A day in Monterey

In what seems to be ages ago, San and me did a day trip to Monterey earlier this year.. this was between the India trip and our anniversary trip! 

It was a trip to go hiking with our jigiri dost's from morning to evening. Given our kids were not home, we drove early in the morning to meet them and started hiking.

It was cold and foggy as we made our way along the trail to see the coast line. 

Amazing views, lot of birds, deer, (some insects buzzing about) and seals in a cove with their little ones! Lot of work wtih the macro option as well ..

slide show of landscape photos..

and the rest of the highlight photos

 

We then went back to their place to have lunch. Had chai and then went back for another hike down to the beach! 

It was almost a private beach that day. Enjoyed that walk long the beach and drove back to bay area. 

It was a ton of fun and there were 200 photos and many video clips from that day..

Here is a video highlight

It deserved a blog post! 

We really enjoyed that day and still remember it! it was San's way of prepping me for traveling alone with her again and still have fun. 

It was a long drive in bad traffic on the way back. We realized there was no way we will make it home by dinner time.. so we stopped on the way at an Indian restaurant (my first time there). The food was good! 

Still have 2000+ pictures from that anniversary trip to Europe. It will take 2 years to write blog posts on that.. if my memory doesn't fade..

Calla Lillies at Garrapata State park

Three weeks ago we drove an hour and a half all the way to Garrapata State park area. The main goal was to go to Doud peak, which will be the subject of a separate post. We also wanted to leave early enough and take pictures among the white lillies that grow on either side of the creek as it goes into the ocean.

It is a local seasonal favorite, but we have never made it before. We saw posts on the net that said the lillies are already starting to turn brown, so before the window closed we visited.

We were not disappointed.. 

it was a misty walk to the beach among the lillies..

The new iPhone was put to test and it passed with flying colors..

especially the macro mode..

Nice beach. There were a lot of kids making their way to the beach as we were walking back. Given it is just a short walk from the freeway, this place would probably be crowded once the sun is out. It was good we finished this first!

had the beach mostly to ourselves..

We climbed up to the top and got a beautiful view of the coastline. Then we drove a few miles to go on our planned hike..

Strongly recommend this place, for a mid March or even early March trip. It is a beautiful sight!