Holi came and went this year. Given my travels, was glad to be part of a Holi celebration with the gang last weekend. As a kid growing up in Tamil Nadu, there was no Holi. My best memories of student days in Varanasi are of Holi..
Great time with friends, Colors, Baang, the mud bath at the end to wash off colors, a feast, did I already mention baang?!
We did celebrate in style at the local park with dry colors and great food! This year it happened again. We started seeing familiar people show up to our group only to realize there was another larger group planning the delayed Holi in another area of the park. Pretty soon, we merged the groups together for even larger fun as every family in our group knew someone from the other group!
Jr. was at her best and she had a lot of fun with her buddies. This one is probably the best shot from the entire collection of pictures for the day...
Then we did get a family portrait. Yes, the litle one looks plain compared to the rest of us. She had to go to a meeting right after the Holi party and did not want to shower. So we respected her request to "not be Holi'ed"!
All said and done, it is great to have the company of people who can put a smile on your face and make you celebrate with abandon!
Was thinking of IT-BHU all day.. three buddies in the group are my seniors from College and that made it even more special. One thing my college trained me for well? If not Metallurgical engineering, it is to play Holi with style... and to teach our kids how to play Holi!
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?
- we did not have to chase after them or worry about them getting lost as they had cell phones with them
- they eat faster and by themselves
- they don't need to be accompanied to the rest rooms
- and they were bold enough to go on "single rider" passes to bypass the long lines.
Granted, going as single riders kind of defets the "family" aspect of it, but hey.. we stay in the same line till the ride point.. then we split up into differnt cars and we are usually within one or two cars in each ride. Once inside the ride, it is all dark and dingy for the most part and you are screaming your head off.. except for the little one, who missed squeezing daddy's hand during the rides we were okay.
We started off the day with the usual pictures at the entrance..
moved through the park and did as many rides as we could. We did stand in line for 40 minutes to go "as a family" in Space Mountain .. so we could buy the photograph they click at the end. We are so familiar now that we pose for the camera on Space Mountain.
We ran back and forths, got fast passes where we could, split up to do different things every now and then.. basically let the kids decide.
we watched two parades and parallel processed one parade while standing in line for "it's a small world"!
Then the kids decided to wait in line for 60 minutes in Toon town for a 60 second ride while San decided to stand in line for a little over an hour to get a picture with Mickey... for old times sake!
I was torn between the two and did neither. Just sat at the fountain and took pictures for passers by..
Selfie sticks are banned in Disney.. and it is so sad to watch 8 people try to fit into a selfie. Did my bit of social service while watching the kids inch their way to the top of the line for their ride. Lot of good karma in that one hour in Toon town!
The kids knew I was mad after their ride because the sun had set and daddy had told them that toontown looks amazing just before sunset as the colors come alive! after receiving a little lecture and promptly forgetting that lecture, we moved fast to exit the park.. at 6PM.. that was a first!
Good Karma sometimes doesn't come back right away. I took the picture above of the kids, then went stood there and asked this lady to take a picture.. we got this back. For some reason, she decided to do her own thing.. we are happy that the family was in the frame!
then came the best part. As part of the package ticket, my darling wife had got us this pass for "dining with characters" at Goofy's kitchen in the Disney resort. The kids took a short break to dress up and we went for dinner..
we had the time of our life watching them be so happy!
You can see from the video that the highlight was Goofy's kitchen..
We had shared iPhone photos from Disney on FB.. Had to come home to get this one from the Canon.. This one is going to be framed.
Next time, we should just skip the park and stay at the resort (we have never done that) and just have breakfast, lunch and dinner with the characters.. more fun.. more smiles!
One weird thing on this trip.. There were no desis in sight in the park. We were joking that someone must have sent a memo to all desis telling them that 30th was a no Disney day or something and we missed the memo! We saw maybe 3 or 4 desi families in the park all day.
