The next stop on our 2015 year end trip from Suresh Mama's house?
Leo Carrillo Ranch historic park.
It was the ranch of the famous actor and park activist Leo Carrillo which now has been turned into a park with a visitor center.
The highlight of the park? 22 peacocks and peahens that are the decendents of a few birds brought from India many decades ago.
They are free to go anywhere but apparently have made the ranch their permanent home! One of the peacocks is an albino..
We spent an hour at this park and walked a small trail there. Let the kids have fun watching and following the birds..
There were many interesting questions raised.. why is the male more prettier than the female? shouldn't it be the other way around? girls are the ones that have to look pretty, no?!
There may be really good answers out there on why this difference between peacocks and humans.. but most of the adults in the group just let it slide.
Here are some Peacock and peahen portraits from the park.
We searched as far as we could before the park closed.. but could not sight the albino peacock. Some things have to wait for the next visit, eh?
As part of spending time locally, another activity suggested by a friend was ice skating in Central park in Santa Clara. We did not know that they had set up this small rink so close to home.
The kids had a lot of fun skating!
We were happy that those skating classes they took earlier this year were being put to good use!
It is great to have local parks set up rinks like this! There was nice music in the background and the whole festive atmosphere can be felt, thanks to the smiling faces of everyone around, especially the kids!
This rink will be there till Jan 3rd. If you have time to spend with kids who can skate, definitely worth it!
For the July 4th weekend, we decided to go on a day trip to Six flags with the cousins. It is 90 minutes away and in all our years of living here, we never visited this theme park.
It is a combination of Sea world, Disney's animal kingdowm and Universal all in one for a third of the price. Granted there are some give and takes for the price but the end result when you have a bunch of kids running around on a sugar high, a great place to spend the day!
We went in as soon as the park opened and stayed there till the park closed. Pretty much on our feet the whole time. Here are some pictures.
There was a seal show. The seals did a good job but the people in the show were too loud and annoying. The volume was too loud. Hope the seals dont hear the same frequencies we do at the same volume!
Then the little dolphin show. It was amazing. There was also another big dolphin show called Drench, but we missed it. The little dolphin show was better than the ones we have seen at Sea World.
These 4 female dolphins were so synchronized and trained. They did a hoola hoop on their nose, threw a ball up with their "hands" and caught it in their mouth.. amazingly well trained.
Then we moved on to land animals. The tiger show was something we have never seen before. Five bengal tigers, jumping across 10 foot concrete slabs, climbing up 20 feet in one leap..
and diving into water and swimming! Have not seen that one before..
The butterfly garden was beautiful. Lots of large and small butterflies, well maintained, multiple security guards to make sure folks did not have both doors open to let butterflies out.. it was nicely done!
This one was the size of my palm!
Then we saw "feedom".. a Bald Eagle that was rescued. She posed for pictures a good 50 feet away. Was happy to get this "portrait" of her. Truly majestic and regal! On a good note, the extender and lens are fixed and seem to work okay after the repair.
The highlight though, was the fireworks. In all our life we have watched a lot of new years, disney, 4th of July fireworks. This was the best. Nice seats on a gallery. Very decent crowd. Great view of the fireworks launching pad across the water. The quality of the fireworks was also great. It was very well organized.
Tried a slo-motion video of the first part of the fireworks on the new iPhone 6 plus. However not sure if it uploads as a slow motion video.. it is on my youtube as a separate video..
Was too tired to even take the canon out after the long day.. Sometimes the best camera, is the one you can hold!
Loved this day trip. It was really a pleasant day, less crowded rides, happy kids and parents after being on our feet the entire day. Cannot ask for much more!
