In case you were wondering who Billy Jones was and whether he was, in fact, a wild cat, the answer may be yes. Billy Jones worked for Southern Pacific for fifty years, beginning at age 13. After his retirement Billy purchased a miniature engine and built his own railroad around his ranch in Los Gatos. He called it the Wildcat Railroad. In 1943 and for 25 years Billy Jones led steam train rides around his orchard in Los Gatos.   In 1968, after his death, a group of businessmen formed a non-profit group to raise funds to purchase the train and its equipment from Billy Jones’ estate and relocate it to Oak Meadow Park. The engine, after 25 years of running through orchards and 21 years prior to that running on the Venice Miniature Railway, was in need of a re-haul. Volunteers and local businesses provided help, and the current 104-year old steam train looks as good as new.

More details on the rest of this park are under mini-trips in the San Jose and vacinity section or click here.

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To park at Oak Meadow Park,  I suggest driving down Blossom Hill Road to the Roberts Road entrance. There is another small parking lot that is closer to the play area, but it is tiny and often full. Parking is $7.  There is a short path that leads from the edge of this parking lot, over the railroad tracks and a small bridge, to the center where you buy tickets. Tickets are $2 for the train or carousel (2 years and under are free) and they open at 10:30am. The train ride is about 15 to 20 minutes long.  There is also a snack shack near the ticket booth to cool down with a snow cone or other treat. Then continue past the carousel and over a small hill to the playground area.  More details about this park can be found in the mini-trips here.  

When you are ready for lunch, only a mile and a half away lies the Happy Hound. From the parking lot turn left onto Blossom Hill Road. Go about one mile (passing Hwy 17)  and turn left at Camellia Ter. Take a left on Farley then an immediate left on Los Gatos Blvd. The restaurant is about two blocks further. There is a very small parking lot, but there is also parking along the street.  You place your order at an outside window, and the seating can sometimes be limited. But its great food at a good price, and the place has that old-fashioned burger stand feel. A fun place to refuel.

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Some of the cars of the steam train are covered and some are uncovered.  The conductor offers interesting tidbits of information about the woods in which you pass through, and about the train itself, mixed with ample pauses of silence to drink in the scenery. There is a point about half-way through the trip at which the train stops and you can explore a cleared area of the mountain, grab a snack on the picnic table, or use the restroom. The train returns you to the station which looks a bit like an old town. There is a small place where you can purchase some lunch. There’s also picnic tables and lots of grass to run around and burn off the energy from sitting on the train.  For bird lovers you can find cliff swallows all around, and from June – Sept. one can see the mud houses they built under the awning of many of the buildings.

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We got a late start, not arriving until eleven o’clock. By that time the little one was getting grumpy, so our first stop had to be the cafe for a snack. Our entrance tickets included a free IMAX show, so we couldn’t pass that up. The show that sounded the least frightening was Forces of Nature, which played at noon.  So essentially we went from the cafe, downstairs to see some exhibits for about twenty minutes, then back up again to watch the 45 minute show. (Hey, did I mention it was free?) Alright, I can power through a floor of exhibits in twenty minutes given some focus and fine-tuned scanning skills that I have acquired.  At the bottom of the stairs, however, was a foyer with a randomly turning small spotlight that shone onto the carpet, then disappeared, then appeared again in another spot nearby. This was not part of any exhibit, just an interesting way to add light to the foyer.  Needless to say, my kids were transfixed. I could not move from the foyer while the kids chased the moving circle of light around the carpet until I forced them to leave to go see the movie.  

The IMAX theatre was really nice. Also, they offer quite a variety of different shows, you are sure to find something that interests you and your kids. During Forces of Nature I was prepared to see volcanos and tornados. I was fairly confident that even in larger than life format, the kids would not run away screaming. I was not as prepared for the amount of focus the movie gave to the desparation these forces of nature can leave behind. Shots of children being pulled from rubble, people staring at bare walls where their houses once stood. These were the scenes that made me cringe, and I offered my kids the opportunity to leave and go back downstairs several times. They were well hooked into the movie at that point, and these scenes and the narrator’s statistics didn’t seem to affect them at all. But in truth, I was quickly looking forward to going back downstairs to see what techy things we could play with.

For young kids the place to go is the lower level. We retreated once again downstairs and hit the room immediately to the right of the stairs. Here some staff worked with the kids to make paper airplanes that they could throw into a volcano. Further on, more staff helped the kids demonstrate kinectic energy by rolling a ball through several tubes and an air chamber so that the person sitting in the chair at the end of the ball’s route could catch it. There were a few other interesting hands-on activities there. Also, to the left of the stairs, was a really nice exhibit that included wind and water.  By this time it was 1:30 and some tummies were rumbling for lunch. If we didn’t have to also coordinate a nap into the middle of the day, I think we could have stayed and played another few hours, this is definately an interesting place. And when if your kids get enough of science, don’t forget to catch the traveling light show in the downstairs foyer.

For more info on The Tech Museum, visit my mini-trips post.

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Deer Hollow Farm is located in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, nestled in the foothills of Los Altos. As there is no address that I can find, here are some directions:

1. Exit 280 at Foothill Expressway/Grant Road.
2. Follow the signs to Rancho San Antonio County Park.
3. Turn right onto Cristo Rey Drive, within a ¼-mile from the 280 off-ramp.
4. Follow Cristo Rey Drive for approximately 1-mile to the roundabout circle. Take the second roundabout exit to continue on Cristo Rey Drive.
5. Turn left into the entrance of Rancho San Antonio County Park.
6. Park at any of the five parking lots. Deer Hollow Farm is a leisurely 1-mile walk into the preserve

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There’s a decent lunch cafe if you can stay for a good chunk of time. There is a nursing chair in the changing station, which is semi-private. There are certainly enough activities for several hours worth of fun, but also they have food and good facilities to make spending half a day very doable.  I have a hard time finding a place that offers as much as this museum.

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To make this into a half-day trip, click here.

In addition, the area also includes a huge, well-kept open grass area to run around on. There is a small trail around the park, and a large gazebo where you might want to picnic away from the bustle of the playground (and sometimes bees).  If you prefer eating on picnic tables, though, there are several nearby the playground. 

Another feature sure to excite the young kids is the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad miniature train that you can ride around the park for about $2. The train was named after a former worker on the Southern Pacific who built a small track on his orchard in Los Gatos which provided train rides to kids for twenty five years. The train in Oak Meadow Park runs daily during the summer, and only on weekends through the rest of the year.  The boarding station sits right next to a 100-year old carousel.

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