Bonfonte Gardens Last week I went with daughter Jill and her husband Russell and kids, Alix, 5 and Max , age 2, to Gilroy Calif. to see the Bonfonte Gardens. When we got into town and was looking for our hotel, I told Russell, "I think we are in the Latino part of town", along the sides of the road, you could see places called. "Mexican Seafood", "Garcia's Bar" and signs that said "Mariachi Bands playing nightly". The town was filled with Mexican restaurants and every corner store advertised "Tacos and Burritos sold at counter". Well, we decided that since Gilroy is a farming town in the Salinas Valley, the whole town was Latino. It is the first time I ever went to a Chevy's Fresh Mex Restaurant where "everyone" who worked there was Latino. Gilroy is the Garlic capital of the world. When we first got into town, we said, "doesn't the town smell good? " It smelled of roasted garlic. It was like someone was cooking a great meal somewhere. The second day, we were saying," Can you "Smell" that garlic? Even in the room." The 3rd day, we were saying, "What stinks in here?" Seems you can get too much of a good thing. I wonder if the town reeks of garlic year round???The first day we hit the 200 outlet stores that are in town. The second day we went to the Bonfonte gardens, which is a 600 acre park with gardens, flowers and an amusement park geared for the under 10 years of age set. They have a lake with these paddle boats that look like rubber duckys that you would put in the kids bath tub, only they are a lot bigger. They put you in the paddle duck and when they ring the bell, you are supposed to come back in. Jill and Alix went out in the boat, and had the longest ride ever in the history of the park. She couldn't get the paddle boat to do what she wanted. It would go around in circles, go backward, go side to side, it would do anything but go forward. They must have rung the bell 4 or 5 times before she got it close to the dock where they could lasso it and bring it in. Good thing Russell didn't take the paddle boat, he just had a vasectomy on Monday, and he would have died paddling that much. After walking around the first 300 acres, I think Russell was ready to rest. He was starting to walk bow legged, so we went on a few sit down and ride through the scenery rides. Alix had been talking in the car about how to speak Spanish, I told her how to say the car is out of gas, "The caro is outo gas-o-lin-o" So after she had me ride the "Snake" (a roller coaster) a few hundred times with her, I asked her if she knew what Vomit-nos meant in Spanish. She laughed, like I was nuts, but I think she knew what it meant. Russell rode it the rest of the time with her, I don't know if he enjoyed the ride much, he just had a vasectomy on Monday. After the park thing, we , (Russell) decided to find a store and see if he could get an ice pack. It was a "long" 600 acres. He passes by all the good looking stores and pulls into a corner market. "Why is it," says Jill, "If there is a market with bars on the windows and in the worst part of town, and proudly advertises, "we have the only Adult Videos in town", Russell can find it and park his family right next to the sex crazed serial killer in a van on one side, and a man trying to get his wife out of the bar and into the car with the kids on the other side." "Why," asks Jill, can't you just stop at the 7-11?" After a watermelon margarita at Chevy's along with the ice bag,( he just had a vasectomy on Monday you know) Russell was doing just fine by morning. By the time we made it home, Max had learned to say "Jesus" and once Russell had to pull over to tell him to behave.A little later, Max raises up his little fist, and asked his Dad, "You want a knuckle sandwich?" I thought we all would die laughing. I am not sure Russell wanted me to mention his vasectomy, so just ignore that part.