Friday, March 10
We flew out of Nashville super early, and made it to San Jose around noon after a layover at LAX. On our flight, we were announced over the speakers that we were getting married, and the Southwest staff presented us with a complementary bottle of champagne! We picked up our rental car, and then drove to the Winchester Mystery House for our 2 pm Grand Estate tour. We spent about three hours there, between the two tours and exploring the grounds on our own.
We grabbed some burgers at In-N-Out (my first time!) and then made our way to our hotel, the Fairmont. After checking in, we walked a bit around San Jose, ending up at the San Pedro Square Market, where we got some drinks.
Saturday, March 11
The next day was the game between the Preds and the Sharks! We headed down to the SAP Center early to have plenty of time to explore before the start of the game. Upon entering the arena, we were stopped by an Indian TV station to interview us. I was asked who my favorite player was, and I said Josi. When asked what he thought the results of the game would be, Mr. Strange said he thought the Sharks would win. What!
Our seats were behind the Preds bench, just a few rows up. This gave us access to a special section of the arena with extra food and drink options. Everyone there was so nice to us, even though we were obviously in support of the opposing team! One of the concessions workers even pointed out that our tickets had a coupon on them.
During the second intermission of the game, one of our friends texted us a photo: we had made it on TV! Except, of course, it was intermission, so I’m staring at my phone (posting a photo on Instagram) and Mr. Strange is staring off into space, and we look like we couldn’t care less about the game.
Despite Mr. Strange’s prediction, the Preds ended up winning. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant where you could play old school video games at your table. As we were being seated, the host awkwardly said to us, “I love seeing brothers and sisters hanging out together on the weekend!” We glanced at each other but didn’t correct him. We ate and played a few rounds of Goldeneye on the N64 before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday, March 12
We checked out of our hotel and decided to go check out Apple and Google’s respective campuses before we left the area. We bought a couple things at the Apple Store and found a fun sculpture garden on Google’s campus. We stopped at Eureka! in Mountain View for lunch, and I had some yummy French toast.
We then began our journey down to the Monterey Peninsula. We stopped in Santa Cruz for a few hours to check out the boardwalk and go on some rides.
