Sorrento piers and Sunset

The previous post in this series is here..

After going back to the hotel, the kids decided we had to go to the “beach”. There was NO beach. Just sea access points. We stayed at Hotel Angelina in Sorrento for the two nights. Strongly recommend it for the quiet location, access to the sea, walkable to the city center and public bus stop, and most importantly cute rooms and a very friendly staff. They helped me park the car everytime in the garage!

Our hotel manager told us that there is a public access point to the ocean where locals rent just umbrellas and chairs for 10 or 15 Euro instead of the 50-100 through the hotel elevators that take you down. We had to walk through a tunnel. So off we went. It was a good walk and nice experience. San and the little one stayed in the chairs and relaxed while Jr. and me decided to spend 2 hours in the water.

Then we went back up. It was tricky walking with wet chappals in the tunnels. We dressed up nice again and went back to the city center for dinner. Found a nice place which had a few vegetarian options and small wait time (turns out it was a chain restaurant which is not fancy by local standards.. we found out the next day). Still the food was good and we walked to a local supermarket. Everyone was giving up on sunset and I was being lectured on being sunset crazy. Pushed everyone to walk fast towards the sea and they reluctantly came.

Have to hand it to Jr. She believed in me and told everyone not to give up. When we went to the end of the road we got to see a glorious sunset. After this it was a longer walk back to the hotel and I used Apple maps to go through some deserted lanes. That made them all worry.. but it ended up okay and we were back at the hotel.

Here are the few pictures I have from this afternoon and evening.

A short highly edited video highlights reel..

On a side note, that purplish shirt that gives off different hues under sunlight was my dads. In the last few years we would get him shirts for events which he would wear for a few hours, then shirt will be washed and put in a bureau. When he passed my mom just gave me 15 of these once worn shirts, most of which I had got him as we are the same size. Used those shirts on this trip. There was a constant reminder to see things in a different context.

If you think I am pushing Ramarajan colors, my dad used to do this 50 years ago. He got shirts stitched with the hands and pocket in a different color with the local tailor. In a drab world he got style. Guess I have to thank him for that.

Back to Sorrento.. The next day was going to be packed. We had plans in the morning and had to be back in time for the postponed Kayak trip…

Lover's hill - A step by step guide to embarrassing your kids

The previous post in this series is here..

The second stop in our all day tour was Lover’s hill aka aşıklar tepesi. This is also called as sunset point.

There is a flat edge from which you can see the rock structures in the valley and get nice pano views. There are cute photo spots and a cafe here. While the kids and our fellow van tourists took a break, we decided to do a 360 view video to Turkish music. The guy who ran this gig promised an edited version in 5 minutes. I was more curious about his editing skills and wanted to sign up. San was already practicing local dance moves with our guide.

If I had a dollar (okay, a 1000 dollars given inflation) for every time I heard “Appa please”, “Please appa”, “Appa NO!”, “let her do it”, “I will never talk to you again”, etc in the five minutes that led up to me getting on that little jig, we could have paid for the entire trip and more. However that is step 1 of of this guide. You declare intent.

Then you act like you are considering their suggestion. Then you go “nah!”, I am going to go for it. Much like how they did things to you when they were babies.

The video highlights reel here is for your absolute enjoyment! This went on the tour guide service’s reels. They contract for Viator. But first, some photos.. given where this was going, the kids took one photo and ran as far away from us as possible. Had to beg Jr. to take a video of our video being made (she Zoomed !)

when we drove out saw a baby horsie walking around with a pack.. These had no owners, they were wild horses. Apparently this place is famous for this type of horse, which was once exported to other parts of the world 1400 years ago!

The HIGHLIGHT of the 40 minutes spent here!

Normally cut out any music that will be flagged as copyright, but in this case, the dancing does not go well without the music, so left it in. Youtube promptly flagged it and said the video will not be visible in a lot of locations. My apologies if you cannot see this video..

Was thinking of setting up this jig at the top of one of our local peaks with a pano view and making life interesting. The guy has some really good edit skills but was thinking I can do “comparable if not better” with all my blogging and video editing experience. He airdropped it right away!

Thoroughly enjoyed this experience.. before we moved on to the next stop..

A weekend getaway with friends to Bodega Bay

For over 20 years we have wanted to visit Bodega bay. An old friend and colleague Kevin kept raving about this place after spending a weekend there with his wife. The opportunity never came. In early April, our friends called us to join them for a weekend at Windor (same area). They had access to a timeshare. We drove the two plus hours on a rainy Friday evening to Windsor. It was a cute apartment. Even if we did not go anywhere outside and were just chatting it would have still been a great weekend.

The trips to Bodega bay, the local estuary walk, telling them about the bench photo tradition, lunch at a Nepalese place in Sebastapol, visiting Healdsburg, spending time at a bookstore there followed by some delicious ice cream, walking in the rain and drizzle through the streets and art galleries there… all of that was just extra. Every family has a crazy person and a sane person.. you would have come to that conclusion if all our conversations were overheard.

We had fun!

More pics.. The late lunch at Namaste Kitchen was delicious! The ice cream and hot cocoa on a rainy afternoon at Noble folks in Healdsburg was out of the world!

Walking in Sebastopol on Florence avenue to admire the junk art was a great exprience. We met Patrick Amiot and thanked him for his creations!

while walking around the place we saw a very real reminder of current events.

A video highlights reel..

We are all getting to a different phase of our lives with the kids becoming young adults. It is great to feel young again.. only friends can do that with effortless ease!

Here is to many more getaways! The kids are probably rolling their eyes as they read this.. but will take that!