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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Sacramento Zoo

We went on a short trip to the Sacramento Zoo, the day after thanksgiving.

We had a blast. The weather was great and the kids were well behaved throughout the two hour ride from San Jose (~125 miles one way) as well as on the ride back!

This is a great zoo! Somehow all the animals seem to be happy and were interacting with the people, seem to be healthy, well maintained and comfortable. They had zoo staff, in little booths explaining things to the kids about the animals. They even have a animal hospital on display for visitors which was very informative.

The photos and videos say it all..

Bramhopadesam paramam pavithram... cut cut cut.. this was just playtime.. this pose by the two orangutans reminded me of an old Upanayanam (poonal) photo of me and my dad with a silk cloth over our head, during the "initiation ceremony"!

They were just adorable.

The kookaburra from Australia. My mom taught Jr. "Kookaburra sits on a sorgham tree..." and it is one of her favorites!

Some of the bird cages were a little cramped but the African gray parrots were still very happy!

The long necked ones, apparently have seven neck bones, same count as humans, except the bones are long! Most of these were 13 -11 years old. They also had some giraffe skin from one that passed away at the zoo at an old age of 24 (apparently in the wild they live to be 16-17 max).

Jr. put the demo lady on the spot by asking her who killed the animal, how did they get the skin out etc. Once the questions started getting very difficult, we pulled Jr. out!

They had this metal artwork and some picnic tables nearby which were very useful to do some show and tell while feeding the kids.

Spot the main difference in the two photos below. (one is a cropped version)!

The little one is sooo impatient.

She wanted to be the big Kangaroo!

We saw what appeared to be Master Shifu..

The South American ant eater, a big hit with the kids!

The Sumatran Tiger, captured to the best of my ability through glass, wire and bamboo..

The lion was way too far to be captured with an 80mm max zoom, but the Jaguar was up close!

The flamingo pond was amazing. It was like seeing them in the wild.

After the trip to the zoo, we went on to visit Fairy Tale Land and Funderland, two other attractions across the zoo. The kids really enjoyed the day.

Here is a video of the Zoo trip..

Strongly recommended for a one day outing from the bay area!

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There are two sides to..

There are two sides to every pumpkin. Many more if you consider that it is round! At least two sides though, from a carving point of view!

With a lot of enthu this morning (thanks to a good night's sleep), daddy decided to carve up what remaining space was available on the small pumpkin from last night.(note the small circle, which was the little one's contribution to the drawing effort. Next year, we will ask her to draw a pillaiyar suzhi, which will be added to the carving and give a new desi twist to Halloween)

For added effect we decided to use the haunted house to create a shadow on the wall for the pictures.

Now that a more complicated pattern has been done, daddy is happy and will take a long afternoon nap to celebrate Halloween.

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Pumpkin baby ... baby pumpkin

Okay. There was a change of heart, although it came very late in the day.

Work has been gruelling the last couple of days and there was no strength left when I came home, but the little darlings gave me enough hugs and kisses to bribe me into taking them trick or treating to three houses,and make me carve a pumpkin, with some great help from friends!

After the witch beguiled me with her smile and the little devil drove me nuts with her details, we went to Mitr's and K.'s place to carve a pumpkin.

A few thanks first :
1. To a baby boy A. who graciously picked this pumpkin from his school
2. To the boy's parents for leaving that pumpkin by mistake with Mitr and K.
3. To Mitr and K. for graciously letting us use their table for the "step by step" carving guide on that pumpkin
4. To San for being very patient with me today
4. and to Jr. and little one for pushing their tired and sick daddy to get back into the halloween spirit, no pun intended!

Now for the step by step instruction:

Take a pumpkin (the larger the better!), spread a garbage bag or some newspaper on the table before you start.

They sell stencils or pre drawn patterns along with carving kits (a book with 12 patterns, a scooper to get the goop from inside the pumpkin and two serrated carvers, one coarse and one fine all come for 5$).

However, the better thing to do instead of sticking the stencil on the pumpkin, would be to free hand draw the pattern on the pumpkin so you adjust the picture to scale. This takes some practice. In our case little A. must have picked a pumpkin he could handle with his tiny hands and that made it challenging to draw any elaborate pattern and then carve it. (the smaller the features get, the more difficult it is to separate the pieces and get them out!)

Do not use a sketch pen to draw. Use a permanent marker! Once you are done with the drawing, slice out a circle on the top and clean out the top.

Then scoop out the stuff from inside and make sure it is clean! If you leave beind the fibrous stuff, you will not be able to pop out the carved bits easily..

Then delicately start pushing the carving blade straight down (perpendicular to pumpkin surface) and start moving along the pattern. Once you finish a section, gently push the piece out and keep going. Remember, slow and steady...

Then slice out the inside on thick sections of the pattern so there is some translucency and put a candle inside!

Granted, this years piece was not even close to the ones in the last few years, but this is all that we managed in the 15 minutes at K and Mitr's place. (previous years stuff here, here, here and here!

Next year, we will give you a Mona Lisa...

On a side note, they should move up Halloween ahead by two weeks. All this global warming is making every halloween worse than the previous year when it comes to the weather!

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Lights, Camera, Action

First the lights..

Now the camera..

May the godess Lakshmi (more specifically Sowbaghyalakshmi!) bless this house with a new lens in the coming year!

Okay, okay.. that was not the cameras fault. It was an accident! After taking pictures of the outside lights, on a tripod the extended family requested a group shot. Without realizing that it was on manual mode with 0.8 seconds at F/4.0! and on self timer, placed the tripod and this is what we get. Still does not hurt to ask the godess, right?!

That photo, came in handy! This is the first group photo with all the unrecognizable ladies published on the blog!

Now for the action...

My BIL, who is celebrating his Thalai Deepavali (first deepavali as a "hubby"), came up with this one. He was trying "night shot" mode, thereby giving this second picture, which would normally make the reject pile, find extensive use on this blog to show what was happening without having to do any photoshop to black out faces. This ensures that the folks seeking anonymity are happy and makes me happy as well (I get to post some photos!)

Happiness, is watching great looking happy women celebrate in style...

This was another candid classic from the BIL who is now trigger happy with his new Nikon D40 (Edited to chop off what remained of the recognizable faces. Ladies, my apologies! Next year will make sure all of you turn the other way so we dont have to do this).

That picture pretty much gives a brief overview of this years deepavali saree selections namely:

asattu karuppu with arakku border
mayil kazhuththu color with segappu border
deep magenta with gold border
etc. etc.. (colors which are undescribable, untranslateable and untransliterable in english)

The kids really enjoyed it!

We had a blast this year!

This Deepavali was much needed in this household which has otherwise become very gloomy in its outlook.. Time to think positive at home, at blogger, at everything!

Here's to the "lighter" side of life!

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