Dear Family, Friends, and Diary,
After three days with family in Monterey, we headed north to Los Gatos. Normally, our LG stays are mostly family, but this time was different. Because Gabby and the kids were up in Truckee, we were free to do tourist things. We probably prefer hanging with the little family, but this is OK too.
Our first tourist stop was real Silicon Valley: The Intel Museum. When I graduated from college in 1968, Intel was the next big thing back home in the Bay Area. "Silicon Valley" wasn't even a thing yet, although a number of high tech companies were already in operation, mostly working on government projects. Over the next years, prune and apricot orchards were replaced with real growth industries.
The museum was small, yet overwhelming. I'm pretty sure regular people, even technical-types such as myself, can not comprehend solid state chips that contain trillions of discrete pieces, yet remain tiny overall. The museum staff did their best to explain things, but ...
I was glad to leave technical geekery behind and move to different creativity: The Triton Museum of Art. This Santa Clara attraction was, for me, a perfect-size art display, with just three large display areas. This scale matches my attention span.
Our first room was lined with Eve Page Mathias' paintings of women friends lounging in her Big Red Chair. This series was a Covid project, prompted by the need to keep gatherings small. A fun concept and the Triton display encouraged visitors to join the seated lineup.
The next gallery held the work of Don Fritz, a Bay Area artist who works in both two-dimensions and three. The third dimension of his 156-piece of raku-fired tiles, "Lexicon", appeared up close, but even his collaged paintings had depth. (And his little Rocket Car reminded me of my next electric car.)
The third part of our art experience was The 2023 Salon at the Triton Museum of Art. This was a juried show of paintings and photos from local artists. The work was absolutely first class, but somehow we captured not a single photo to share. Oh well, you will have to go yourself.
Our final stop wasn't for tourists. It was family, our introduction to Mila, the newest addition to the greater Rahimi family. She was almost a week old, darling and delicate as newborns almost always are. Sherine and John were justifiably proud.
And that was our first day as Los Gatos tourists.
Day two was slower. Tuesday turns out to be a bad day for some of the museums and attractions we had scouted on the internet, but a first stop at Allied Arts Guild up in Menlo Park was possible. The three-and-a-half acre property is famous for gardens and over a dozen artisans' studios and shops. On our visit, the gardens were nice enough, but most of those studios and shops were closed. Maybe we will come back on a weekend.
Our afternoon schedule was set by the main event for this stop at all: a haircut for Marianne. Deb, her hairdresser for over forty years, had worked in time for an appointment on just two months notice. She's popular and busy.
My plan had been to visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, but looking at the road back convinced me that rush hour traffic would peak just as I needed to return topick up Marianne. It looks like this will be have to be another stop we delay for another visit.
To end our day, we changed from tourism to family once again. Persian tradition calls for a graveside memorial gathering 40 days after passing and Afa, son-in-law Mamal's aunt, was so honored. The family pain of her departure had become less sharp, but no less deep. Marianne and I are grateful for admission to the family.
Between the graveside gathering and a too-much-food reception at Irene and Arash's home, Marianne and I dropped by a convenience store to buy Powerball tickets for our chance at the $700 million prize. We will tell you if we won. (No one did that time, so we tried again for $800 million. Sam result, I'm afraid.)
Stay tuned.
John and Marianne