One of my best friends was getting married at a beautiful venue in Morgan Hill, California. Of course, I had to make a weekend out of it!
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Day 1: Winchester Mystery House
First task, after touching down at San Jose airport and getting food, was going online and purchasing tickets for $49/adult for the Winchester Mystery House. Due to the time of year we went (late April) we found out they were offering a self-guided flashlight tour of the property. The reason they were hosting this was because it was exactly 6 months from Halloween, so these tours are offered for a limited time. Besides touring the 160 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms of the rumored to be haunted property, the Winchester offers axe throwing, arcade games, and a chance to visit the beautiful, on site, Victorian Gardens.
Due to the fact that this trip was taken at night, the photos that are posted will be darker in nature.
You first enter through the gift shop before proceeding to the booth to scan your tickets (it is requested that you purchase them online ahead of time). You then get to stand in front of a green screen where they take your picture, which you will see after the tour in the gift shop, should you choose to purchase the picture. We met our tour guide who gave us a quick synopsis of what we would expect during the self-guided tour and handed us our flashlights before we set off! The space had “Fun Fact” plaques throughout the mansion as well as pre-recorded audio sets in certain areas describing different aspects of the home and how it was used in the 1900s when Sarah Winchester was renovating the spaces.
After spending about an hour and a half through the house, we wandered outside around the grounds. You can tell where the tour typically goes, when they are guiding individuals during the day, based on the velvet ropes sectioning off portions of the area to keep people from wandering too far. We found the gorgeous Victorian gardens that had a few water fountain features and statues to view. Being able to view this mansion at night with significantly fewer people than I anticipate attend during the daytime guided tours, was amazing. The staff did an amazing job of keeping out of the way to allow individuals to get the full experience of being in a haunted house at night, but if you needed anything, there was always someone close by.
We returned to our to our hotel around 1 am and promptly passed out for the night.
Day 2: Attending a beautiful wedding at Willow Heights Mansion in Morgan Hill
Thankfully, the wedding wasn’t until about 2:30 pm. After being able to sleep in and walking less than a mile from our hotel to Roy’s Station for some much needed coffee, we returned to our hotel room and leisurely got ready before taking a Lyft to the venue.
It was an absolutely gorgeous setting. It didn’t get above 73 degrees outside and there was a slight breeze on this late April day. After witnessing my best friend exchange her vows and go from Ms. to Mrs., we danced the night away, quite literally, as we did not arrive back to our hotel until 1 am. It should be noted that I typically am in bed and asleep by 10 pm on any given day so these late nights were starting to get to me.
Day 3: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and The Tech Interactive
Another day of sleeping in before having some delicious brunch at Uncle John’s Pancake House.
After eating, we took a short walk from the restaurant to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. Tickets were $10/adult to guide ourselves through the largest exhibit of Egyptian artifacts in the Western United States. There were four different wings to the museum that we explored.
Note: there are many stairs to the museum. There were stair lifts at each set of stairs but we went on a Sunday and staff communicated there were less workers on site than usually so they were unable to assist anyone in wheelchairs or strollers.
The museum has interactive components to help the visitor get a feel for what life looked like for ancient Egyptians. There was even a large room set up with multiple games of Senet that individuals could participate in, should they be interested.
The final section of the museum that we explored was Alchemy.
After losing at a game of Senet and experimenting with the Octave scale in the Alchemy lab, it was time to adventure over to The Tech Interactive.
The Tech Interactive
Tickets are $34/adult and include admission to any of the IMAX movies they are playing that day. You can purchase them online ahead of time or in person when you arrive. We were not interested in any of the movies that were being shown the day we went so we simply explored all the exhibits in the area. The name is true to what you’re able to do here. Every station has some component of being able to interact with the area. Definitely made time feel like it was moving faster here because before we knew it, we had spent over an hour here.
The picture on the left allows individuals to experiment with the texture and color of the “skin” displayed on the white bear. The picture on the right is a virtual rendition of a town. There are multiple red button dials in various places on the wall where individuals can either increase, or decrease, aspects of a town, such as; increasing/decreasing housing density, increasing/decreasing renewable resource usage, and more, to see how the town is impacted by these changes. There is a station where you get to “diagnose” a patient by being given a patient symptom scenario and you have to work with your partner on asking questions to get down to the root problem. These are just a few examples of the technology you get to interact with, should you have the opportunity to stop in!
Since we hadn’t yet had lunch, after we felt we got as much as we could out of the exhibit, we took a short walk to a nearby Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious tacos before taking a Lyft back to the hotel.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I had an amazing time for such a short visit. When I found out I would be in the San Jose area I had created a list of activities and locations to potentially visit while in San Jose. These were just a few of the places on my list we were able to go to. There were many more that we were unable to attend due to lack of time in our schedule. However, given the fact that we really only had a day and a half to ourselves to explore (outside of attending the wedding), we made the most of our time. One thing that was noted during our trip was how anytime we got into a Lyft/Uber, it was never assumed that we were not locals to the area. Which made us question if that isn’t a common transportation option for locals.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure. If you’d like to see more pictures and videos from this event that didn’t make it to the post, click here. Until next time, Adventure Awaits!
