Moving from Minneapolis, MN to San Jose, CA is a journey any way you look at it. While Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota with a population of 382,578, San Jose is the third-largest city in California with 971,372 residents (as of January 2012). Founded in 1777, San Jose was transitioned from an agricultural center to an urban metropolitan area due to the rapid growth of high-technology industries in the area. The city has reached global status and is the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Northern California. Leave the cold north behind and come say hi to sunny California (and maybe stay a while)!

Driving to San Jose from Minneapolis will take up to 32 hours, translating to 1,965 miles on the shortest mapped route. From the looks of it, this trip is going to require a hotel and more than a few bathroom breaks; I suggest you stop regularly in the following cities located along the way: Watertown, SD, Casper, WY, Salt Lake City, UT, Elko, NV, Reno, NV, and Sacramento, CA. After that, locate the nearest beach and soak up your achievement!

The weather in San Jose couldn’t differ more from the weather in Minneapolis. Well, not including the average temperatures for peak summer months, which are typically mid-80s for both cities. With Minneapolis has a continental climate and San Jose has a Subtropical Mediterranean climate, the biggest difference comes with winter averages—low 40s for San Jose, low 10s from Minneapolis (even down to 7 degrees in January, as you know!). I hope you like warm weather all year round, because that’s what you get when you live in San Jose!

Find your way around San Jose by light-rail, bus, and paratransit routes. Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) operates a local light-rail system that connects downtown San Jose to Mountain View, Milpitas, Campbell, and Almaden Valley. In addition, VTA operates several local Rapid Bus routes throughout the city, as well as to surrounding cities; express bus service connects central San Jose with Santa Cruz, and San Jose is also very walkable.

Education in San Jose through San Jose Unified School District takes in schoolchildren moving to the area and adds them to a crowd of 32,000 already being educated. There are also four “feeder” system districts that include high schools that accompany the area. For higher education there’s San Jose State University, National Hispanic University, California University of Management and Technology, Lincoln Law School of San Jose, National University, Golden Gate University and more to meet your every need.

Food and fun in San Jose go hand-in-hand. Try Bakery Mexico, Bibo’s NY Pizza, Gulzaar Halaal Restaurant & Bakery, La Foret, or The Boiling Crab to satisfy every taste for your palate. Enjoy an array of parks, including Rosicrucian Park with its rose gardens and Planetarium, Lake Cunningham Park featuring Raging Waters water park, and Emma Prusch Farm Park complete with a rare-fruit orchard and demonstration gardens. See the Circle of Palms Plaza and visit the San Jose Museum of Art, or see the Sharks play at HP Pavilion and attend the San Jose Jazz Festival each year downtown. If you don’t find something fun in San Jose, it’ll find you; otherwise you have the whole Bay Area at your fingertips when moving from Minneapolis to San Jose!

Welcome to San Jose, “The Capital of Silicon Valley”!

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