Chasing the super bloom..

A month ago, (feels like ages ago).. the not so little one wanted to go check out Cal Poly at San Louis Obispo as a possible college option, given its relative proximity and she liked their UG program. My knee was just recovering after doing all that rest, ice, compression business. It was but a 3 hour drive and we made a day trip out of it. Even took a Friday off work for this. 

The college was interesting. We walked around the place, ate lunch in the cafeteria with a bunch of students and did some more walking, had a late evening cocoa and lemonade in the store near their latest dorm and decided to drive back.

San's one line summary after we exit the college was "I feel like we were in a baywatch episode for the last 4 hours!"... an obvious reference to practically 95/100 girls who walked past us being in some kind of beach wear! Our kid did the usual eye rolling for such comments from mom. We are old, I got it. Wifey is still in the anger to denial phase.. eventually she will get to acceptance. 

On the way out, there was the plan to see teh super bloom! Apparently this Carrizo plains national monument, famous for the California super bloom was close enough. Then we learned that in the interest of time, there was a poor man's (time wise poor that is) Carrizo 25 minutes from SLO on a windy road which had pretty much the same experience. There was more eye rolling as it was a 95 degree day outside. One cannot have a trip where daddy drove 3+ hours one way and walked around a college that looked like a baywatch set where he felt like a time traveller, and not get anything out of the trip.. the eye rolling was ignored!

A 25 minute drive into more searing heat and there was a carpet of flowers as advertised. It was amazing. Except we were there at 3 in the afternoon with the sun beating down. The photos of folks did not come out. Wanted to wait there till golden hour and catch sun set photos, but that suggestion turned the eye rolls into downright mutiny. So took a few photos, enjoyed the scenery and drove back. 

The drive back was bad as there was an accident on 101 and maps rerouted us through small fields for a good 20 minutes. Ended up being almost 5 hour drive back and my knee got worse to the point that the next two weeks were spent with an ice water machine hooked up to knee 8 hours a day! It is much better now. Just when I was dreading the repeat of that drive, the kid has decided to go farther south on the same route for college. Don't know what fate has in store for me over the next four years on 101 South!

Back to the bloom.. here are some pictures..

and a video that shows this amazing landscape.. with a creek that we had to cross to get to the flower fields.. 

Here are some tips, in case you want to visit this next year. Time it right. The super bloom of flowers moves up north by 50 miles a day across california per most reports. we just had to wait three more weeks to catch it in our area! If you are prone to allergies like me, wear a mask except for pics. It took me two weeks to not just recover the knee but also get over the allergies. A sea of flowers cannot be good for a person with allergies! stay for sunset or go at sunrise. This would be out of the world at those times!

It was worth the pain though to see this beauty! Nature is amazing!

Leo Carrillo Ranch historic park - Carlsbad

The next stop on our 2015 year end trip from Suresh Mama's house?

Leo Carrillo Ranch historic park. 

It was the ranch of the famous actor and park activist Leo Carrillo which now has been turned into a park with a visitor center.

The highlight of the park? 22 peacocks and peahens that are the decendents of a few birds brought from India many decades ago. 

They are free to go anywhere but apparently have made the ranch their permanent home! One of the peacocks is an albino..

We spent an hour at this park and walked a small trail there.  Let the kids have fun watching and following the birds.. 

There were many interesting questions raised.. why is the male more prettier than the female? shouldn't it be the other way around? girls are the ones that have to look pretty, no?! 

There may be really good answers out there on why this difference between peacocks and humans.. but most of the adults in the group just let it slide.

Here are some Peacock and peahen portraits from the park. 

We searched as far as we could before the park closed.. but could not sight the albino peacock. Some things have to wait for the next visit, eh?

Here is a family portrait, thanks to Suresh ... 

Loved the place!

Ventura beach and Harbor Village

Stop four on our road trip was the Ventura beach and Harbor Village. The beach was very cold and given I like heat more than cold, we decided to walk along the beach facing the sun to see if that would help. 

It did to a limited extent.. Hope that my Vitamin D blood test due next week will pass with flying colors after all the sun we got last week.

The waves were tall and rough and there were not that many people around at noon.

we saw these baby Plowers on the beach.. they were moving so fast and well camouflaged in the sands and shadows.. it took me a lot of clicks to get this little guy. 

Then from nowhere this eagle comes down and takes some of these birds! Amazing how nature works!

 The kids had fun running around and climbing the little dunes. 

Then we went to the Channel Island visitor center. We have always wanted to go to Channel Islands park, but they require a lot of planning as the boat tours get booked months in advance. This time we stayed within walking distance of the starting point, but again, same result. No tours available. 

The visitor center is much hyped in the Ventura city website, but it did not live up to that hype. Compared to other visitor centers we have seen in National parks, this one is "okay". 

We proceeded to go to the Harbor Village. This was the real deal! Had lunch at a nice Italian place called Milano's. The food was great! After lunch we walked around the Harbor and took pictures.. the kids went on a paddle boat ride for an hour and that gave us a nice break for a high tea!

This family portrait was taken outside Milano's. 

They had the entire walkway nicely decorated with these lamps. We watched two guys patiently change the decoration for each lamp from Christmas greeting to New Year greeting. 

The paddle boat ride was starting to be a disaster. We watched another family struggle to even get out of the narrow path. The kids somehow managed to navigate through, and once they were out, they had a great time. 

They were very tired after the one hour paddling in the sun. 

 We stopped by for some last minute pictures in front of the murals on the way out. 

and it was time to say bye to Ventura and head towards Anaheim, as we had a date with Mickey the next morning! 

All of us loved the Harbor Village. It is a quieter less cluttered version of Sausalito and the people were sooo nice! Maybe it was the holiday spirit. Maybe the people in the Ventura harbor village are nice by default. Either way, we loved it!

They say it is 5 PM somewhere, for me it is 9 AM somewhere! So the blog takes a break! 

We pick up at stop 5.. later!

The Mission at Bonaventura

Third stop on year end trip.. which happened on day 2 morning was the Mission at Bonaventura. It is the number one tourist destination in Ventura. 

We also like to go see the Missions. Someday I will finish Photobloging all the Missions. We were talking about how 200 plus years ago Juniperro Serra managed to walk along the coast and set up a mission practically every 75 miles or so.. and he set up 20+ Missions along the coast.  

Then I reminded my kids of Adi Sankara.. who was born in Kaladi (they have been there) and went all the way to Kashmir by foot, establishing a Mission wherever he went,  around 1300 years ago!

A persons conviction and calling can make them do wonderful things! If you have never been to these missions, you should try to go see them. There is a lot of history in them, but more importantly, they are simple and elegant as places of worship. Not much of gold and dazzle.. mostly wood but there is a peace and serenity in these places that seeps in when you sit there and close your eyes. 

This mission is beautiful. 

 They have a little gift shop and there is a nominal fee to enter like all the other missions.

There is a museum with some of Juniperro Serra's artifacts. 

The wooden bells were intersting!

These beads reminded me of the Rudraksham, which is interesting. Most other rosaries I have seen are just smooth wood beads. This one was different.

There is a matching fountain inside the compound as well as three trees that were planted when the mission was started. They are still flourishing. 

Next year when we revisit San Diego, we will to go the one in Oceanside.. 

There are a lot of boards that explain how life was in this mission and the aquaduct that brought stable agriculture to this region starting from this mission. It was very interesting.

There was a baptism going on inside. We did not know if the bagpipe was part of that function or not, but we enjoyed it all the same!

He played for a good 10 minutes to entertain the crowd in the courtyard! 

The main sanctum was quiet. We sat there quietly for a good 20 minutes and I got a chance to meditate.

The priest showed the kids that one of the important relics in this Church was a piece of the Cross of Jesus. The little one was confused as the wood was not obviously visible but inside the metal. Think priests everywhere have a tough challenge when it comes to explaining things to kids! 

This is how it looks inside. The inside was dark, so placed the camera on the floor and did a 15 second exposure. Jr. was very impressed with my "skills" after seeing this photograph!

If you have a few hours to spare and happen to go by Ventura, strongly recommend the Bonaventura Mission. 

Post It

Last weekend was the Tamil School final exam.

San was working hard with the kids making sure they remembered their vocabulary words and making sure the kids wrote the dictation words correctly.

The little one made the same mistake on two rounds of dictation at which point she exclaimed

"I am going to write down this word on a post it note and stick it on the table before the exam!"

Me and San : That is not allowed! You have to remember it.

LO : I remember everything else. This one I am remembering something wrong because I learned it wrong the first time.

Me : looks like she doesn't have a memory override function in her brain

San : She wants to legitimize copying!

Well the folks at post it should be proud that a 6 year old has come up with the most obvious application for the note pad!

San finally drilled the correct spelling into the little one's head and she did well in the finals.

Now we are done with Tamil school for the year!

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