Wife's ankle is slowly healing and we went on the inaugural walk with friends. It was not exactly a hike by old standards. It was the Zinfandel trail at the local Pichetti winery. Maybe this trail is called Zinfandel because it is the wine people are given who are trying wine for the first time... "almost grape juice" type stuff? That was what was going through my mind while we walked the trail.
It is 4 miles up and down and only steep for a 5-10 minute stretch. We went early in the morning and were down by morning tea time!
We got a decent view and came back without any further event. Uneventful hikes are good for starters!
We wrapped up the BIL's family visit with an entire day at Great America theme park which finally ended with some amazing fireworks..
Given all the walking San had done to that point, she was now on a cast and in a wheelchair. So that was interesting in itself. Great America is not designed to be friendly for people who have casts but the kids who manned the rides did their best to accomodate. They gave a list of rides that were safe for her and we took her only on those rides. San was actually smiling most of the time she was being wheeled around.. the irony of the situation was also making me laugh every now and then!
Great America is a poor mans Disney.. and you get to see that the poor man who visits this park is at least 3 sizes larger than the average person visiting Disney. 4 of 5 people you cross are walking with a struggle, are obese and in general show poor health just by looking at them. We saw many rides go down because the rides got stuck or people got stuck in the seats and had to be retrived. That apart, we went on a handful of rides which were in general safe and were not going to get stuck. BIL, me and Jr. spent one hour on a line when they shut it down and sent us back. We still put on a smile and went about the rest of the day.
The place is beautiful with all the fountains and floral arrangements..
The smile from the kids made up for all the standing in lines and josting for space with the wheelchair.
While Jr., the little one and BIL made it through some of the risky rides, the rest of us split up and did different things. My MIL and me went on the rotating tower and got a birds eye view of silicon valley. My old office is right behind this part and my new office was also visible.
the day ended with fireworks. We got great shots on an iPhone with the right setting..
A few shots of the fireworks in a slide show.. Most of them were taken on an iPhone
and a video of the highlights of this day trip.
We had a great time the entire day, except for the exit out of the park. The design of the exit and the procedure leaves a sour taste.. Everyone was trying to exit the park after fireworks. There were no traffic cops to get any order. It was a free for all towards the exit after being in a gridlock for 1 hour. Finally we made it out and home closer to 11:30 PM when the fireworks had ended at 9PM and we had sat in our car at 9:15! It is a 15 minute ride back home on a normal night! If there is one thing they could fix immediately, it is the directing of vehicles out of the park.
Our hope is that we eventually make it to Disney with the kids(?! at heart) soon, once the delta variant makes its exit. Till then, we will always have memories of this Great America trip, when it comes to roller coasters, fireworks and parking lot exits!
We visited "The Mystery Spot" in Santa Cruz for the 20+ th time with the BIL family on the way to Monterey beach.
Think I toppped the number of visits list on this group by a wide margin. I was not alone in visiting this place multiple times. There were other folks who were bringing family and friends for the 10th or 14th time.
Still this place never loses the wonder it brings.. you get to experience something different and weird for that 30 minutes. The high school and college kids who act as guides for this 30 minute tour try to one up their jokes and now they have a cafeteria outside as well! So the place is doing well.
we checked the level.. it is still almost the same after 20 years.. not much earth movement!
Here is BIL doing the MJ thing..
and if you are wondering what happens at the mystery spot... we start walking with a lean without realizing it. the video below says it all..
The outside has some decor added with a couple of cars completely covered in mystery spot stickers and bunch of US flags now and that adds a little color to the entry!
Something tells me we will be visiting this place again in a few years when more guests show up!
We had visited this park in Monterey right after San realized she could only limp along for a few days. Lovers point park is perfect to park right near the beach, get down just 15 steps and get your feet wet in the waves.
When the BIL's family visited, we made another trip to the park..
We made it in the evening and it was overcast and almost started drizzling after we spent an hour at the beach.. so we made it back home with a nice dinner at Los Gatos in a Mexican place.
Here are some pictures from the outing..
I started doing a yoga pose.. but the wind was stronger than last visit and I was not that confident of my balance.. so abandoned the attempt halfway..
Then a gull came and sat next to me.. very close to me. Must be a very sociable gull.. so I took a Gullfie..
and here is the "making of the Gullfie" shot from Jr.
the star of the show..
I think it has been trained to pose.. maybe it expected me to hand it food after posing for photos.. dont know!
We had fun in the waves..
We will be making many more visits to this place over the years is our guess.
It has been almost two months since any blog entires. It was not intentional. We had a great summer beginning when every weekend saw a new hike, nature photos and happy smiling faces.
Then things changed, in a fraction of a second. My wife went to Windy hill hike with a friend and did the simple common mistake of not looking where she is walking. In a spilt second her shoe gets stuck in a root on the path and her ankle was twisted. She decided it was "just a sprain" and decided to go on a larger hike during memorial day weekend which made matters a lot worse.
After many X-rays, MRI, bottles of Ibuprofen,Voltaren,Icy-hot,dencorub,CBD oil, etc. etc.. (it is actually a long list), ankle braces, doctor appointments, chiropractor visits, even Bikram yoga with me and my MIL later... she is almost walking normally again within the house and on solid concrete floors.
Every week was "it will get better in three weeks" and almost three months passed. We are still happy with the progress. If the queen is not happy, the kingdom cannot be happy. Given the blog is usually positive, I just stayed away from it.
My new job also got interesting. A lot more work came up in the last 6 weeks. After being in startups for 15 years, a big company has a very different feel. Some things work more efficiently. There are systems in place for everything and that is great. Some things are incredibly slow which is to be expected and I had to significantly reduce my internal clock speed to set realistic expectations. Think I am reasonably adjusted now, we will know in a few quarters (you expected me to say "shortly" didn't you! have learned my lesson).
Then things got interesting everywhere else. We had a flying visit from the BIL's family for three days during the July 4th weekend and more sickness around the house. We are all on the mend now and that is why I decided to catch up on blogging.
First for some small things. My co-sister decided to bring us a gift when they visited. We have a lot of hummingbirds in our backyard. So asked her to get us a hummingbird feeder. I had plans to get a regular bird feeder. We recently had a bird hit our window and die right there. Wanted to give back something to our backyard birds for the hours of entertainment they provide when we drink tea on the swing and watch them.
Got a couple of shepards hooks, posted them inside flower pots and set it all up. As an added bonus set up a water fountain as a project, working with my two nieces. It was an instant success.
Here are some photos and videos..
I have never seen a baby hummingbird.. we all call it "baby hammu" and it is incredibly cute!
The rest of the sparrows, finches, crows, doves and squirrels are all gathering around this small area and I just watch the backyard as I work. Making powerpoint slides becomes easier when these critters are around!
Never even got to edit all the photos from the July 4th trip. Will spend an hour a day and get back to blogging and the photo editing! My connection to music also got stronger over the last few months. Will write about it later!
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 8:32PM ;)
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