travel

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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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Wrapping up a Yosemite hiking weekend with June lake loop

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The previous post in this series is here..

After seeing the Tufa tower sunset at Mono lake, we came back to the lodge and decided to change our Mammoth lake plan. June lakes it turns out was closer and as beautiful. There were four lakes in the loop each with its own view. The entire loop was 16 miles and we could go back through the national park, have lunch at one of the benches in Yosemite and be on our way home.

None of us had visited June lake and our 9th member had suggested it. We were all happy with the change of plan. Finished our morning chai and breakfast, checked out and started driving.

We went away from the park for 20 more minutes (Mammoth would have been 45 minutes!) and drove through the June lake loop. The lakes in sequence are June lake, Gull lake, Silver lake and Grant lake.

We spent 30-45 minutes in each lake, took pictures, walked a small trail and drove from lake to lake. Finally we said bye to our friend at Grant lake and the other 8 made it to Yosemite park entrance. Just before the entrance we stopped by the first bridge that was built to cross over and saw the commemoration plate. We also watched the waterfall at the entrance.

Tried to find parking inside Yosemite to eat lunch. No luck after three tries. Finally parked by the side of the road, sat on a tree and ate the lunch that was already prepared. The ladies had it all microwaved in the morning before we even left. The food tased delicious, again. Then we made a dash for home.. with a few stops for breaks. We were back by dinner time!

It was a weekend well spent. Knew this was a risk but was glad to be able to relax in nature on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Also I did not drive. Just sat in the backseat and enjoyed the view. The entire group made it special for me. San made me feel “normal” again.

Here are the photos..

A video highlights reel. June lake loop area is called the Switzerland of California! Did not know that!

Think there will be a long break before I hike again! Enjoyed editing photos, reliving memories and writing about this trip. Hopefully once the knee is better, will get back to hiking again, but it will be very slow and steady progress!

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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..

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.