Channel Islands National Park

It has been only 22 years since we started planning a trip to Channel Islands National park. San and me made a trip to Catalina island (before kids) and wanted to visit this national park and see the foxes. 

Finally we made it over the weekend. It also served another purpose.. to get some stuff from the little one's dorm room so we can vacate her a little easier in two weeks from her dorm.

We started driving at 4:40 on Friday evening and were stuck in horrible non moving traffic for almost an hour. Made it to our hotel at 11:15! This is a ride that is supposed to take under 5 hours. Woke up and pretty much made it to the Ferry. 

The Ferry ride was smooth, there was no sun to be seen, which turned out to be a blessing once we were on the island.

We saw a lot of dophins swim along the ferry on the way. We also saw a lot of Pelicans and sea lions. 

We walked close to a mile with all the camping gear to the campsite on Santa Cruz island. Then started a hike to Smugglers cove. It was 8 miles round trip and reasonable elevation.

The kids in the group decided to go Kayaking for 3 hours and did not join us on the hike! Apparently a must do activity, especially if you are camping overnight. 

The island is full of dandelions and what looks like a large dandelion (we have that here also on the hikes near Santa Cruz.. the purple flower that bursts out into this).. it was a nightmare for me given recent allergies. Handkerchiefs were not enough. Walked with a small towel around my neck to breathe through.

one softball sized weed thingy.. okay.. if you see the photo below you will get the idea.. the entire island is full of what we call weeds. That is about it. It is a weedscape.. and it is not great for folks with allergies. Claritin was being laughed at by these plants.. you could tell ! You can see regular dandelion in the foreground for a size comparison.

The views though are spectacular!

Given San's condition, was not sure how she will fare, but she walked slowly and steadily and made it all the way. Having driven the entire trip with only a 10 minute break the previous night and doing the carrying business, I was equally tired. So we crashed at 7:30PM. The rest of the group went on to chat, play cards etc. It was lights out for me. Woke up at 6 AM thanks to the birds and the water dripping on me from the inside of the tent (this tent did not have a lot of ventilation.. so while it kept us super warm, our own breath condensed on the inside of the tent walls!). 

the animals are tagged on the island ! Every raven had a number on it. #11 and 13 visited our camp!

Two galleries of photos from the trip..

 

Packed up everything after breakfast and we took the stuff to the loading dock. They have lock boxes where we can leave stuff and hike near the dock. So off we went on another 5 mile hike to the top of the bluff to see more views. San and some friends decided to skip this one and stayed on the beach instead. This was a steep climb at the onset of the hike.

Apparently the previous weeks folks spotted whales from the top. We were not that lucky. Had a great time with the group, doing yoga poses and walked back down to a cave. Sat there for a few minutes listening to the waves and it was time to say bye to the place and get back on the ferry. 

Did try to do a toe stand on that small piece.. given there is no room to put my fingers on the ground to bend down, it was a risky proposition. Removed my shoes and used all the balancing skills to get this there.. given recent family experiences, San would have left me on the island if I had done anything stupider (that a word?)

lifted off but only slightly, given the winds and the rough floor.. my photographer was really patient and waited for what was an eternity clicking away to get this one pic!

surprisingly the rocks inside the cave were not wet! Not easy to sit on, but dry!

With a stop at UCSB to grab stuff, we drove back again with a 10 minute break. We had lunch plans with the kid but she was too busy studying and we wanted to get back in time to celebrate a friends 50th and we made it in time. Thankfully no major traffic jams on the return!

It was a memorable trip. We had a lot planned for this summer but San's muscle tear put a ? on everything. Glad that we made it. 

and yes, the foxes in Channel islands are so cute! 

A video highlight of the entire trip.. (we celebrated two brithdays during this trip as well!). 

If you don't want to spend the night camping here, you can still hike to Smugglers cove and back if you get the first ferry in the morning and take the last ferry out!

The wells of Rameshwaram temple

My parents had visited Rameshwaram and I was not a part of that trip. There was this constant reminder for me to go visit with my wife, especially given we had both visited Kashi before.

So a big part of this India trip (previous post here..) was to go to Rameshwaram temple and get.a bath from waters of the 21 wells in the temple. The history and reasoning behind these wells is well documented and will not explain it here. 

The logistics of accomplishing this on the other hand, will get a mention. Currently the train that goes from Chennai does not go into the island. It stops at Mandapam station. Supposed to reach at 4:30 AM but is usually late by 30 mins to 45 minutes. That should factor into calculations for a one day trip!

We had a car pick us up and take us straight to the temple gate. Thanks to my chitti's friend, we were connected to one of the. priests at the temple who gave us a contact for a person named Lokesh.

His official title should be Technical Program Manager, Well bathing, Rameshwaram. He asked San, myself and my FIL to walk, after realizing my MIL couldn't walk that far. He took her on his bike to the side gate. Once there, he gave us precise instructions, took us to each well and got us drenched with water from every well within a span of 35 minutes with extreme planning and precision. After that we got to go change at the entrance and visit the main shrines. Within a 2 1/2 hour period we had done what we came to do and one of the main temple visits was checked off. (the other was Gunaseelam... not sure how many days it will take me to get to that post!)

This temple is a marvel !! just look at the pillars as far as the eye can see on every main corridor.

Saw the Sankara mutt on the way out and was reminded of the mutt in Varanasi in Hanuman Ghat! lots of memories..

We said bye to Lokesh and thanked him for pictures from his phone (we were not allowed a phone) and went to get something to eat.

After a quick brunch at a local vegetarian place (Hotel New Saravana Bhavan.. not in anyways related to Hotel Saravana Bhavan!!! but actually better..) we decided to cover the rest of the sights there in this sequence, thanks to our driver (who was from Madurai) who had done this tour many a time. However he said in his experience he had not seen anyone cram this much into a day!

First stop was Ramar paadhukai..(three of us climbed the hill and saw the sights while MIL stayed in the car.. it was a wise move. She was clearly told by our driver where there was flat nice terrain and where things would be difficult)

Then the Panchamukha Hanumaan temple with a demonstration of the floating rocks that were used by the monkeys to build the bridge to Lanka..(sadly my phone died and have no pictures or videos of that) followed by a visit to Lakshmana's temple and pond (there is a story or segment from the Ramayana that is there for each of these locations and you can read up on it if interested)

My FIL had his SLR for pics. I had to stay content with the iPhone.

Then we had finished with this area and were off to see Prof. Kalam's house. It was inspiring in its own way!

After visiting his house, we left for Dhanushkodi area. On the way we got to see the Kodhandaramar temple. Thanks to Modiji, the roads were nice and we also had access to go all the way to the end of the road to see the ocean. We had some ice cream and coconut water at the temple, then stopped by the light house. 

The lighthouse has a small elevator that simply cannot handle the tourist volume. So it was difficult to wait there, but after 30 minutes we did make it to the top for some spectacular views. (The restrooms behind the lighthouse are extremely well maintained !! )

After this we got to put our feet in the ocean water where two oceans meet.

There was crazy traffic at the end of the road to make U turns and get back. Our driver had told us to keep walking to find him. The three of us walked close to a mile to catch up with the van and were out of the area.. but we did stop for chai at a roadside stall.. it was pretty good!

A short video compilation of the few clips I took..

There were two more stops to go before we were to reach our hotel in Madurai that night.. 

will share that in the next post!

A day and a half in Chennai

The last post on this trip is here...

Have to start becoming a live blogger to catch up on travels these days. New sights, new people.. 

So tend to forget things with a photo/video overload.

We landed in Chennai late on Thursday night and left Chennai Saturday afternoon. 

Within that time frame, we managed to spend a few hours with my parents, San's 95 year old grandma, visit three temples, eat out twice and meet a lot of relatives (leaving out the blog shy ones in the post)

The most special relative we met was the latest addition to the extended family. It has been a long time since I held a baby in my hands. We showed the picture to someone later in the trip and were asked why we decided to have a baby so late.

My father who is not his usual self saw us fall at his feet for blessings and wished us a boy child. We said something about our 25th wedding anniversary and maybe he heard things partly and automatically blessed. Somehow in his mind, us not having a boy is still a "lacking" thing, at least he used to keep telling me that according to my horoscope I am supposed to have female and male children. He would keep asking me how that horoscope could be wrong? We know the time and age he is from where male children are considered the representation of the gene pool. He always means well. 

My dad turned 85 that morning and he was not aware of his birthday. I seem to be the best at playing dumb charades with him and sadly am not close by. We both realized that, in the hour we communicated. He said bye to me as though he was losing his translator or least that was my perception. My only thought was "If by some karma, I end up in this same state with parkinson's, need to train San and some folks around me to play dumb charades regularly, starting now!"

If only Tantra shastra was spread to the masses, things would be different on this boy child business.. that is multiple topics all colliding in my head right now. So that discussion will be sidebared. When my dad finished his blessing in bits and pieces, we just thanked him for it. Told my mom that we are almost ready to have grandkids in a few years.. one topic led to another and we fished out the kids horoscope which my mom had saved all these years! 

Given the short time in Chennai, did I mention how my mom told me to go sit and do parayanam at the local Saradhambaal temple? She prioritized my praying for two out of the three hours! In any case, the goal was to make her happy, so I just went and met with all the familiar folks in the recitation group. They were all happy to see me. Many of them have seen me as a teenager. One thing I miss is this recitation group. Seriously thinking of starting one in Cupertino every Saturday morning. One of the folks even took a photo and sent it to my mom! The mama's are better insta bloggers than me.. and my mom was beaming with happiness that they had good things to say about me. Mamas happy, Mom happy, me happy..

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The nights food at Geetham was still backed up with Upma my mom made me in the morning and still had to eat at Kamakshi mess... India trips are an exercise in stretching your stomach muscles way past what you think you can. 

then there was the first train ride of the trip.. on Rameshwaram express.. brought back so many memories of long train journeys in India.

"Kamalahasanukku porai eri irukkum!" was the thought as we saw this while standing at the door

we were going to see Ramanadhaswamy.. One picture from my aunt's place that stayed with me.. loved this .. all the stores in Mylapore which did framing were still not open when we went to the area.. so could not find it. Maybe on the next trip, will get a print of this!

Will continue the write up of Rameshwaram in a day, the next chance I get..