Day-trip to Los Gatos

California is a huge state.

Essentially, we’ve stayed within a small, Northern California bubble since living here.  That means, whenever a Saturday comes around with nothing on the agenda, a day-trip out of the City is always a welcome activity.

Yesterday, Dave and I went as south as we’ve gone together (he’s made a few business trips to Los Angeles, but those don’t count), and drove 60 miles away from San Francisco to Los Gatos, a small town bordered by the city of San Jose.

We arrived in downtown Los Gatos in about an hour.  The small, walk-able downtown area was so new and sparkling-ly clean compared to the older neighborhoods of San Francisco.  There are boutiques, upscale chain clothing stores, restaurants, coffee shops and an abnormally large number of beauty and hair salons.

One of Dave’s coworkers lives in San Jose and offered us an easy suggested itinerary for a visit.  He said:  Go to the main drag downtown, have a bite, then do a little walking on the Jones Trail, which you can access from downtown.  So that’s just what we did.

We parked in front of a pretty, green park, where apparently live music takes place a few times a month, and walked to one of the first cafes on the corner with outdoor seating called the Purple Onion.  I had a delicious salmon salad (which unfortunately left me tasting pesto the rest of the day … ewww) and Dave had a prosciutto sandwich.

Next up was the hiking portion.

We found the entrance to the Jones Trail just off the main street in downtown and started walking.  We weren’t looking for a strenuous hike, but more of a casual stroll down a nature path.  In fact, I wasn’t even wearing my usual hiking get-up, but had on Converse sneakers.

After about 15 minutes of walking in the heat (it’s about 20 degrees warmer in Los Gatos than the City), we started to get heated, hiking up and down some fairly bumpy hills and inclines.

Immediately, I wasn’t a fan of this hike or path.

There really wasn’t much to see, except for a few patches of raspberries and a little babbling brook.  Every time we stopped moving, flies would surround us.  I have never even seen a fly in the City.  Uncool.

Although the mountain bikers that passed by us were clearly enjoying the wide, hilly paths, we just weren’t feeling it.

I think we’ve become a bit spoiled with hiking in Marin County, where we usually go.  There, you enjoy cool weather and incredible scenery and views of the mountains or Pacific Ocean.  No other places seem to compare.

That being said, with the hot weather and our inappropriate attire, we actually ended our hike early and didn’t even complete the four-mile loop.  Instead, we walked back through a neighborhood admiring some interesting homes and hit the road.

We came, we saw, we Los Gatos-ed.

Los Gatos is an easy day-trip from San Francisco.  But if I went again, it would probably be to have brunch and get my nails done.