May 19 – 27

We returned home from North Carolina and with some time to kill before I met with my hip surgeon to get clearance to reengage with my normal activities, we drove north to Oakland to spend time with Jessica, Kris, and Gemma, one of our usual trips where we spend a long weekend, leave town for a few days, and then return for another weekend.  We took the 101 on the way up so we could pick up wine at Andrew Murray, stopping first in Los Olivos for sandwiches at Panino, one of a couple of places we hit up for lunch when passing through. 

The downside of this route is it puts us on the I-880 heading north of San Jose at rush hour, turning what should be a thirty-minute drive into an hour, making us later than desired, so much so that we drove straight to Line 51 to meet Jessica and crew for kids’ night there, as we have done so often in the past.  Also, there were Kim, Kourosh and their son Kian, who attends the same preschool as Gemma.  The crowded venue made for a high level of energy and combined with a couple of beers and a hot dog or two, it made the long drive up worthwhile. 

We would spend Saturday out at Viansa, a winery in the foothills of Sonoma operated by the sons of the Sebastiani family, the fourth generation to make wine in Sonoma.  The family’s legacy has been instrumental in establishing California as a world-renowned wine region, beginning in 1896 when Samuele Sebastiani brought his Northern Italian winemaking expertise across the world from Lucca to Sonoma.

Jessica and Kris are members, and the occasion was a wine pick up, featuring the recent bottling of a rose, combined with a paella buffet, with a vegetarian and seafood option to pick from.  It was a gorgeous spring day with clear blue skies, moderately warm temperatures that made sitting in chairs and on a blanket a pleasant pastime.  We stayed for about three hours, thoroughly enjoying the paellas and the free wine, even splitting a case of the rose between three of us to take home. 

On Monday Joanna and I took off for three nights in Santa Cruz, a town we’ve not been to since we did a college tour with Jessica when she was in high school.  With some time on our hands we made a detour to Santa Clara to take in the Intel Museum there.  Located at Intel’s headquarters, it has exhibits of Intel’s products and history as well as semiconductor technology in general and is free to the public to visit.  

The museum was started in the early 1980s as an internal project at Intel to record its history and it opened to the public in 1992, later being expanded in 1999 to triple its size and to add a store.  It has exhibits about how semiconductor chip technology works, both as self-paced exhibits and by reservation as grade-school educational programs.  

Intel was incorporated in Mountain View, California, in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore (known for “Moore’s law”), a chemist, Robert Noyce, a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit and Arthur Rock, an investor and venture capitalist.  Intel’s third employee was Andy Grove, a chemical engineer, who later ran the company through much of the 1980s and the high-growth 1990s.

In deciding on a name, Moore and Noyce quickly rejected “Moore Noyce”, a near homophone for “more noise” – an ill-suited name for an electronics company, since noise in electronics is usually undesirable and typically associated with bad interference.  Instead, they founded the company as NM Electronics (or MN Electronics) but soon changed the name to Intel which stood for Integrated Electronics.  Since “Intel” was already trademarked by the hotel chain Intelco, they had to buy the rights for the name.

It’s a pretty fascinating place to spend some time in with the displays somewhat dumbed down so that we mere mortals could understand how the technology evolved and how it all works.  Most impressive was the fully functional 130x scale replica of the Intel 4004 CPU that was built using discrete transistors and put on display in 2006.

We left the museum and instead of heading directly south, jogged north and then cut over to the coast at Half Moon Bay, enabling us to spend the last part of the journey cruising along the coast to our landing spot for the two nights of our stay, the Seaside Inn and Suites in Santa Cruz.  This was a different approach for us as we usually stay at a known chain, particularly Best Western, but prices in town were exorbitant so using Trip Advisor as a guide I landed on this property for an outstanding rate of just $97 a night.  It’s a big property and we were impressed with the amount of work they were doing at the time to refresh the rooms. 

Our location in town on Ocean Street ended up being a good one, not necessarily close to the beach and pier, but with a good choice of dining options close by.  We walked a half mile down Soquel Avenue and across the San Lorenzo River to our first choice (thanks again to Trip Advisor) the Lupolo Craft Beer House.  Located in what appeared to be a thriving area of other eateries, we entered, checked out the tap list and ordered our first round, a Rhubarb Sour for Joanna and a Pliny the Elder for me. 

Billed as a Tapas style establishment, we followed that path and started out with a bowl of very good clam chowder, full of clams and not to starchy, with just the right number of vegetables to give it some dimension.  Next up was a couple of empanadas, the first a shredded Chicken tinga-style with crema followed by a Veggie with poblano Chile, potato, queso Oaxaca, and guacasalsa. 

Ready for a last bit of food, we ordered a second round of beers, a Chimay Premier Red for me and a Veil Brewing Company Lord Whangdoodle Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout for Joanna, a perfect accompaniment to the Carnitas taco we finished our meal with.  It was a very fine experience, running us $70 and one we’d repeat often if we lived nearby and it sent us back to our room in a happy place, ready for a full day of being tourists tomorrow. 

Links

Line 51: https://line51beer.com/

Viansa: https://www.viansa.com/

Intel Museum: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/company-overview/intel-museum.html

Seaside Inn and Suites: https://www.seasideinnsantacruz.com/

Lupolo Craft Beer House: https://www.lupulosc.com/

Intel attribute: By Intel Free Press –