Fantasy of Lights - Vasona Park

One of the local parks here (Vasona park in Los Gatos) has a Fantasy of Lights event where they put nice Christmas light displays and you drive through them at <5 miles per hour with the matching music to go on a local radio station.

The light displays were amazing! The kids were initially entertained, but they were not happy with the open passenger side window. While it accomodated the photo/videographer, it made the van too cold for their liking. This was followed by questions like

"how much longer do we have to drive like this?"
"are we going to stay here forever?"

etc. etc..

It is a good idea to teach your kids a few patience lessons before taking them on this drive...

Here is a video and some photos of the trip.

Thoroughly enjoyable!!

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Finding Santa in Santa Places

Every year on Christmas day, we seem to hit some place (usually a beach town) which starts with Santa!

Maybe it is our subconsious seeking out the old man with the beard in the white foam on the beaches, we do not know.

This year, it was a trip to Santa Cruz to visit the Natural Bridges and the Monarch Butterfly preserves. We were in two minds, what with the rain pouring down in occasional bursts all through Christmas eve, but we decided to do the drive anyways.

It was with mixed success. The storm had blown out most of the butterflies and the rest of them decided to close their wings and huddle together. When they do that, you cannot really distinguish them from the leaves on the tall eucalyptus trees. Save for the occasional lone butterfly that was fluttering aimlesslly, we did not catch any magnificent site. Well, we at least know where this place is and will make another visit next year.

On our way out, we went down to the beach to see the natural bridges. Oh, what a sight it was! The sun went behind the clouds and made the whole place look something out of this world. It was a photographers dream, for a full four minutes before the rain came down and forced us to run to our vehicles.

No photos of the butterflies, except this pink one!

The magnificence of the Natural bridge! There were two bridges, but one collapsed recently.

Playing with the lone gull that was scouring the foam

Jr.'s first photo using the Digital Rebel. Not bad!

Finally, the stitch shots...

From atop the Butterfly preserve, looking down to the beach..

6 shot stitch

16 shot stitch. If only I could get the sun shining through the hole under the bridge. Now that would be some shot!

Here is to Santa Cruz!

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Mt. Tamalpais - a day trip

We took a trip through the Mt. Tamalpais preserve in San Francisco two weeks ago with San's uncle.

From there we visited Point Reyes for the third time in ten years. This time it was a thursday and could take a lot of stitch shots, thanks to it being just me and San's uncle at the lighthouse.

First we went to the vista point on Mt. Tamalpais where you can see stinson beach and the entire lagoon! (we lucked out because the visibility was really good)

Then we went down back on route 1 to the Point Reyes Seashore preserve and after driving for another 45 minutes we got to the lighthouse. For the first time, tried a composite box stitch shot. Came out okay. Will have to learn and perfect this. (note that you have to eyeball where your last shot was on the Rebel XT! The old powershots will actually split the screen and show you the first shot to align the second one)

You line them up..

Hit Merge on Photostitch ..

and abracadabra..

From the lighthouse we went to Drakes beach, one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to!

Although Chitappa was in two consecutive shots, it stitched him in one piece! Lucky shot..(there are 14 images from which this one was made)

This sweep is from 17 images..

The rock side goes all the way to the ocean

and juts out like some dinosaur leg. Reminds you of Great Ocean drive in Australia.

We also saw a lot of birds and animals we do not see usually when we go on these trips. They were probably out because it was a weekday and there was no traffic.

We saw foxes, hawks, eagles, elk, deer, woodpeckers, cows!

These are not the greatest photos, but because there was this one lane road with no stopping, we had to rush it.

Happy cows come from California. Truly believe it now. If I got to graze on a hillside with such scenery in the background, I would be a happy cow too..

All said and done, a day well spent. Strongly recommended for a one day outing if you live in the bay area!

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And the Academy award goes to....

The California Academy of Sciences !!!

For engaging and educating Jr. and the little one for an entire afternoon.

For now will leave you with these photos. Very busy at work and will possibly spend 15-20 mins every night to update this one post..

Will be lucky if it is done by Friday.

In the heart of San Francisco, there is Golden Gate Park
In the heart of that park is the California Academy of Sciences
In the heart of that is a swampland exhibit
In the heart of that exhibit lies....

see you later..

Albino alligator!

ps. Reader does not do justice to these photos.. please see them with the intended background here...
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Mama goes to The Mystery Spot

There is this place on the way from San Jose to Santa Cruz, called The Mystery Spot.

It is a weird place where there is some strange force acting upwards that you can physically sense. Apparently there are 18 such places in the globe (9 mirror sites through the center of the earth?!) and since most of such places are over the ocean, only two or three are offered as a sight seeing location on planet Earth.

This spot has been around for tourists to see, since the 1940's. For some strange reason, more Desis have seen the mystery spot than Americans. This is based on a statistical survey conducted by the BOGUS Institute's chief, Dr. Sündar Narayanöhe, who has personally visited "The Mystery Spot" 8 times.

Having been on the main tour four times, and having waited for many 45 minute tours to finish so he could take his turn with the visitors accompanying him from India (this was before they enabled online ticket purchses), Dr. Narayanöhe has observed that 9/10 people in all tours are Desis.

Usual tourist spots in the bay area, especially over long weekends, have the distribution of 40% Indian, 40% Chinese and 20% other, except in Disneyland where the ratio would be 40/30/30. The lack of non-desis at "The Mystery Spot" as it is officially called, is in itself a Mystery, concludes the eminent researcher!

That said, "Mama" or "Chota Mama" as he is known in family circles, visited the bay area last weekend and posed the billion dollar question, "What can you show me that we don't normally see in India?". This from a dude who has just been shown the Empire State Building, the Smithsonian, the National Air and Space Museum, etc. etc.

The equations were cruched in our heads and the point of singularity was clearly going towards, you guessed it !!!!

So off we went and at the end of the trip, "Mama", or "Mug Shot Mama" as he is now called in family circles, came out with a smile on his face. "That was incredible, do you know what is really going on there?", he asked a bewildered Dr. Narayanöhe, who started by drawing some equations, lines and arrows on a paper napkin, invoked the name of his favorite physics teacher "Balu Sir", scratched his head some more and replied, "The BOGUS Institute will take this as a personal request and submit its report, soon.." and told himself "the hell if I know!".

We present to the reader, some interesting photographs from the trip.

This is what is known as the "Om Boohu" shot!

People as well as trees get a nauseus feeling and go dizzzzy, at the spot. This photo shows a confused "corkscrew tree"..

The next two photos show how Mama (who boldly voluteered where many desis have volunteered before) and a little kid clearly demonstrate that the height difference between them changes drastically, when they switch places around the spot. The spot runs through the girl watching them on the concrete T, who by the way endorsed the phenonmenon for real.

In case the previous photos were not convincing enough, here is Mama and the eminent researcher, whose eminence is all the more prominent with the new haircut, which in turn has revealed a "mystery spot" on his scalp where all the hair seem to be confused.... demonstating the effect first hand. People develop a 17 degree lean when they are inside the spot on level ground. "Amazing! Now I know how Michael Jackson did that tilt thing in Smooth Criminal! Possibly blue screen work at the spot!" chipped a kid from behind as the tour progressed.

and finally the mystery behind Mama's name change in family circles!

Ta da..

If you are a desi visiting a relative in the bay area, chances are you have visted this place. If not, spread the word! It has become a must watch site for madisaar mamis and mottai thalais alike.

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