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.

A weekend in HDR among other things...

Last weekend my sister in law visited us and we went on a local bay area tour of sorts. While the people pictures end up on Facebook.. the Nature pictures and select pictures of me.. end up here! 

There is always an incentive to write a blog post to chronicle local travels, no matter how many times we have visited the place, if we have something new to show.. 

 While editing the pictures where yours truly is smiling, one thought kept coming to my mind.. I look like someone.. but it is not my dad. Six seven years ago, I used to look like a carbon copy of my dad when he was that age.. this time the smile was different. The percentages of "knowingness: sarcasm : resignation" was different.. It was like the basic composition of my face had changed to a different part of that ternary phase diagram. After staring at it for a long time, it struck me! 

I am slowly turning into the next version of my only maternal uncle aka "Ambi Mama"! At first I thought, it must be the receeding hairline, but NO! There is more to this than hairline. Going to take a shot of me with my rudhraksham and towel and match the color balance and you will see soon.. 

As always.. one thing leads to another and before you know it, a post that started off as a weekend in HDR suddenly changed to my facial resemblence to Ambi mama.. Let's get back on topic.. 

 HDR pictures.. 

 This was really one beautiful evening to be out there. Full moon, perfect weather and most important of all, great company! 

This time I took my camera, but did not have the filter kit.. Next time we visit, going to throw a dark ND filter in front of the lens and take a longer exposure shot to blur the waves.. 

That weekend hopefully starts off some travel with family and is a harbinger of better pictures to come this year! 

Blue Angels

We did not really enjoy the blue angels show this year as much as last .. but did get a few great pictures with Alcatraz in the backdrop. 

Last year we could not find parking and were outside the city hall. This year we succumbed to the city fleecing and paid a good 30 bucks to park near Pier 39 so we could watch the planes go between the Pier and Alcatraz.

The crowd was overwhelmingly a "smoking" crowd and there was nothing we could do. If it is one or two folks you can request them to kindly move away, but if it is a group of 15-20 people around you lighting up, what do you do?

You hope the show gets over fast and you get a few good pictures!

 

and my favorite.. a shot that was accidentally taken by tracking the planes towards the sun. Managed to salvage it using the HDR toning utility in photoshop that gave this a cool effect!

Next year we watch them live on TV! 

A trip to Sausalito

Last weekend we decided to drive to Sausalito, thanks to NPR. Apparently the storm had moved over the bay area and it was supposed to be an extremely good visibility day to see the golden gate bridge and also the road down to Sausalito was going to be kept open over the weekend.

So off we drove and had a great time. Got to take some pictures of the bridge, then the kids spent two hours at the Kids discovery museum and we ended up driving around the cute downtown in Sausalito and had some great food at a Nepalese restaurant called "Taste of the Himalayas"

It was an afternoon well spent with something for everyone in the family!

A few photographs from the trip.

Separate posts on the museum trip and tiffin experience later...

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A day in San Francisco...

We spent a day in San Francisco by Pier 39 to take the kids to some place local and have some fun..

Turned out to be a great idea. So far our SFO trips have covered the usual Golden Gate bridge, Crooked street and end with Ice cream at Ghirardelli's..

There have been some deviations in the past to the tour guide routine but for once we decided to explore things we have walked or driven past. In other words get to smell the roses a bit, which was kind of a theme in the family over the last few days.

So off we went to visit the COIT tower..

The base of the tower has some amazing murals. Not posting the pictures of the murals here because they make some money selling prints. Guess that is why they have a sign that says "no flash or tripods"..

We had a nice home cooked packed lunch in our Van and went on towards Ghiardelli's, except this time we parked and went to the Maritime museum lobby and walked along the beach to see the different vessels docked at Hyde Street Pier.

The kids had fun getting on the various vessels. It was a world they had never been exposed to. It was so much fun watching their eyes widen as they read the displays and watched informational videos two levels below the deck of a cargo vessel..

There were great views of Alcatraz and Embarcadero from the ships.

The masts were majestic and we were simply awe struck by the fact that these ships with triple masts have survived the test of time and have been preserved for such a long time.

It was also fun watching the little one trying to steer the ship one handle at a time. The ship was just swaying a few feet and she wanted to control it!

It was also interesting to see how prices have changed over time!

Then we went on our walk to enjoy those things on the sidewalk and displays we usually rush past because we are on a deadline to head back to San Jose..

First we stopped at a window where a couple of bakers were doing a display..

What a display ! Truly magnificent piece of bread! They also had starfish, turtles and crab shaped bread pieces which were very impressive.

The little one had fun interacting with the guys painted in silver and dressed as robots.

We walked by the Hard Rock Cafe and past the Christmas tree at the end of the pier and went to see the Aquarium. The entry tickets were a bit steep but thanks to a AAA discount we decided to go for it. After all it was our "smell the roses" day!

The aquarium was actually worth it. Three levels of well maintained displays with more than 20,000 fishes and marine animals. It was like a compact version of the Monterey bay aquarium which also had two glass tunnels, one for shallow water fish and one for fish at deeper waters in the bay.

The last room was kind of weird. It wasn't exactly related to fishes but was about conservation and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric.

They had hedgehogs and

turtles and

Chinchillas which apparently poop 200 times a day. They don't look much but their display cage had more poop than food which amused the kids..

Then it was time to return to Ghirardelli's to have some ice cream and hot chocolate before returning to San Jose...

We started and ended the routine the same way but the detour was wonderful.

Next time we go there are a whole bunch of Art galleries, a Wax museum, a Ripley's Believe it or Not show , etc. etc. and we might just do another one of these wander around trips about a place that we have grown to love over the years!

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