A rainy day hike in Windy hill

Call us crazy, but a few weekends ago, there was a plan to go on a sunset hike in Pacifica area around Mori point. When we started driving, a revised weather forecast changed things to cloudy and rain. So halfway on the route, we decided to go to the closest familiar hiking point. 

Chai was already in the flasks and the Parle-G biscuits and customized trail mixes, not to mention kuzhi paniyaarams were all loaded into backpacks!

We made a detour to go to the top of Windy Hill

I am always happy for Windy hill for all the wrong reasons. San tripped on a root and damaged her ankle at this very holy place and got enlightened. She started doing Bikram Yoga with me at BYSJ only thanks to that ankle damage and for that I am grateful to some root and this trail. That said, we always watch our step as a group when hiking here!

This time we went back and forth and walked a nice 8+ miles with wet jackets! Needless to say the trail was empty except for us and four Japanese students. 

Photos... the bench was wet.. so San was literally doing awkward pose for this now customary "bench photo"!

than again iPhone auto saves images like this when you get close enough! We could hardly see anything 15 feet ahead of us.. the picture above is closer to what we saw with our eyes..

Chai at the top with the treats were just amazing.. the chai got cold within a few minutes at the top and we had to scram as it started raining!

it was dark by the time we made it back to the parking lot with iPhone flash lights!

short video clip..

Windy hill is always interesting. What is more interesting is us. We are all crazy! 

A different hike to Monument peak

We have been to Monument peak once in 2022!

That was our first experience sharing trails with cows that would just not move!

We also visited parts of this trail to just see the wild flowers.. but did not go to the peak on that day. Multiple folks ended up with nosebleeds thanks to all the allergens on that trip!

We made our second trip to the top today. Except this time we decided to take the steep hike for the last 0.2 miles to the peak directly instead of going an extra mile around the peak to reach the top! That made it really interesting.

There were no allergens this time. It was a barren trail. It was cool but the sun was in our face and I did get sunburnt. And yes, we had to step outside the trail a few times to avoid cows and the calves.

some photos of this hike.

this cutie posed for me when we walked past.. while the mom was calling for it to just come to her!

We were admiring the way these tall anternna towers were anchored on three sides.. 

A highlights video of the hike..

Thoroughly enjoyed the hike today even though at one point it was incredibly difficult. We made the 10.3 mile hike close to 4 1/2 hours because there were no breaks till we got to the top. Every now and then we stopped for a minute tops to sip water or take a photo and kept moving. There was one 20 minute break at the top for Chai and biscuts and a photo session. 

This turns out to be a great time to hike here. There are no snow covered peaks in the background but the fog and clouds and the layers of mountains with a clear view of the valley make for some amazging views. Felt great at the top!

Something tells me we might hike this again.. 

Shopping day

Black Friday has evolved in the family over the years.. for more than a decade we simply just lost interest in shopping as a family or just started looking at things online. 

Usually we are traveling somewhere to celebrate our birthdays and Black Friday would land smack dab in the middle of a Disney trip!

This year it was San's birthday and both kids were with us and we decided to make the most of it. The girls went shopping bright and early while I did yoga. 

Then to make up for it, Jr. went shoe shopping with me. Three years ago I bought a pair of these Nevados shoes at Big 5. The display piece happened to be my size. Wanted a black walking shoe that could double up as something I could wear to work and this was perfect. It was 25 bucks then and I asked for a discount because it was the display piece and sure enough the store manager gave it to me for 20! Have walked at least 1800 miles in in over the three years and it is finally showing signs of wear on the outside and the sole. So went and bought the exact same thing yesterday! Jr. was amazed by my decision making. Told her, "hey, we went in and out and got shoes in 10 minutes because we know this works great!". This time it was not a display piece and was 30 bucks. Still expect to use this for the next three years!

The Salomon hiking shoes with ankle support that was bought ~2 1/2 years ago has also gone through at least 1500+ miles just with weekend hikes) and the ankle hooks are bent. The laces jumped the hooks during the grand canyon hike because over time the ankle support bends to fit my leg. While the tread is pretty good, wanted to get new hiking shoes. That was again a great bargain at REI. It was a 180$ shoe being sold for 80$. It did get the "paisa vasool" certification from both me and San. This time though I want to be able to replace shoes every year.  This waterproof shoe was actually Jr.'s recommendation. Apparently she had one in high school and early college and it was great. 

Then came the best part of "online shopping". "We" and I use that term loosely, are proud owners of a Karoke machine. San and the kids are allergic to noise, especially any sound that comes out of my mouth! However, after San tried a portable karaoke machine day before yesterday that one of our friends got to a party, she was convinced that we could use one at home. Spent two hours researching what was the best option and finally got this on Amazon. So Ta Da! This thing has many applications. . including but not limited to use as a public address system that can wake up the kids when they are sleeping late! They are not too thrilled about this purchase. The litle one has declared "thank god I don't live at home!" 

I am hoping that this will get me used to singing into a hand held dynamic microphone instead of the iPhone's wired earplug mic! 

In less than a day it will be back to the routine! Haven't blogged in more than a month as the day to day grind has been very busy. It is time to start posting little snippets again.. 

Hope all of you are enjoying the long weekend! 

A day in Monterey

In what seems to be ages ago, San and me did a day trip to Monterey earlier this year.. this was between the India trip and our anniversary trip! 

It was a trip to go hiking with our jigiri dost's from morning to evening. Given our kids were not home, we drove early in the morning to meet them and started hiking.

It was cold and foggy as we made our way along the trail to see the coast line. 

Amazing views, lot of birds, deer, (some insects buzzing about) and seals in a cove with their little ones! Lot of work wtih the macro option as well ..

slide show of landscape photos..

and the rest of the highlight photos

 

We then went back to their place to have lunch. Had chai and then went back for another hike down to the beach! 

It was almost a private beach that day. Enjoyed that walk long the beach and drove back to bay area. 

It was a ton of fun and there were 200 photos and many video clips from that day..

Here is a video highlight

It deserved a blog post! 

We really enjoyed that day and still remember it! it was San's way of prepping me for traveling alone with her again and still have fun. 

It was a long drive in bad traffic on the way back. We realized there was no way we will make it home by dinner time.. so we stopped on the way at an Indian restaurant (my first time there). The food was good! 

Still have 2000+ pictures from that anniversary trip to Europe. It will take 2 years to write blog posts on that.. if my memory doesn't fade..

Closing out a trip in style

The previous post in the series is here..

We slept early after the long gruelling hike. Woke up in the morning and after having Chai in our room we were all ready to go to the Vista point on our way back to Phoenix. 

All nine of us had matching T-shirts to wear. It was great to spend almost an hour taking photos at the vista point.

We were delayed by an extra 30 minutes with the "photoshoot" and raced towards Phoenix.

There was a 30 mintue stop for lunch in Flagstaff at a nice Indian place. It was really good food, great ambience, quick service! If we ever visit Flagstaff, will definitely go back to this place!

We made it 20 minutes before boarding time to the gate! 

It took me two days to be able to walk normally again and be able to sit down and stand up. Was mostly standing and walking all of Monday and Tuesday. Did yoga last two days and finally able to do squats again.

All said and done, it was a memorable trip. Will I go back to the south rim again. Definitely not. 

This was one of the most challenging hikes we have done to date. Enjoyed the trip and most of the hiking except for the last three miles!

Glad it is done!