sunset

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A weekend getaway in Santa Fe

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Last weekend we decided to go to Santa Fe for a short trip with friends. Took Friday off and came back Sunday evening.

It was a 2 hour flight. Given my last flight before that was giving me PTSD I prayed to all the gods I know and don’t know that there be no turbulence or delays. The entire group was sending me to the restroom till the plane was about to board. Fortunately little turbulence on the way in. Weather cooperated. We landed and drove from Albuquerque to Santa Fe after getting our rental cars.

Men in one SUV and the ladies in another SUV. We reached our Airbnb an hour later.

The house we rented was the highlight of the trip. It was spacious and cozy at the same time, had amazing views and we had a great time just hanging out together. Also got to take photos during sunrise and sunset and occasionally watch the rain on the deck.

This “hacienda” deserved a post in itself. Here are some pictures and a video of the place itself..

A video highlights reel..

We would definitely recommend this place if you are going as a group of 8 or 9. Fantastic experience. We drove to an Albertsons which was 10 minutes away to shop for groceries and used the kitchen as well.

The rest of the “sightseeing” we managed to do over the two days will be posted over the next week.

My leg was still in a brace this entire trip and it was good I kept the brace. There was a lot of walking every now and then on flat terrain and this was a good test to see how the knee was recovering.

Glad I went on this weekend trip!

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Revisiting memories from a Pink Floyd T-shirt

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The previous post in this series is here..

A long long time ago, there was a Pink Floyd T-Shirt that I used to have. It had a picture of a man diving into water. You can see his legs reflection only in the water as he has gone waist down into the water. The landscape in the background looks like some special effects from a Dune movie.

Post Google days, I find that this picture is of Mono lake in California!! Used to tell San that we should go visit it. Eventually we did go with her cousin’s family with the little kids to see Mono lake. But we did not get to stay for Sunset. It was also 95 F outside and the brine flies did not encourage us to spend more time there. It was still a great trip as we checked off “Mono lake”! ( just realized that when I moved all my old posts from blogger to squarespace, early Youtube video links never transferred over!!! Here was the original blogger post and a post with pics (sadly doesn’t show up in squarespace as the porting was probably not good!) . and here is the link to a past Youtube video.

After hiking Mt. Dana and staying practically in the same area, we decided to go see the sunset at Mono lake. It was a 10 minute drive to the Vista point and the entire group went there right after an early dinner.

This time the sunset did the T-shirt picture justice. We were treated to natures landscape show! The skies lit up in so many hues over the 45 minutes we were there! Two “bench photos” to start things off.

These landscapes made me photo crazy.. here is a landscape gallery! Yet again, I played spoil sport as soon as the sun went down. There were no restrooms in this area and I had to get back to the hotel room. So the entire group rushed back so yours truly could use the lodge restroom. No one complained.

These landscapes are really out worldly!

And a few panos..

A few more photos in portrait format..

A video highlights reel of our time watching the sunset at Mono lake.

It was time well spent. We were there for maybe an hour or hour and a half. We came back to the lodge and. got a good nights sleep. The next mornings plan was to go to Mammoth lakes and then come back home.

We decided to change that plan as well and visit something else.. that in the next and last post of this trip..

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The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

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The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.