July 13, 2006

STREET SCENERed Holly Court

Pat Mikuluk calls Red Holly Court “the most beautiful court in Almaden Valley.” And one look at the street nestled in the foothills above Almaden Country Club with city and mountain views and it’s hard to disagree.

Red Holly Court is nestled in the foothills with mountain and city views. Photos by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

“We moved here 30 years ago and raised our two children, Karen, 31 and Jim, 29, here,” said Mikuluk. “They went to Williams, and then it changed to Simonds, then they went to Bret Harte and Leland. It’s a wonderful street. The development was built to fit in with nature.”

The best thing about living on Red Holly Court is the quietness and the nature, according to Mikuluk. She and her husband Bob have seen deer, coyotes, turkeys, silver foxes and even wild boar.

“When we first moved here we’d tell our daughter Karen that she was a big girl and she had to go to her room to sleep,” said Mikuluk. “Well, she came out one night and said there were big furry animals outside and when we looked there were three wild boars near the front door!”

Leland High School junior Laura Hulbert agrees that the quietness of Red Holly Court makes it such a special place to live.

“It’s pretty cool living here,” said Hulbert preparing to start her summer vacation. “We see deer and turkeys. In the summer you can hear the coyotes howling in the hills. But my dad doesn’t like the turkeys too much. They come and make a mess eating the plants.”

Recently the mailman stopped Mikuluk and asked, “do you want to see what’s following the truck?” She looked and there was a 50-pound tortoise—surely the most unusual animal that Red Holly Court has seen.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Mikuluk. “It was following the truck. We thought it was a neighbor’s tortoise so we got a truck and put it in their backyard. It turned out it wasn’t. Theirs had died—but there was another neighbor who was missing a tortoise!”

The Mikuluks are recently retired. Pat was a teacher with Fremont Unified School District for 30 years and still “misses the kids.” She spends time doing yoga, attending Club 1 and volunteering while Bob plays golf or sails and admits “retirement is fun.”

But one thing that everyone agrees on is that Red Holly Court is a great place to live. And apparently so does everyone else who moves there. The last sale was in 2000, for a 2,750 square foot home with four bedrooms, two and a half baths that sold for $1,125,000 for a spacious ranch style.

A plaque above a door on Red Holly Court reads “Peace, health and sweet content be yours.” And that describes life on the court to perfection.

—By Jeanne Carbone Lewis