Napa Valley is the first wine country we have visited and perhaps the best in the US from what we hear. The entire area is lush and on the day of our visit we could not have asked for better weather. We had a merry group of Amol, Wrena, Ameya and Anant with the 2 of us. Amol was an awesome host and drove us all over California in his CR-V. We visited two wineries in Napa Valley: Domaine Chandon and Rutherford Hill. We took the conventional wine tour and followed it with a $9.99 sparkling wine tasting treat and pocketed the lovely flutes as well. Domaine Chandon was a wonderful place and everyone seems to take great pride in what they are doing. And the room with the huge tanks was mindboggling and looked like a bunch of ICBMs in some secret underground military base!
We spent the afternoon at Rutherford Hill and ate lunch there. We had seen "Sideways" only a few months earlier and we have both always preferred wine to most of the other reasonably priced options out there (beer chiefly) so this was a very nice visit! Only when we returned Amol surprised us with Bailey's Irish Creme which was simply outstanding and we also had some sparkling Asti (wine) which was nice for my sweet tooth. I don't think I ever had so much to drink in one day!
A fantastic trip to Napa Valley thanks to the Sapatnekars!
Day 2 in California and Amol took us alongwith Ameya and Anant to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Half moon bay was a nice beach, but like most beaches in the US that we have seen or heard about, the temperatures make taking a dip seem like taking a walk in Indiana on a winter morning...Ah, the beaches of Goa!
But we were insistent: having come to California, we wanted to see a beach and walk in some sand...when we got to Half moon bay, we realized just how complex Californian climate is: a sunny day in Fremont and a cold, wet day at Half moon bay, an hour away!
After that we made the drive on Highway 1 for a bit and eventually got to Santa Cruz where the weather was a whole lot nicer: still a little chilly but sunny nonetheless. After our experience at Pier 39 at SF the previous night and this morning's cold romp on the beach, the weather seemed heavenly! As was everything around: dogs playing in the lawns by the side of the sea, seagulls flying and people driving expensive cars. We saw a couple of guys from Lamborghini driving one of their babies and we also spied an otter in the sea.
While we did a lot of traveling in Arizona and intended to do a lot more over what was left of the summer, we realized this was an excellent opportunity to drive to California, now that we were so close to the West coast. Eventually we decided against making the long drive that would cut into the 4 day long weekend, but decided to fly to SF anyway and spend the long weekend with the Sapatnekars: Amol, Wrena and Ameya who were also being visited by Amol's brother- Anant. From the time we landed at the airport we realized that SF was a place like no other in the US, though at times it did bring back memories of Bombay and Goa!
We reached the Sapatnekar home in Fremont on the 4th of July by noon and immediately headed out for SF bay. Our goal was to get to the piers in time for the fireworks and take in as much of SF as we could along the way. We took the BART to SF and walked up to the sunny but breezy city. Right there was a line for the famed tram ride and we duly Q'd up.
SF is the most alive city I have seen in the US yet: everything seems to be alive! The roads are at insane inclinations. When you drive in a car you can't even see the road often when you're descending a slope. And then there's the magnificent ocean and all its glorious garnish: seagulls, waves slapping on rocks, crabs, fishing boats...
We stopped for lunch at a place called Alioto's (?) and ate fish. Adi had a crab to herself, I decided to just eat the usual fish and clam chowder, which is extremely popular around here. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, saw a great Jazz band. One old lady even stopped me when she saw my Purdue sweatshirt and happily remarked that her husband taught at Purdue some 50 years ago...she was really old. And sweet.
After that we headed to the pier edge: we were among the first to get there and had a 2 hour wait till the 9pm start. It was freezing!!! And coming from the Arizona heat, we had not prepared for this...Amol was an angel and bought us some SF hats to keep our ears warm and that helped a lot.
The wait was worth it: the fireworks were splendid. Much better than the ones in Chicago I had witnessed at the Navy Pier last year (2004) and better than the best I had seen upto that point. Fantastic stuff and some really innovative designs like a smiley face and a couple of hearts streaked the sky. It lasted some 30 minutes too.
We headed back on the BART and got home by midnight. It was a great day, one of the best "touristy" days we have ever had together! And all thanks to Amol and Wrena for making it possible.
Camping. The first time we camped together and we picked the Coconino forests after much deliberation. The primary concern was the fire advisories that barred campfires in several popular campsites. Eventually we found the Mormon lake area around Coconino forests to be open for camping and campfires and set out there without reserving a campground. As we approached the area on Saturday morning, we saw that all campgrounds were full...until that is, we stumbled upon a smallish one that wasn't. We drove our Honda past the SUV's and boats and finally found a quite spot and reserved it by pitching our tent there.
Once everything was setup and the fee paid, we were ready to do some hiking and followed a camp/park ranger on a nature field trip where he spoke about the squirrels, bark beetles, oak trees and the general evolutionary complexities and interdependencies of these amazing creatures. Thereafter we headed into the village, had free coffee in a nice lodge and bought some supplies for our campfire, which was the big event of course. We set it up, grilled some sausages and potatoes and ate them in the glow of the campfire and then slept peacefully in our little tent.
The next morning we woke up, used the pit toilets with great reluctance and hit the road to get home, stopping on the way at Mormon lake for about half an hour of bliss. An extremely memorable trip.
We visited the Grand Canyon twice over the summer: our first trip was a short 1 day visit with Tanwir, Mahesh and some of Mahesh's friends. That was on May 30th 2005. Our second trip was a better planned one and we camped overnight at the Mather Campgrounds and along with Adi and me were my folks and Adi's mum. 5 of us and 2 tents and bedding and food and grill...we somehow managed to cram it into our Accord!
We spent the afternoon at Rutherford Hill and ate lunch there. We had seen "Sideways" only a few months earlier and we have both always preferred wine to most of the other reasonably priced options out there (beer chiefly) so this was a very nice visit! Only when we returned Amol surprised us with Bailey's Irish Creme which was simply outstanding and we also had some sparkling Asti (wine) which was nice for my sweet tooth. I don't think I ever had so much to drink in one day!
