Dear Travel Diary,
Today, I was able to experience real and delicious greek food, and got my childhood memory of San Jose's Tech Museum crushed a bit. Some things are just better in the past.
I actually woke up pretty excited today because I was going to spend the day with Lily. I used to babysit her but now she has grown to be a pretty awesome teenager, and since she is basically a mini-me, we get along very well despite our age difference. To top it off, my best pal, Taber and his daughter decided to tag along.
The plan was to hit up the California Greek Festival around 11ish to get a bite to eat before heading over to the Tech Museum.
This year's San Jose Greek Festival will be taking place at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. It was my first time going so I really did not know what to expect, except there will be good food available, and that means happy times!
The first thing I noticed was a whole lamb slow-cooking on a giant rotisserie. I immediately knew I had to try it, and we did! We ordered the Lamb Sampler, among a few other dishes, but this one is something to rave about because the lamb was DELICIOUS! The meat was so tender and full of the most wonderful of subtle flavors that tastes like a piece of heaven on my taste buds. Gosh, it was delicious!
The rest of the Greek Festival was just meh. There were a few booths full of random jewelry, clothes, and other objects to buy. There is also a small Greek Museum that houses a few displays of traditional Greek clothing, plates, other household goods. The model of the famous Parthenon was pretty cool, but the whole collection felt it could have been organized better with more informative signs so that visitors can learn more about the Greek Culture. It literally took us 10 minutes to walk around.
There is also music and performances to enjoy, but the food was definitely the highlight, as it usually is with these kind of festivals.
Shortly after we ate, we headed over to the Tech Museum. I wanted us to have enough time to play and observe everything at the Tech, especially since it closes an hour earlier than usual on Sundays.
Looking back now, I wish we had stayed a little longer at the festival because we had more fun there than at the Tech. It was definitely not worth the $25.00 (for adults) and the $19.00 (for kids) price tickets we had to pay. We were a bit frustrated throughout the visit because half of the exhibits were activated by motion and heat sensors that did not work more than half the time. A lot of it was also a bit boring. Even with the two kids we had ( a 5 and a 15 year old), they seemed bored half the time as well.
What happened to the bustling, noisy, exciting Tech Museum I remembered back in my early teen years? The place seemed quite empty for a summer Sunday afternoon, and it seems that the exhibits were a bit more scarce than I remember. I left quite disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, there were a few galleries I enjoyed and found interesting. However, I noticed that the exhibits I enjoyed the most were older exhibits, for example the Space Exhibits in the Exploration Gallery are quite old, yet they remain fascinating. The discovers and future plans for space never seems to get old.
I still felt like my day went by nicely. I was able to spend time with some awesome people, and their company is what matters the most...even though a childhood memory was a bit shattered.
Happy Wandering, Alice.
