A weekend in the Canadian Rockies

We went...

scratch that.. 

My wife took me along,

on a wonderful weekend trip to the Canadian Rockies. She was sick and tired of not being able to go on a vacation. She had tried everything to beg the kids to come so all four of us could go somewhere for a few days, to no avail. Finally she snapped and said "We are going somewhere for two days. You give a choice from this list!". That was it. I picked Banff National park based on photos we had seen from friends and family who had visited from 4 years ago!

It was a last minute plan. We could not find cheap tickets for 4th of July weekend but found decent ones for last weekend. So took Friday and Monday off, flew into Calgary Friday, rented a car and drove to Banff. Monday afternoon to evening was the return back to SFO. We got a night , two full days and a morning to spend. 

San did everything. All I had to do was go with the flow and walk as fast as I could when prodded. 

Home to hotel was 7 1/2 hours! We were treated to amazing views on the drive there and I got to take a few photos and videos while she drove around exits that came rather abruptly while simultaneously getting used to speed limits in kmph! 

A few photos from the drive.

 

It kept reminding us of our trip to Swiss Alps.. the only thing missing was the cows and their bells! and the cottages with the spires in the middle of the fields!

This was a great Ad we saw on the way! 

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we went to find dinner. As usual, when I am hungry or worse case Hangry, we get to eat at an Indian restaurant. There were three options in the town of Banff all within a few minutes drive. The first two were full or had some server attitude problems. The third one was the charm. 

After the dinner, the owner told us that sunset was post 10PM and we have a good two hours left. He suggested that we hike up to see "surprise point" and then come back down and do the "bow falls" trail.  This was going to be a good 3+ miles of hiking after a travel day but we were up for it. The heavy food had to be put to use.. so off we went..

Here is a video of the beautiful drive to Banff!

The post on Bow falls and a separate restaurant review to follow..

ps. It is unlike me to wait for days to post things after a trip like this, but sadly got sick a day after getting back. Just recovering today. Till yesterday the headache would not allow me to stare at a screen at all.. keeping this blog short.. to be continued.. 

It is good to be back on the keyboard and sift though photos and videos. Right now 30 minutes seems to be the limit for staring at a screen before the eyes start watering!

Yosemite in pictures

The Firefall experience was the highlight.. but the entire day, we were treated to some amazing nature scenes. 

Yosemite is amazing in February! The colors are so vidid and there is a lot of water everywhere and the snow adds enough contrast to the lightshow.

here are two slideshows of all the nature photos from the day..

and the portrait format photos..

Not sure when we will visit the place again.. maybe next year or even later this summer! 

Would love to go back in a time where the roads are not slippery and we can hike all the way to the top of the falls!

Firefalls viewing at Yosemite - a breathtaking experience

Our hiking group has long longed for a trip to Yosemite to see the Firefalls. For those of you not familiar with this, the Horsetail falls in Yosemite gets frozen and when the setting sun falls on this ice and mist, for a few minutes, the falls glows like lava and is called the Firefalls.  It happens over a 15-20 day window in February when most of the other park trails are closed because of ice. It is also a luck of the draw as it has to have rained the previous day and there should be no clouds in the path of the sun on the actual day. 

Many of our friends have made multiple attempts and are yet to see the firefalls.. we took our chances this year and were not disappointed.. we spent a day hiking partly up to Vernal falls till the ice made it too risky for us. Had a nice packed lunch.. then rushed to watch the display that nature put on for us! THis photo is from an iPhone 11 with some editing..

Here are five shots taken with the SLR as the sun went down.. the first one is what the frozen falls looks like before the magic begins..

These pictures don't do justice to what our eyes saw.. every pocket of ice reflects the sun like a diamond and the whole thing shimmers as the sun moves.. something that has to be seen live to experience!

There is also an iPhone photo for comparison that was taking toward the end. The iPhone automatically edits the photo.. for all I know, Apple knowing my location, is running some AI to make the falls look better.. 

and a selfie of a beaming me capturing this..

We took a lot of "Firefies"...

Will do a separate posts on our hike to Vernal falls with pictures!

This whole event lasts 4 to 12 mintues depending on when you go, if you get lucky! For us it was closer to 12 minutes and we got an amazing light show! The previous day was only 4 minute window, per the ranger we spoke to.

Advice to folks who are not pro photographers trying to get a shot.. go an hour early with some blankets and set up! It is a mile and a half walk on icy slippery roads. So expect that to take some time. By the time we got there 30 mintues before, there was no room to put a tripod. So I went behind the crowds into the bushy area and got cut up by thorns in my legs. Could have avoided that if we had been early. 

Also we were lucky that our dinner was in the car. So while a few thousand people all rushed to the parking lots and tried to drive out and gridlocked the whole place, we calmly ate our dinner and then drove out. From 5AM to 11PM, it was a day trip. It was tiring but exhilarating!

This one gets checked off the bucket list!

More in the next post..

A new trick on the iPhone

After visiting Maple falls and playing with some pictures, learned a new trick on the iPhone to get long exposure shots! Usually this needs my Canon 5D mark ii and the heavy tripod and a lot of post processing.. 

Now it is just a lot of post processing.

We went on a hike to Cataract Falls yesterday. I got exhausted from the climbing. It was the toughest trail we went on to date during COVID times.. but .. but.. it was a great experience. Will recover from that and post a blog..

In the meantime, here are some milky waterfall shots!

I tried to do a toe stand on that log and it was not a good idea. . . 

This thing is going to come in handy on future waterfall trails as well as ripping ponds and lakes! 

Well played Apple, well played!

When going to SFO becomes a vacation

After being in stay at home mode for six months, we (read San) really wanted to go somewhere for a drive. So two weekends ago we decided to drive towards Santa Cruz on Labor day Sunday to at least wet our feet in the beach. What we didn't know was that the beaches were open only on Saturday and they closed it for Sunday and Monday. So after a 45 minute drive towards Santa Cruz, we drove back without ever getting out of the car. 

There were fires burning then but it was clear that morning. Still no chance to realize the get out of the car and walk around goal.

This weekend we decided to go visit Stow lake in Golden Gate Park as one of our friends posted some amazing pictures. We have visited this park many times in the past, mostly to go to California Academy of sciences. The first time was in 2002 when San was pregnant with Jr. It was the first place we took my MIL to visit. At that time we walked near this place and went to a Japanese tea garden.. but missed the lake and boating area!

By the time we went there the boat rental was closed, but we did go for a nice walk around the lake and enjoyed some fresh air. The lawns were extremely crowded with families sitting on blankets and kids walking the dogs, but the walking paths were relatively people free. 90% of the folks wore masks with the exception being a few runners. We stayed clear of them. We removed our masks only to take a few selfies when no one was around. 

The selfie camera in iPHone is not as capable as the actual camera as you can tell from the rest of the photos..

The colors in this place are so vibrant the photos came out great..on the iPhone. Was editing the photos on snapseed and fell in love with this frame that seems to work for nature photos.. 

Loved this frame..and the bridge that was erected in 1893! 

then the birds in the lake gave us a few more chances to take a break and take pictures..

an evening well spent.. now that we have had one visit, we plan to start going to other places on short drives where we don't have to step out anywhere, use public restrooms or come in contact with strangers.. 

The daily walks around the neighborhood and stay at home / Parking lot yoga is still on.. The air has also cleared up nicely so far. It almost feels like life came back closer to normal.