2017 is done and we are moving on. The last 8 days saw us visit local places with the BIL's family. My two nieces made photography fun again for me!
They would randomly come ask me to take pictures in the studio and make funny face poses!
Our plan was to go to the Golden Gate Bridge vista point. However we were not allowed to enter. It was buses only. So we decided to see the bridge from the other side. There also parking was impossible. So we ended up getting flagged to go further and further away from the bridge and next thing we know, we are at a visitor center and there is a beautiful lagoon and a beach with was within eye sight. It said 0.8 miles one way and a mild hike, so off we went. There was a distinct possibility that the little ones might ask to be "lifted" and carried on the way back, but that did not happen. They walked the entire trail and back.
We spent a good 2 hours there and took pictures!
I should have dressed better though. Caught some virus. The rest of 30th and 31st has been spent drinking cough syrup and sleeping. Finally managed to edit the pictures now..
We also had the studio set up in the house.. that meant pictures and pictures and more pictures anytime the kids wanted..
we even switched to a black background to test out some shots..
2018 is going to be a busy year for us. My hope is that we all be in better health next year.
I had the best year health wise for 2017 but managed to mess it up in the last two days! While it is easy to bias an entire year based on the last few days, I did thoroughly enjoy 2017.
Thankful to my BIL and family for visiting us over the break. When you have little kids running around the house, it lights up the place!
Day 7 was the last day. We started at Puno in the morning and drove to Juliaca airport. We almost missed the flight out to Puno. The bus driver stopped at every street corner and waited to pick up passengers, not all of them going to the airport.
We were cutting it very close and a lot of airport folks said "please get us to the airport". This person was tryig to make a few extra bucks picking up people en route to drop but it could have cost us a lot more if we missed the flight. There were not that many flights out of Juliaca!
Finally after some anxious moments we made it through a traffic jam to the small airport and made it to Lima. It was almost 3PM in Lima. Our original plan was to stay in the airport till our 1AM flight back to US.
We were sitting at the starbucks in Lima airport talking to a girl and her mom who were on their way to India for a two week sightseeing tour, giving them tips when we realized we had time.
We called our tour agent and said "please get us a driver to take us around some local sights in Lima and drop us back at the airport at 9 PM or so". He quickly arranged a 4 hour block and guess what? we got the same driver who had picked us up 6 days ago when we started the tour. He was a really nice guy and we talked about his family and life history while we talked about ours.
He also volunteered to take pictures of us. We had four hours. So we decided to spend 2 hours in Miraflores, the waterfront recreation area in Lima. It was beautiful! Nice breeze, sunset, lots of people out there on new years eve coming to celebrate.
We walked and rambled on top of large stones to go into the edge of this walkway of sorts and got some great family photos!
We had to take one picture with what a Beligian couple told was "sexy llamas" the previous day in Isla de Tequile. I took a photo of them on their camera and they were doing this with their fingers.
We stopped outside one of Lima's top rated restaurants for a few photos. Then we were on the other side of the road as we made it into Lima for the last stop. Dinner at an Indian restaurant to close out the new year.
As we watched the sunset over the large statues of a man and a woman in various kissing holds and the bustling night life around the statues, we realized that the trip was coming to a close and this had been a lot of fun!
Dinner at Mantra was a quiet affair. There was Shah Rukh Khan hamming his way through some song and dance sequences on a big screen and an international crowd that had come in to celebrate New Year. We had a quick dinner as our driver was waiting outside and wanted to get home to his family by 9:30.
Then he dropped us off at 9 and we were back in the airport. Lima airport is small and it has one VIP lounge. Usually they let only one guest in with my United pass, but given it was New Year's eve, they let the entire family in. We had a decent Wifi connection and an unlimited supply of orange juice and chex mix!
So the family settled in for the next 3 hours till boarding time. Then we watched the ball drop in NYC on the big screen with spanish commentary and all the agents in the gate area did a little walk for us and we thanked them all for their service.
Next thing you know, 2017 started with a 1AM flight.
Day 7 in video..
I am glad that Sangeetha pretty much forced me to agree to this trip. Had wanted to laze around and recharge at home during the break, but the wife and kids gave me an ultimatum. We are going somewhere!
It was a lot of fun and I did get to recharge with all the activity. This year, I am not going to fight it and instead join in the plans.
There are a lot more places to see in Peru and package tours within package tours. We might go back again in a few years to see the Nasca lines, the jungle tours and see more excavated sites in the high mountains.
This year Tamil New Year day came and went before we could blink. This in spite of my moving a biz trip off by a week to spend the day with family. We both got super busy at work that week. So we decided to dress up over the weekend and take pictures to celebrate!
Jr. with her signature pose (apparently is is the new posing standard)
She finally obliged me with a normal smile
The little one looked her happy self but refused to put a "pottu" after repeated begging from me.
The little one said "you get two tries and that is IT! I won't stand for more photos". So two tries it was.
They might not realize the value of these photos or blog posts now.. someday when they are my age they might look back at this and smile!
Last year was a good year for us. Nothing spectacular happened but nothing really disastrous either. Life moved on at a steady pace with things moving on without too much drama in the house.
This post was to go online last Sunday.. a belated Happy Tamil New Year to all of you! May this year bring peace and happiness to one and all!
