The memorable trip to California - Part 2 (2011)

4/10/2011   San Fransisco trip - 1 day, 100 miles drive

Continuing with the list of places visited, the next place that I went to was San Fransisco (SFO).

The Golden Gate Bridge

At just 50 miles from Milpitas,  SFO is a good place to explore on weekends. I joined few of my colleagues and we started to SFO in the afternoon.

The Sign board at Ghirardelli Factory

Our first stop was the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory (http://www.ghirardelli.com/) on the fisherman's wharf. We had some ice cream and bought a few chocolates and roamed about on the wharf.

Palace of Fine Arts

The next stop was the Palace of  Fine arts Theater (http://www.palaceoffinearts.org). After going around a few circles, we finally managed to park the car some distance away and started to walk around the Palace of fine arts. The place is calm and beautiful. There is a big structure with hemispherical top, supported by huge pillars which in turn are separated by arches.  On one side of the structure is a big pond and on the other is a huge (6-7 floors high) wall.  On the periphery of the pond, there is a paved walk way and after the pond are the lawns where all the visitors sit down and enjoy the view of the palace. The structure has a lot of carvings all over it. The wall is no less decorated - It has carvings as well. I don't know much about architecture, so I would not like to quote something wrong. All in all, it was a pleasant place. All of us admired the place, took a few snaps and started walking towards the sea-shore, just across the street.

The Yacht Club

We reached the San Fransisco yacht club (http://www.sfyc.org/) building and the dock where many boats and yachts had put anchor. The Golden gate bridge was visible from here, but the scene was not much interesting. It looked like just another bridge - the sun being behind the bridge might have made it look like an ordinary bridge. There were ferry rides to the Alcatraz Jail (it is an island off SFO coast line), but we did not take it. We started walking along the road and passed by one pier after another.

Pier 39

After a good 20 minute walk, we reached the famous Pier 39 (www.pier39.com)- The shopping hub for every visitor to SFO (and not for the locals :)). The pier is full of shops brim with SFO merchandise. There are eateries, cloth and jewellery stores, antiques and that is it; but the people swarm in to pier 39 none the less. We then walked to the China town through the steep roads, looking at the vehicles parked at impossible angles, signals on each steep intersection, the city of SFO is amazing. We walked our way to crooked street, Lombard street, had dinner at one of the restaurants in downtown SFO. We somehow found the location at which the car was parked and drove back to Milpitas by 10pm.

4/15/2011    Los Angeles, Hoover dam, Zion National Park, Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Las Vegas trip with Hemagiri and Gowtham - 3 days, 1700 miles drive

The next weekend was all planned by Hemagiri. It was a long weekend as we took a day off and started early on Thursday evening to LA. Stuck with some old GPS, we got-lost a few times near LA and finally managed to reach LA safely by night (8pm). We met Hemagiri's friend Gowtham, who had come down from NY area just to see the west coast area. We had dinner at iHop and checked into a hotel - I do not remember which one it was, neither do I remember which area in LA it was that I stayed for the night.

The next morning we started to the Hoover Dam (http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/). The dam is enormous - made of concrete and funded by California, Nevada and  Arizona. Built across that Colorado river, one half of the dam is in Nevada time zone and the other is in Arizona. We took enough snaps and then moved towards Zion national Park (http://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm).

Situated in Utah, the park is very pleasant and full of red sand stone. There are a few water falls that merge into the Virgin river which flows along the canyon in the Zion National Park. In the excitement of seeing the place, I lost my only pair of glasses at this place. I then remembered the chat that I had with my colleague Adithya - I had asked him "Why do you have two pairs of glasses with you?". He said "What would you do if you lose one?". I said "I never have never lost my glasses any time" and unfortunately, this was the time I lost my only pair of glasses :(. Zion National park is a wonderful place, calm and soothing.

The next place that we visited was the Bryce Canyon national Park (http://www.nps.gov/brca/index.htm). The national park, is so scenic - I was lost in it's beauty. The park has red sand stone covered with snow most parts of the year. The Bryce point offers an enchanting view of the canyon - The finger-like formations created due to the erosion of soil show the multiple layers in the sand stone. There are a few caves as well. Along the road, a few natural bridges are also visible. We ended the trip by stopping over at Las Vegas. I was so tired, I just slept through at Vegas and did not do much but watch all the well-lit casinos from outside. We reached Milpitas by Sunday night.


4/22/2011   Death Valley and Las Vegas Trip with Manjunath Pai and Sunil Kumar Vijay Kumar - 3 days, 1450 miles drive

The coming weekend was again a long weekend. We had Friday, Saturday and Sunday all for us :). Manju planned a trip to the Death valley National Park (http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm) with a stop over at Vegas on Saturday night.

We started early on Friday morning and reached the visitor center by afternoon. We saw the Zabriskie point (sunrise and sunset point) which has vibrantly coloured badlands with interesting patterns all over. We then went on to the Dante's View point - It is amazing.

Sand Dunes

Death Valley

Death Valley

Dante's View

Natural Bridge

Devil's Golf Course

Artist's Palette

Ubehebe Crater

The entire Death Valley, salt flats, and all the surrounding hills are visible from this high-point (~5000ft high). The next point was the Devil's golf course - covered with serrated rock-salt this area is difficult to walk over. Only Devil can play golf here :). A few miles further is the Bad water basin - the lowest point in North America - around 200m below sea level. The area is flat and covered with salt. Only white coloured land is visible all around for miles. Coming back towards the visitor center, there is the golden canyon - and a natural bridge, which is accessible by a short trek of about a mile. That trek was good as well, although it was tiring. We then went over the Artist's Drive - a nine mile drive that goes over multiple hills and show various colours in the hills. The drive was very scenic but the road was not paved. We also drove through the Twenty Mule Team Canyon - through the unpaved roads winding through magnificent and scenic badlands. Going towards the northern part of the park, we saw the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and took a few pictures on the sand dunes. We then drove to the Ubehebe Crater - formed due to a volcanic explosion some 300 years ago. We walked along the crater and after a few hours returned to the car. Overall, death valley was amazing to say the least.

Las Vegas

We then drove to Las Vegas, and stayed there on Saturday night. We saw the huge fountain-show at Bellagio, walked through Venetian, played a few games at one of the casinos, walked and walked through out the night and then came to the hotel. We started to Milpitas the next morning and reached by evening. This was one of the best planned trips - All thanks to Manju.

5/7/2011    Yosemite trip - 2 days, 450 miles drive

Two weekends later, we planned for a trip to Yosemite National Park (http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm). This time again, Manju planned it meticulously. We Started at 2.30 am on Saturday, drove to Yosemite and reached Yosemite valley just before sun rise.

TheYosemite Valley

 We saw the main Yosemite Falls, the meadows, Bridal veil falls and by that time the visitor center opened (10am). We then inquired about the places we could visit, and then walked up to the Vernal fall - We stopped just 200m before the top of the fall as it was freezing cold. We could see double rainbow in the cold water that was being sprinkled around by the water fall. We returned and took the park shuttle to the next destination - the Mirror lake. It is a small lake formed in front of the half dome. The reflection of the mountains seen in the lake is quite amazing. After roaming about all the places in the main Yosemite valley, we stayed at the Cedar lodge, about 40 miles off the valley. The next morning, we started to the Mariposa grove - The place that has the biggest (in girth) redwood trees in the world. We took the first shuttle to the grove  from Wowona hotel and reached the grove early (8.30am). We then hiked over the entire grove and saw all the famous trees - the Grizzly Giant, the California tree (hollow in the bottom), the bachelor and the three graces, the telescope tree, the fallen California tree, and many other unnamed trees. The air was fresh and snow was all around - It was a perfect place to walk along and we enjoyed it a lot. By afternoon, we had seen the grove and we returned to the main valley and spent time lazing around on the meadows, taking pictures of the magnificent Yosemite valley. We also took pictures at the tunnel view - the entire Yosemite valley is visible from this point. We started back in the evening and reached at night. One more well planned and perfect trip. Again, thanks to Manju.


5/14/2011    State beach Half moon bay - 1 day, 80 miles drive

The next weekend was a low key affair. Satya, Sneha and me planned a one-day trip to Half Moon Bay beach (http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm).

The beach is only around  40 miles from Milpitas. We started in the orning at about 10am, reached the beach by 11.15 am. The beach was calm and not many people were there at the beach. I did a mistake of accidentally locking the car with the keys inside. We then had to call the Hertz guys to unlock it for us (at a price of $280) :). We did enjoy the beach, took a few pictures, roamed along the shore, but did not go into the water as it was too cold. We returned by the end of the day.


5/26/2011   Disney land 2 day park hopper, Universal Studios Hollywood 1 day - 820 miles car drive

Two weekends after that, Satya, Sneha and me planned the LA trip. We started on Thursday evening and reached Anaheim by night. We stayed at Super 8 Anaheim. We took the two day park hopper ticket at Disney land and spent the two days roaming around and taking all the rides at Disney land parks - The Disney land park and the Disney land California Adventure park (http://disneyland.disney.go.com/parks/).

Disneyland Parks

 

 
The theme park had so many things that I remember the individual things that we did. All the characters created by disney had come to life - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and so many other characters. There was the mickey land, donald's own town, and so many souvenir shops. You cannot really cover all of it in 2 days. We tried our best and saw as much as possible. In the evening, one park had fireworks while the other park had a wonderful projection of Disney characters on a water-spray screen. We took many rides, the roller coaster, giant wheel and many more. We went to the Universal Studios Hollywood (http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/) the next day.

 

We took the studio tour, the mummy ride, Jurassic park ride, simpsons ride, special effects stage, terminator, house of horrors, and everything on display. The Universal Studios Hollywood is targeted at adult audience and it is good. We started to Milpitas on Monday afternoon and reached by night.

6/12/2011    San Ramon - 30 miles further for cherry picking

Two weeks later, I joined Satya, Sneha and their extended family for cherry picking.

The place was about 30 miles off San Ramon, and was a fun afternoon trip - you can pick up and taste as many cherries as you like and then buy some for $5 per pound. Satya's family and three other families had come along, and all the kids enjoyed the cherry picking activity. We had lunch at the same place (each family had prepared some or the other dish and we all shared the food). We returned to Milpitas the same evening.


6/25/2011    Lake Tahoe trip  - 520 miles drive


Another two weeks later, I planned a trip to Lake Tahoe with Pramod and his roommate. Unfortunately, Pramod was severely ill - down with fever. I had to make do with his roommate and both of us started to Lake Tahoe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe) at about 6am on Saturday morning. After about 4 hours drive, we reached the north Lake Tahoe.

I must admit that the lake is picture perfect. At about 80 miles in circumference, it is one of the most scenic lakes that I have ever seen. The water is so blue and the icy peaks in the backdrop add a special charm to the lake. We did pedal boating and paragliding at the lake and then sat on the beach overlooking the lake. The lake was huge and mesmerizing.

We did paragliding and pedal boating. We then drove along the circumference of the lake, stopping by at all scenic places and taking pictures. We stayed close to the lake and the next day, went to the south shore. As it was summer, there was no snow and skiing, but the weather was awesome - the cool breeze and bright sun - perfect recipe for a joyous outing. We drove along breath taking mountains, and foliage. My co traveler was sick due to the numerous turns on the road and the high altitude, nevertheless, we had a great time. thus ended my road trips in the west USA.

7/4/2011    Independence day holiday - fireworks at Milpitas town center.

My last outing during the trip was to the Milpitas town center (http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/) to watch the glorious fireworks on the eve of American Independence day. I joined Satya and Sneha to watch live band along with the fireworks. It was really good, well organized and lasted for more than 30 minutes. I cannot describe it in words - It was awesome.