A first time for everything...

While the rest of the US is going nuts over the elections, yours truly has been extremly happy and stayed away from most coverage.

Bikram Yoga San Jose opened its doors for Hot Yoga classes. . . Hot being the keyword.. and I have been drenched in glorious sweat every day and my sanity is on a different track. 

The little coverage that leaked through thanks to my family and walking buddies did keep me amused. Sooner or later, someone will win. Hopefully sanity will return.. The country has already gone past a point of no return in 2016 and has had a massive heart attack. It is living on borrowed time. There is only hope left.

No one in my company has gone anywhere on vacation given COVID and we have all been working pretty much round the clock since March. There was a policy change where if you exceed PTO, you take it or lose it. 

So every three weeks, taking a Friday off. The last such day off saw me go up to Hunters point and get a view of the silicon valley from the south west side. 

Today it was a much more ambitious plan to go up Mission peak in Fremont. Even though I average 7.5 miles of walking a day, it is mostly on flat terrain around the block. Don't like steep climbs as it makes my ankle swell. 

My wife encouraged me a lot to climb this by reminding me of my glory days of climbing with a 30 lbs camera bag on my back in what seems just a year ago in truth, but a decade ago in my memory. 

Off we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Took us exactly 2 and a half hours to go up and come down from the parking lot. Some pictures..

We got a great view from the top..

The views enroute were beautiful..

For the most part San walked ahead of me.. she cannot stop on an uphill climb or she finds it difficult to start again..I cannot stop downhill or I get stuck! So we had an interesting arrangement.. 

we walked with her leading up and me leading down but with stops to catch up.. and take selfies! We met maybe a total of 10 people on either way.. had our masks in our hand and had to wear it only when we saw anyone in the other direction. That made things easier!

We got drenched on the way back with an unexpected downpour. That made this an adventure of sort, running down in rain watching the city lights..

It has taken me at least the last few hours to get my warmth back and get back to normal after what has defintiely been some exercise outside the yoga mat! 

Still prefer walks on flat terrain compared to a non stop slope, but walking with San is something that I have missed for a long time.. Just realized that today!

That grin on my face says it all !!!

When going to SFO becomes a vacation

After being in stay at home mode for six months, we (read San) really wanted to go somewhere for a drive. So two weekends ago we decided to drive towards Santa Cruz on Labor day Sunday to at least wet our feet in the beach. What we didn't know was that the beaches were open only on Saturday and they closed it for Sunday and Monday. So after a 45 minute drive towards Santa Cruz, we drove back without ever getting out of the car. 

There were fires burning then but it was clear that morning. Still no chance to realize the get out of the car and walk around goal.

This weekend we decided to go visit Stow lake in Golden Gate Park as one of our friends posted some amazing pictures. We have visited this park many times in the past, mostly to go to California Academy of sciences. The first time was in 2002 when San was pregnant with Jr. It was the first place we took my MIL to visit. At that time we walked near this place and went to a Japanese tea garden.. but missed the lake and boating area!

By the time we went there the boat rental was closed, but we did go for a nice walk around the lake and enjoyed some fresh air. The lawns were extremely crowded with families sitting on blankets and kids walking the dogs, but the walking paths were relatively people free. 90% of the folks wore masks with the exception being a few runners. We stayed clear of them. We removed our masks only to take a few selfies when no one was around. 

The selfie camera in iPHone is not as capable as the actual camera as you can tell from the rest of the photos..

The colors in this place are so vibrant the photos came out great..on the iPhone. Was editing the photos on snapseed and fell in love with this frame that seems to work for nature photos.. 

Loved this frame..and the bridge that was erected in 1893! 

then the birds in the lake gave us a few more chances to take a break and take pictures..

an evening well spent.. now that we have had one visit, we plan to start going to other places on short drives where we don't have to step out anywhere, use public restrooms or come in contact with strangers.. 

The daily walks around the neighborhood and stay at home / Parking lot yoga is still on.. The air has also cleared up nicely so far. It almost feels like life came back closer to normal.

Semmozhi Poonga (park) in Chennai

We were back in Chennai after our Amritsar trip. Had a full six days before I had to return to the US. It has been three years since I spent that may continuous days with parents and brother's family. Last two years, it has been a two days or three at the most, squeezed in at the end of business trips to Asia.

One day we decided to cool down at a local park called Semmozhi Poonga. We have visited this place as kids but not in its current form. The park is a great place for kids under 12 and older people who are still kids at heart. 

There were at least two dozen parrots that had made their home in the trees in the park and it was a treat to watch them. It was also great to watch the kids play together. Something we would like to see every day but have to wait for every three years..

The light during sunset combined with the greenery made for some perfect portrait backdrops..

and finally, sometimes the best photographs are the unplanned unposed for ones.. when you catch someone playing with kids and you happen to be standing far away with a telephoto lens trying to capture parrots, but capture something more magical instead! 

I did take what is possibly the best shot of my wife in recent memory. It does not go on this blog, but it is a note for everyone. Keep a telephoto handy and stay far away and you might end up with some memorable "people" pictures!

If you are in Chennai on a hot summer day, strongly recommend this park to take the kids to and have a fun time!