When: 28th Jan 2007 Where: El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve What: getting back in time into a historic Redwood forest This hike was an instant pick in 10 minutes. Almost 30 miles from home. almost half-point between hwy 92 & hwy 84 on CA 35. It was sunny when we started from home. But as we neared the coast, I could hardly see the mountains amidst all that fog. By the time we got onto CA 92, I wasn't so sure if we were going to do it at all. But then, as the unpredictable weather set it, it all seemed to make sense. We were driving on this ridge & surprisingly saw a clear ocean on our right & a foggy valley to our left! We parked the car at Skegg's point ... read more

Santa Catalina Island - 20 miles offshore into the Pacific Ocean from Long Beach, CA. Mileage: ~800 miles RT from home Itinerary: 22 December: drive down 101S towards Long beach. 23 December: to Catalina Island 24 December: Catalina Island 25 December: Back to Long beach; back home. Where is Catalina Island? I did not know anything much about this place. All I knew was I wanted to camp here. And there was a convenient campground close to the city. So, that was my first reservation-Hermit Gulch campground. This was some 1 mile from the city of Avalon. Dec 21st: The usual pre-vacation jitters I had this severe cold/fever attack. So everything slowed down a bit. Tried hard to sleep early. Dec 22nd:Left hom... read more

Nov 12, 2006 My surprise gift to Ganesh for our 3rd wedding anniversary. He thought it was Alcatraz all the while. He did not find out until we were nearing Scotts valley exit on Hwy 17. There was no reservations necessary. The first train ride was at 11:00 am. There were 2 other rides back to back at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm. It was raining near home on Saturday. Fortunately for us, the sky cleared up sunday; in fact, it was sunny; still cold, though. A $6 parking fee gets you into the lot. We reached around 10:00 am. We were the 3rd in line. It was like a different world in there. You enter the place through a small bridge. Cross the bridge and this beautiful pond appears to your right. There were many ... read more

When: 7th & 8th October 2006 Would this trip even happen? I was thinking about this sometime back. I had made reservations for the previous week. But there weren’t as much fall colors then. So, with lots of difficulty, I made reservations for this weekend. Every day I would check this site This was the peak time for the fall colors. Any later, we would have missed. Ram and his father joined us for this trip. Four of us with 4 different cameras… Coming to think of it now, its way too much url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Mammoth+Lakes,+CA+93546&ie=UTF8&z=8&ll=37.32212,-118.97644&spn=2.109817,6.943359&t=h&om=1Where is Mammoth Lakes? Anyways, we started off early, 4:00 am on 7th morning from Bay area to reach Yosemite entrance around 7.30 am. We rented a Kia Optima for this trip. It could comfortably ho... read more

01 - 04 September 2006(Labor Day weekend) About Lassen National Park Itinerary: 09/01/2006 LEAVE HOME 07:30 PM. NIGHT HALT: CORNING REST AREA 09/02/2006 LEAVE 07:00 AM. BROKE OFF MOUNTAIN HIKE, CHECK IN CAMPSITE 09/03/2006 BUMPASS HELL HIKE, KINGS CREEK HIKE 09/04/2006 CHAOS CRAGS HIKE TO FROG LAKE, CHECK OUT, SUNDIAL BRIDGE, BACK HOME Another weekend out of home :-) Lassen was out and out Ganesh's choice. Next to marrying me, that was the best decision he has made. :-) This time, we really wanted to have the camping feel. So, new try: Campfire. Sept 01: We started off Friday evening around 7:30 pm. As expected, we got caught in traffic. It was midnight by the time we reached Corning Rest Area along I5. We had dinner below the sky and called it a night. We slept ... read more