We're Here!

We arrived in San Jose Thursday afternoon after about 8 hours of flying and airport navigation. When we arrived at the San Jose airport we were met by a group of four Presbyterians from the COLA (committee on local arrangements).  They welcomed us and helped us with our travel to our hotels.  Since Jenna is staying at the Crowne Plaza with the other Youth Delegates and Dawn and I are staying at the Wyndham (3 miles north of the convention center), we said goodbye to Jenna as she left for her shuttle.  

Jenna had a dinner for all the YADs.  We heard from her later that evening that she was settling in and doing fine.  Dawn and I had dinner at our hotel and rested a little.  Since we are planning to do some sightseeing while here, we had rented a convertible.  The evening was nice and the temperature a little cooler so we put the top down and took a drive down to see where the convention center is, Jenna's hotel, etc.  After exploring downtown for a bit, we headed east toward some big hills that skirt the edge of town.  We had a nice drive, a beautiful view of this place and were ready for a good night's rest.

Thursday morning we headed to the convention center to pick up our registration materials.  Their is a light rail system in San Jose and a stop right in front of our hotel.  It is about a 15 minute ride between our hotel and the convention center.  We got our official bag, badges and materials and headed to the exhibit hall.  All of the agencies and groups affiliated with PC-USA have exhibits there - a good way to learn about all the various mission and work that is being done.  There are also exhibitors selling religious jewelry, etc.  Several Christian book publishers have exhibits of their latest books and Cokesbury has a large bookstore set up.  We only had time to see part of the exhibits before it was lunch time.  We'll spend more time in the exhibit hall later.

Dawn and I decided to spend the afternoon sightseeing, so we went back to our hotel to get the car (way too hot to flop the top!).  We had chosen to visit the Winchester Mystery House, probably the most famous tourist attraction in San Jose.  Sara Winchester, heir to the Winchester firearms company built this house.  She was both extremely intelligent and extremely eccentric.  When her husband and child both died of illnesses, she sought help from a spiritual medium who convinced her she was being punished for deaths caused by the firearms her husband's company had produced.  Her only hope was to do what the spiritualist told her, then she could rid herself of the ghosts of the dead and ultimately live forever herself.  One of the requirements was to build a house but never finish it.  The end result is a huge, complex house that was constantly being added onto until the day she died.  The house was designed by her and had all the latest modern technology of the day, included ten thousand stained glass or cut glass windows, woods and decor from all over the world, all in a Victorian style.  She also had all kinds of secret passages, doors leading to nowhere and very unusual winding staircases, on of which just led up to the ceiling!  In 1906, she became trapped in one of the rooms of the house during the great earthquake.  She took it as a sign that she had spent too much time and money on the front part of the house, so she had it all boarded up and started working on the back part of the house.  Amazing.  The house also was a working farm and had beautiful gardens.  I highly recommend it if you ever visit this area.