example of this time period, a tank house.

Footnotes

1“As the Depression deepened, the growers slashed wages and laid off workers. Between 1929 and 1933, wages dropped from $3.50 to $1.90 a day.” https://www.farmworkers.org/strugcal.html

2Affordable Housing: Affordable housing is generally defined as housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities. https://archives.hud.gov/local/nv/goodstories/2006-04-06glos.cfm

Android Lawn Statues surrounded by caution tape

Hope for Reconstruction of the Android Lawn Statues, Mountain View

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Foam sculpture of a donut, partly destroyed.

The Android Lawn Statues were always an interesting excursion to show visitors. On my last visit, about a week ago, this place looked appalling. Caution tape was around the perimeter. The figures, which are larger than life sculptures of each new Android operating release, were either busted or completely removed. Named after sweet treats and candy, like Kit Kat and cupcake, these Android figures are made from foam.

Oreo Android figure wrapped in caution tape.

After the 2018 pie release, Google decided to go on a more boring route. The releases are now designed by numbers, starting with 10, which has an Android head peeking out of the zero.. For 11 and 12 you can see a virtual 3-D model. Interesting maybe to a nerd to find some inscription on the back – but unfortunately, it lost its cute appeal.

The lawn statues garden is located on 1981 Landings Drive; the Google merchandise store used to be steps away. Google decided to close down the store and now only has an online version. 

Hope is on the horizon

Hope is on the horizon
Google's Charleston East building is still under construction.

Google’s Charleston East (Google’s futuristic new campus) is almost here and they promised to open the first floor to the public. Watch this video by Tech Insider (​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGx-sYIFHmE). The circus-like canopy shape introduces another interesting office building to Silicon Valley, joining Apple’s spaceship and Nvidia’s triangular headquarter. Or like the Bjarke Ingles Group architects call it: “smile-shaped clerestories”. In a report from the Mountain View Voice in February of last year, Charleston East’s public access could be revised to just allowing non-Googlers to enter on the west side of the building. Amid security concerns the tech giant might also put a, none the less pretty, wall around its campus.

Funny also, that the Android Lawn Statues have a neglected Facebook page, with a link to an Android fan site, but no official Google page.

I understand that these are office buildings and there is no responsibility to share anything with the public. Nevertheless, visitors to Silicon Valley long to see evidence of the high tech giving back to the community – even if it’s only in the form of some large foam statues. 

Have you been to Mountain View? Here is my list of 50 things to do in Mountain View.

A man walking

Hide inside a Giant Redwood, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

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Welcome sign to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

Start of the New Year with a hiking challenge at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. First Day Hikes is a nationwide program to promote a healthy lifestyle. To start off easy I recommend the 40-acres Redwood grove at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The loop trail is a 0.8 miles flat hike. The loop starts at the visitor center, which is only open Friday – Sundays from 10am to 3pm. During the rain it gets muddy, so it isn’t wheelchair accessible, at least in the wet months. If you’d like to learn about the park while on the trail I recommend downloading the audio tour and then start on the right hand side of the loop. This way the audio clues are counting up. The parking fee is $10 per vehicle.

The beginning of the loop trail.

We did enjoy the rain and were somewhat covered by these 1,500 year old trees. There are a few possibilities to ‘hide’ inside one of the giants. The largest is the Fremont tree, it was the campside of the Fremont exhibition which surveyed the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A whole family can fit inside the Fremont tree. You should bring a flashlight to look around while inside. The other options are more covers than hiding spots. But nevertheless they give you a close encounter with these majestic trees. 

In addition to the 0.8 loop there are a few other trails with different difficulty levels and terrains.

I'm in a tree

In January, each Saturday at noon, there will be an Old-Growth Redwood Tour. Check out their event page for even more educational fun.    

Have you ever hid inside a Redwood tree?

The Sonic Runway and San Jose City Hall.

Dance through the tunnel, Sonic Runway, San Jose

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The Sonic Runway with City Hall, San Jose.

A few years ago, in 2017, I wrote about the light installations in downtown San Jose: See the light throughout the tunnel. The Sonic Runway had just been installed as a temporary installation as part of the Playa to Paseo partnership to bring Burning Man art to San Jose. Now it is back! By popular demand this light show can be enjoyed for at least six more years and will revitalize San Jose’s City Hall Plaza.

Sonic Runway in pink and purple, San Jose.

The artists team responsible includes lead artist Rob Jensen and co-lead Warren Trezevant. They first presented the Sonic Runway at Burning Man Festival in 2016. This reactive light installation “converts audio signals into patterns of lights that shoot down a corridor of arches at the speed of sound”, according to the Sonic Runway website. With 554 LED, the archways light up with electronic music traveling down the 25 arches with the speed of light (about 343 m/sec). The archways can also be activated by live music. San Jose plans events starting in March 2022.

I recommend going down starting from both sides. At one end you travel with the speed of light, starting at the other end, the lights come at you. Of course, if you ever wanted to run at sonic speed, just imagine, as one kid I watched there did, you are Sonic, the blue hedgehog, and run! 

The Sonic Runway lights up at 5 pm until midnight, every day.

Located at San Jose City Hall Plaza, 200 E Santa Clara St, San Jose

Have you experienced the Sonic Runway?

More information

I made a short video of the Sonic Runway Check it out on my YouTube channel and give me some love and subscribe 😉

There is also a Sonic Runway in Chengdu, China. Read this article by one of the creators, Rob Jensen: The Sonic Runway: From Playa to China in the Burning Man Journal. 

Entrance to Christmas in the Park.

Have a Jolly Time at Christmas in the Park, San Jose

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Some of the many Christmas trees at Christmas in the Park, San Jose.

Around this time of the year I miss the German Weihnachtsmärkte. A festive way of celebrating the season. There you can meet some friends, warm up with some Glühwein (mulled wine), or punch, have some candied almonds, and shop for some artisan gifts. Yes, this is an idealization, my mind ignoring the crowds, but these fairs definitely are part of the Holidays. If you are ever in Berlin for December make sure to visit many of these markets because they all feel different. 

Saucer carnival ride at Christmas in the Park.

Christmas in the Park in San Jose’s Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park compares to a Christmas market in Spandau. Here are a lot of carnival rides for little kids. I was greeted by the smell of kettle corn. There are also candy shops, Belgium waffles, and churros to munch on. You can’t buy Glühwein, but there is a hot chocolate booth. The crowds were not bad and the line for food was reasonable. 

Five girls dancing on the Community Stage of Christmas in the Park, San Jose.

Most people enjoyed the community stage, where local groups performed Christmas acts. But the special attraction of this fair is the hundreds of Christmas trees that are decorated by local businesses, high schoolers, and families, and the animated Christmas themed figures that move about. These figures include the stable of Santa’s reindeers, a train with trolls working, and a band of a fox, a skunk and a raccoon.

Sign for the Kristi Yamaguchi ice rink.

There is also a photoshoot opportunity with Santa on an outside stage and some Lego landscapes with a Holiday theme.

At one end, next to the San Jose Museum of Art, is the Kristi Yamaguchi Downtown Ice skating rink. 

A San Jose tradition

Christmas in the Park is a San Jose tradition for over 40 years now. For people preferring a more socially distant experience, they have continued the drive-thru light experience Blinky’s Illuminated Holiday near Raging Waters that was established last year (tickets are required) or you can sign up for a zoom meeting with Santa.

Christmas in the Park is located at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose. Admission is free. The experience is open every day till January 2nd, from noon to midnight.

Is Christmas in the Park part of your Holiday tradition?
This is a nice place to come at night and see the lights on the many Christmas trees. The last time I was here, in 2017, I stopped by during the day, and seeing these many trees is still special.

Skate in Central Park, San Mateo on Ice

Skate in Central Park, San Mateo on Ice

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San Mateo on Ice is a holiday tradition. It is located in the Central Park of San Mateo. With 11,000 square feet of real ice any ice skating lover will have a great time. Real ice means that it can be a bumpy experience, so keep this in mind. Plus popular holiday songs will get you in the seasonal spirit.

San Mateo on Ice admissions booth with the ice rink in the background.

For opening hours it’s best to check their calendar. Tickets can be purchased onsite and are divided into standard ($17) or premium ($20). What rate applies depends on the day and includes skate rentals. They tender a $2 discount for people working in the military, police, and fire fighters. It’s not a frugal adventure, but they do offer free skate days that are sponsored by local companies. The next free skate day is December 15th.

People ice skating around a Christmas tree.

All skaters and spectators must sign a waiver. San Mateo on Ice does recommend that people wear helmets, but when we checked it out there was no one with protective gear on ice. Also, notice that it is the rainy season (yay!) and the rink is open rain or shine. When it has to close due to weather there is no refund.  

San Mateo on Ice

Located on 50 E 5th Ave, San Mateo, CA

Check their website for opening hours and prices.

Nutcracker and a sign to welcome skaters.

Open everyday including holiday, until January 9th, 2022.

Disclaimer: I did not get any compensation for this post. In fact I only photographed and did not skate. 

While you are in Central Park you should check out the Japanese Garden.