What to do on a Santa Clara College Visit

We arrived Friday to beautiful weather and checked into Hotel Valencia on Santana Row, our usual stay when visiting our daughter. The location is fantastic–right in a pedestrian mall filled with great restaurants and shopping, and only 7 minutes from campus. There is also a very nice rooftop pool which we love. We were happy to find our room ready and upgraded to a suite. After settling in, we visited our daughter's home near Santa Clara University, then took a scenic drive through the hills to Santa Cruz. We watched surfers, explored Shark Tooth Bay up close, and wrapped up the day with a barbecue and some frat party fun.

The next morning, we skipped the long line at Blue Bottle and grabbed coffee from a the nearby French bakery before enjoying breakfast at the café inside Hotel Valencia. The almond croissants were good, but we missed Blue Bottle's lattes. We soaked up some sun by the hotel pool before getting ready for Francesca's lacrosse game against UC Davis—they won! Dinner was at Ozumo Sushi on Santana Row, right next to our hotel, which was very good overall, and we called it a night early.

We woke up early and headed to Palo Alto and had the most killer breakfast at Sweet Maple. They are famous for their millionaire bacon...you cannot miss it!!! Probably one of the breakfast best breakfasts we've ever had, but we certainly paid for it because our bill for five people was $199 We dropped Francesca our sweet daughter off and headed to San Francisco airport. It was another great college visit. *You can find flights into San Jose airport direct from Chicago, just fewer. We usually rent an electric vehicle as they are surprisingly less expensive than the other selections and the parking garage at Santana Row has plenty of convenient EV spots.