"North on Hwy 1, across Hwy 156, then up... " a San Jose Travel Page by Ewingjr98

Hey, that's how I get to San Jose from Monterey. Do YOU know the way to San Jose?

To those of us from the East, San Jose is a town we would rarely hear about if it weren't for the San Jose Sharks NHL team. I think when the expansion team was placed here in 1991, I had no clue where the city was and even had trouble finding it on a map. 15 years later when I moved to Monterey, I still didn't really know where San Jose was or what was there. I actually thought it was just a large suburb of San Francisco. Little did I know...

San Jose was founded in 1777 as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first Spanish farming community in California created to support the nearby presidios of San Francisco and Monterey. San Jose was also the first capital of California in 1850.

With a population of almost one million people, San Jose is California's third largest city and the largest in the Bay Area. This figure also places it 10th largest in population of US cities. Furthermore it is the heart of America's technology industry with 6,600 high tech businesses employing 254,000 people in San Jose alone.

The downtown area boasts the San Jose Sharks, a modern convention center, plenty of shopping and dining, a few parks, and an abundance of parking. Just a mile or two from downtown is beautiful Santa Clara boasting a nice university, a Spanish mission, and a nice downtown area.