Cindy Finds Her Way Around San Jose

A new home, a new neighborhood. My friend Cindy took the mortgage plunge on a house in sunny San Jose, a far cry from her rental in windy San Mateo. She’s lovin’ it all, from the little old ladies next door who brought her cornbread, to the the mailman she calls by name, to lounging on new patio furniture in her very own backyard.

She’s mostly moved in, so she was ready explore more of San Jose last Saturday. I jumped at the chance to join her. Now that I work in San Jose, I’ve discovered some interesting places and I knew there was much more to uncover. We used a local Farmers’ Market as our excuse to head out on our city bikes and explore.

We crossed the freeway from her modest 1950s neighborhood and rolled into what was the most prestigious neighborhood earlier in that century, the Rose Garden. From there it was stop after stop: shopping, eating, strolling in gardens and admiring historic buildings all the way from The Alameda to San Pedro Square.

Our 12 mile ride lasted five hours. That’s how cool Cindy’s new extended neighborhood is. Everyone slows down when there’s something interesting to see and do. (Even drivers, by the way)

Have you explored a new neighborhood lately? What were your surprising finds?

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For people interested in exploring the old neighborhoods on the west side of downtown San Jose, here’s an annotated map of our route. You can also click on this image to get a higher resolution image of this map.

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