Hakone Gardens

We have lived in the bay area for almost 20 years and have known of the existence of Hakone Gardens the entire time. Somehow the motivation to visit this place was not there before. Maybe it was folks telling us it is too small or the ticket price doesn't jusitfy it compared to Filoli etc.. Whatever it be, this is one of those places we simply forgot to visit. (Winchester Mystery house and Hearst castle are two other places we still have not visited).

Given this was a quiet thanksgiving weekend to be spent locally, we decided to visit. We actually had a great time. The weather was perfect and the fall colors made for great photos! 

We did not do a "tea ceremony" but spent 3 hours there and were smiling through and through cracking jokes with family. 

The place is small but amazingly beautiful. Every stone is placed perfectly. 

Here is a slideshow of the pictures in vertical format..

and one in horizontal format..

Strongly recommend this place for timepass if you are in the bay area and have only a few hours. Nice and quiet with some beautiful views of the entire bay area as you walk around the hill on the garden!

and these are a few of my favorite things!

Birthday draws to a close. I am close to getting AARP membership. Another year whizzed past. It has been a good year or I have started seeing good in everything. Either way it is good.

Went to work bright and early. All my colleagues sang happy birthday as part of lunch and that was very touching. 

A visit to BYSJ and giving it everything - Check

A visit to Bhavikas and giving the stomach and taste buds everything - Check

A trip to the movies watching superheroes - Check

Must have good karma to be able to go do all these things that made my day with family and friends!

Thanks to everyone for the wishes!

Deepavali 2017

It has been some time since a post came to the blog. Life has been busy .. but with plenty of happenings!

There was the Diwali that came and went during a weekday, and was celebrated over the weekend.

There was a special Yoga class last weekend.. More on that later.

But this post is to wish everyone on the blog space a belated Deepavali . . . Facebook takes over these posts now and then.

The photo below is a compilation of Deepavali (Diwali) celebrations over the years. We did not do fireworks in the early days for fear of smoke alarms.. a kid or two later and we go "bah!" 

There used to be no sparklers or the entire family posing around one single sparkler in the garage! 

There were years where we just cozied up and did not celebrate, or celebrated with the birth of a new baby!

The one year this was celebrated in India! 

Click to enlarge the image. . .

Got happy tears just looking at old photos and compiling this one!

This is one happy festival!

Harvest moon

The moon is always beautiful and fascinating. Friday morning I opened the front door and the moon looked a little bigger than usual and it was full. 

So made Jr. wait for school and took a few pictures from our doorstep.

After a few mintues realized that using the extender would definitely give me a better shot. So put that on and took a few more pictures. It was a setting moon. 

Moon photos are always better if there is a backdrop that shows it in scale.. this one was just a handheld shot but it is beautiful in its own way..

Later that evening got to see a lot of posts from the previous night on the rising moon. Apparenlty it is called a "harvest moon". Had no idea. Have been living in a very busy and warped world recently. 

Just happy to be able to upload some pictures and be normal again!

Lightning strikes

Last month, during one of those days of my self imposed social media ban, was waiting outside on the street while Jr. was having her Saxophone lessons.

The skies darkened all of a sudden and there was thunder and lightning strikes, the likes of which I have not witnessed in almost 2 decades in the bay area. They were so frequent that I could get photographs of lightning with my iPhone!

Here is a photo.. 

and a edited video.. (I kept rolling for a good 10 minutes)

it was a memorable 15 minutes.. then the skies cleared and it was back to normal. In case my memory fails me someday, this blog will be there to put the marker back.. 

This was an amazing treat from mother nature!