In loving memory

Today wasn't one of the best day of our lives. Our grandmother passed away in India. She had been ailing for quite a while, and in a way, I feel it was for the best.....sadly, there's nothing much that we can do, sitting here in the US.

Our jaunt in San Francisco

On Sunday, Mahi & I made a trip to downtown San Francisco. As she was keen to travel by the B.A.R.T (Bay Area Rapid Transport) the local metro rail, we drove down to the local BART station, parked our car and took the BART. It's about a good 40 minute ride, with the train actually travelling underwater in the tunnel under the bay. Your ears tend to receive the kind of pressure that you would get in a flight. We got down at Embarcadero station, and then decided to walk to Pier 39 - one the the major tourist hot spots.It was a good 30 minute walk - starting from Pier 1 to Pier 39. While walking we chanced opon this strange tree which had one truck, but two tops!!!

Pier 39 has over 110 stores, 14 restaurants and a whole lot of fun activities. Our first stop was at the Aquarium of the Bay. There one can see all the different types of fish that can be found in the bay including the sharks too!! We also saw the clown fish and others too from the film - Nemo. Inside the aquarium, one also gets to walk through a clear plexi-tube, with the fish swimming overhead. All in all a really nice experience.












Post that, we then checked out Turbo Ride. This is a 3D/4D ride, where people are strapped onto seats (with seat belts), have 3D glasses on, and then go on a ride of their lifetimes. Similar to a 3D setup, except for the fact, that the seats rock and roll in sync to the picture. There are primarily 3 rides here - Dino Island II, the Haunted Mine Ride and the Extreme Log Ride. Of the three of them, the Dino Island II was the easiest, while the Extreme Log Ride really rocked and rolled !!!

Pier 39 is also home to a lot of street performers. We chanced upon one of them - a gentleman by the name of Mitch Barret. He was really funny and had a great sense of humor. In fact one of his acts included balancing on a rope while juggling inflammable rods!!

Another attraction here, is the San Francisco carousel. Handcrafted in Italy, and meticulously hand painted,it depicts famous landmarks such as the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz island, California sea lions etc.It has about 1800 twinkling lights and is pretty impressive.

By this time, it was really cold at the Pier, owing tot he wind chill factor and the proximity to the bay - so we grabbed a quick cup of hot chocolate and headed back to the BART station, and subsequently home.


Technorati Tags: san francisco, ramesh ramakrishnan, maheshwari kapoor, pier 39, bayside attractions, aquarium of the bay, fun activities, bart

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Santa Cruz

Last weekend Mahi & I decided to drive down to Santa Cruz, about 50 miles away from our place. It’s a good 1 hour drive. Probably the most famous landmark in Santa Cruz is the Boardwalk. Right next to the Bay, it’s over a 100 years old, and has a lot of fun activities. The world famous Giant Dipper roller coaster (a completely wooden roller coaster), the Looff Carousel built in 1911 and the 125 feet double shot are but a few of the major attractions here. Incidentally, the Giant Dipper roller coaster has been in operation since 1924, and over 50 millions riders have experienced it! They also have rides based on the forces of nature such as the Typhoon, Cyclone, Hurricane, Tsunami. On the scarier side they have the haunted castle, and a ghost hunting ride too. One of the rides that I personally liked was the cave train ride. This took us through an underground cave subsystem, which had all characters from the dinosaur era a.k.a Flintstone style !! It was really hilarious, reading the captions. All in all we had a great time.

Technorati Tags: santa cruz, boardwalk, fun activities, ramesh, mahi, giant dipper, looff carousel
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Mission to Mission Peak

Last weekend the four of us Mayur, Purvi, Mahi & I decided to scale Mission Peak, in Fremont. Mission peak - is 2517 feet at it's highest, and the total height that one scales is about 2200 feet, as you end up starting at about 400 feet above sea level. It is quite a steep trail, and is constantly demanding. Once you reach the top, you can see views of Mount Hamilton to the south, the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west, Mt. Tamalpais to the north, and Mt. Diablo and the Sierra Nevada to the northeast.

We climbed up from Stanford Avenue, and took a total of two hours to reach the top. It's a 2.8 mile hike one way, and a round trip is 5.6 miles. Coming down was faster, and that's when we actually realised the distance we had trekked. It felt as if it took ages to reach the entrance gate.

All in all it was a good hike - though we are still suffering from the after effects of the same. Planning to go again this weekend too, if possible.

The picture han't been taken by me - it's one I pulled off the internet, as we weren't carrying cameras at that time.

Pictures!!!

Yup, it's definitely official now - it has been ages since I posted!! Thank you Gulshan aunty for politely knock - I know I'm way behind on my postings. Would have loved to do 100 a day (just kidding!!!), but seem to be having trouble doing even one a day!!!

Anyhow, here goes. I did promise that I would upload pictures of our car, so here they are, along with a bunch of bonus pictures. Last weekend, Chinni, Raja, Mahi & I drove down to Napa Valley (famous for it's vineyards and Wineries), Muir Woods (famous for well....the woods & forest), Lake Tahoe which as the name suggests is one huge lake and Reno - a smaller version of Vegas.

In Napa Valley we went to the Rutherford Winery and sampled their excellent wines, as well as dis a tour of the entire facility. Here are some snaps of the entrance to their wine storage area as well as of their barrels and wine bottles.

If you were wondering why I had a photograph of a rose in here - it's because of an interesting thing I learnt. All vineyards and wineries have a lot of rose bushes planted around. While the obvious reason is that they look good, and enhance the natural surroundings, the main reason is that rose plants by nature are very sensitive to the slightest changes. So if the owner notices that there is something wrong with the rose plants - it immediately sends in a warning with the help of which suitable steps can be taken to correct the problem.

These three snaps are from Lake Tahoe. Notice the snow clad mountains in the back - with the icy blue water in the front. We are jacketed as it was pretty chilly at the time of the photograph.












The third snap was later in the afternoon, by when it had considerably warmed up.

As for the rest of the snaps below - they are pretty much a mix-up of the rest - Here are the snaps of the car:

While these are some more of the lake:

A couple of the random shots include the drive to the lake, two dogs in the back of a truck (that's especially for you Karthik), the dense canopy in John Muir woods, moss covered trees, a ladybug in action!! We also saw a Giant Banana Slug as can be seen in the photographs below.