While eating the tamarind rice and choking on it, I asked San "arent we supposed to be on a boat tour today as well?" and she goes "In the interest of time I did not book it!".. a few tears and sentimental dialogues that would seriously make Sivaji Ganesan hand over his Chevalier award to me, we called the tour operator and were confirmed for the 5PM (last) boat tour of Antelope Canyon. We were asked to be at the dock 15 minutes before and the dock was 15 minutes from our hotel.
We decided to take a power nap for an hour and head out..
it was Antelope canyon day.. a tour all morning, a tour all afternoon and now for the evening a boat tour.
We realized while entering the dock that the boat tour fees did NOT include the entry to the dock which was part of the National park service. If you don't have a National park pass, you have to pay 30 $.. if you do enjoy national parks, strongly recommend you get the annual pass for 80 bucks. It is always a good thing to support our national parks!
Seeing natural wonders gives me more goosebumps than visiting any temple. Keep telling my family that if you want to realize god, go to a National park and take a look from any vista point! Or look at the smiling face of your spouse or children.. while the second option makes you mentally happy, you don't get the exercise.. so go to the parks!
The boat tour was great! we got waterbottles on the boat and a tourguide who was local and gave us a personalized tour as we spent an hour on a boat going through the canyon on water!
Loved it through and through!
a photo gallery of the nature pics..
Once done, we decided to go find dinner in Page. The first mexican place we went to had a 45 minute wait. So we went to the second one and were promptly seated. The food was amazing as was the service.
my models did not disappoint!
Video highlights reel of the boat tour and back..
The next morning was going to be an all day drive back to Phoenix after a few stops. So we decided to hit the one big super Walmart in the area before going to bed. Have not seen a store this big in my life! Stocked up on some yogurt, bottled water etc. for the return trip and made it back to the hotel.
The original plan post seeing Northern lights was to go on a viator tour to Casper glacier to visit a naturally formed ice cave. Even by viator description, it said that this was a moderately difficult trip and only "able bodied adults" were to come for an approximate 3 mile walk on snow and ice to get to the cave.
After the previous nights experience, San decided that Alaskan standards to rest of US standards are like US system to metric system. An "able Alaskan body" was a 6 foot 2 inch plus, 250 lbs, pure muscle body with a heavy beard that could fight Commando or Rambo for at least a few minutes and live to tell the tale.. or something close to that.. We did not fit that description..In short, she bailed on me.
Now for a backstory and the title of the post.
One of my favorite songs during college days was by Franco de Vita, "Golpeando en el mismo lugar", which translates to "you get hit in the same palce again and again". We have a similar saying in Tamil "patta kaal-laye padum" which is "you get hit in the same leg again".
Two weeks prior to this Alaska trip, I hurt my right knee. A knee that already was cracking from a skin issue. After coming back from yoga class, I had the mat towel etc and was trying to go through a narrow gap between the car and the fridge in the garage. License plate holders are strategically placed in cars at exactly knee height. If you bang your knee sideways on the holder, you are guranteed a horrific experience for weeks. After realizing that, promptly iced the knee. While on the couch, my daughter wanted me to do something for her. Given the bandage around the knee, didn't want to fold the extended leg on the couch and in a brilliant move thought I could just step outside of it and get down. Bad ideas come in twos. Promptly banged same knee on the coffee table, just an hour after the first hit. Sometimes a picture is worth a long paragraph.. so here you go..(the gaps have already been fixed in the photos below and credit has been given to the accident causers!)
The next two weeks were spent trying to make every effort to recover, with yoga, ibuprofen, ice, triple pillows under leg, crepe bandages, etc. just so I don't screw up the Alaska experience.
I really wanted to go through that ice cave!
San saw the disappointment on my face when she cancelled the ice cave tour. To make up for it, she was checking with Viator if there was some other activity that did not involved walking on ice. There were two options. A dog sled experience where huskies pulled us on the snow for 30 minutes and we got to see the kennels, which was promptly rejected for her fear of dogs. Another trip where we got to ride a snowmobile on a frozen lake and ride into the sunset in the Arctic circle. She agreed to do that and off we went.
It was a 40 minute drive to North Pole, Alaska where we met an amazing dude, Frozen Tony! He ran what appeared to be a one man operation on a weekend as he was our receptionist, trainer, and guide.
After explaining the operation of the snowmobile and going over the warnings, he started assigning vehicles to the folks in the group. When San shook her head and said "I will be a passenger, don't ask me to drive!" and also said "Can I just drive with you?" .. Tony said "Your husband passed the test! You ride with him!" Then he realized that not all vehicles he had were two seaters. So he gave me his vehicle and said "this is mine and the controls are different but you can do this!" and went over the control differences in his vehicle. San was not exactly sure of my mobiling ability. We had 7 other folks in the group, 4 from New York and 3 from Columbia!
Fortunately we found some gear that was large for our size but still covered us. Helmets, goggles included. In spite of all this gear, the outside temperature was -5F after 4 in the evening and we were to go see the sunset at 5PM.
Tony was just amazing. He guided us and made sure we went from simple to complex terrain and gave enough time for everyone in the group to reach the next point before proceeding. After the first 15 minutes, I was gunning it and racing across the snow and ice at 40 mph. Turns out, I am a natural when it comes to flying over the snow on this thing! When you go at 40mph in -5F, the wind against your face makes it a lot more below zero and the water that drips from your nose becomes ice and you look like a mini walrus! San could not hug me as our helmets clash at that speed.. so she had to hold on to the mobile hand grip and hang on for dear life. Apparently she was screaming for me to go slow but I could not hear it, given the helmet and the wind in my face.
Tony took some great pics of us and even a video clip.
Frozen Tony even had a great Pano shot on my phone which was a pleasant surprise!
There was one tricky place where he had to make us wait and get every snowmobile through a point.. then we all got back on to return. There we got to take some pics by ourselves..
Driving towards a sunset in Alaska is an amazing experience!
A video, thanks to Tony! It was not easy to drive without gloves.. so had to ask for the phone back and keep going! My knuckles were feezing and burning without gloves!
We got back in one piece and I was clearly very happy and San was happy for me. She said I reminded her of Bond movies. She didn't know that my nickname in high school was Sundar Bond. Was happy to live up to that name after many years.
We had called a Lyft and no one showed. The rest of the group had left as they had their own cars. We had arrived in a taxi. Tony realized our issue and helped call a local North Pole taxi, who is the only guy who comes to pick up folks after sunset. We were talking to him on and off about Alaskan life for 30 minutes while waiting as he was closing shop. We got some hot cocoa during the wait!
Would strongly recommend this adventure, especially thanks to Frozen Tony of Alaska Wildlife guide! He made this whole thing an evennig to cherish and remember for a long time!
Finally we got the taxi to take us back towards Fairbanks. We were in for a treat before reaching the hotel..
Given we are on a hiking spree, I happened to read an article on my google feed about a hiker who went to Foothills park and his first response was anger.. anger that such a beautiful park right in our backyard was not publicised and was restricted to Palo Alto residents only. An ACLU lawsuit had to be won to make this park accessible to the general public, temporarily starting October 2020..
Given the access could close, we went to wrap up 2020 with one more hike!
We tried to go a day earlier but the parking was full and the cops turned us back at the entrance. So we tried again the next morning at 7AM before the park opened, found parking and did the entire ~8 mile hike on the one way Los Trancos trail.
We got there before the sun rose behind the hills. This is a beautiful time to get photos because the sun is bounce flashing the light through the clouds and there is a diffuse golden light everywhere.. you don't have to worry about shiloutte effects or underexposed pictures!
There was a beautiful lake with a pier! My first response after taking a few photos and looking at my camera was the same.. anger.. should have been here before!
We went on to park near the interpretive center and walked across a slushy field to start the trail.. It was a pretty steep trail through and through and also narrow. It was good that they made it a one way loop.
It has rained the previous night and there was still a slight drizzle. The colors were vibrant everywhere on the trail and we were treated to water dripping off the moss on the trees everywhere!
except for two small stretches, you are mostly in the shade in this trail!
The ferns give the park a Jurassic park look and feel. Something unique in all the parks we recently visited!
The moss is also a brighter green in this park!
The bright red wet leaves ground into the path made for good contrast in parts of the trail!
Then you come to a level clearing where you get views all the way to San Mateo bridges and beyond!
We walked back down through a dazzling light display through the trees..
An amazing park through and through! Definitely go visit this park before they close the public acecss!
Loved it..
my technical difficulties still continue.. but Jr. was nice enough to let me borrow her laptop for blog posting!
This weekend we went on an amazing hike with friends to Mount Hamilton area. We climbed 1600 feet and did 7+ miles of some pretty steep hikes in Joseph D. Grant county park. Part of the park had fires and while it was all out, we could see the burnt trees and get some of the smell in the air.
It was an amazing hike. It had rained all last night and this morning and the colors were vibrant. There was a part on our way back where the fog rolled in and we had very poor visibility, but it was okay because we were in a group.
Once we descended below the fog, we were treated to amazing views of the lake and a spectacular sunset..
It took us a good 45 minutes to drive to the parking lot and three hours to do the trails. Some parts are so steep that you pretty much have to run down in as controlled a fashion as possible!
There is Mount Hamilton in the background..
Happy to be in fresh air among friends..
was wearing the mask when anyone was within eyesight.. for the most part the entire area was empty. We saw a total of 8 people over that 3 hour period... after some point was just wearing the mask like an armband just to huff and puff my way up the slopes.
The scenery was breathtaking..
be it sunny..
overcast..
or foggy..
I also got a close up picture of this little guy who we almost stepped on..
A short video clip from the afternoons hike..
When the sun started setting we were treated to some amazing colors..
amazing views of the lake as we walked down towards it
The last few pictures were taken from the park entrance/exit..
The fog was amazing to watch, as long as we were below it!
Our friends treated us to some vadais, hot chai and cookies etc.
after they were all safely tucked away into the tummy, we drove back to what was an amazing sunset..
got these from the moving car..
There was no room to park and take pictures on this one lane windy road that got us back down to the valley..
It was surreal with all the hues being reflected everywhere!
Something tells me we will be going here again and spending more time in this park. Strongly recommend a hike here if you have at least a 4-5 hour window. Go there by noon (if you are going in December!) so you are back down before the fog rolls in..
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.
Friday, July 5, 2024 at 9:31PM ;)
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