Lake Tahoe In Summer

This is a long overdue post. I took a trip to Lake Tahoe in August of last year and I have not yet blogged about it! It was such a memorable trip but soon after I started a new job and things got crazy.

Nutan, Jui and I planned this trip. We found a gorgeous cabin on airbnb and we were all set to go. Since our schedules were different, we all drove there individually. We started on Friday morning to avoid the traffic and reached there comfortably by afternoon. The rest of them got there pretty late in the evening. On the way we spotted at a few scenic spots as well as spent some time in Pope Beach.

Pope beach at sunset

Pope beach

The cabin was simply superb. Three bedrooms spread across two floors and a huge living room stacked with games and a keyboard. It was very well furnished. We spent the entire night talking, laughing and having a great time.

Cabin

The next morning we headed to the Zephyr cove beach, rented some beach chairs and sun umbrellas and spent the day there lazying and playing in the water. Vishnu and I even did parasailing which was scary initially but then super fun. The view from up top of the pristine water and mountains was gorgeous. Didn't take the camera so no pictures. In the evening, we went to Heavenly village to get some snacks and then returned to the cabin.

Zephyr Cove

Playing in Lake Tahoe

Beach chairs and Umbrellas rented at Zephyr cove

Snack stop at Heavenly Village

 

The next day morning, both of us rented out bicycles and biked on the bike trail along the beach. The dedicated bike trail meant no pedestrians or cars. It was an awesome experience. It wasn't very difficult although there were a few slopes for which I walked the bike. It was the first time I was biking such a long distance and I did quite well. Shortly after, we headed back home.

Biking Trail

 

Pope Beach

San Juan Bautista Mission

On the way back from our whale watching trip, we visited The Old Mission at San Juan Bautista. After watching the famous Hitchcock flick 'Vertigo', visiting the historic Spanish mission was on our list.

Outside the Church

 

San Juan Bautista

As soon as I reached there, I started looking for the bell tower featured in the movie, To my utter disappointment, the tower no longer exists. In fact, it did not exist even during the making of the film. Those scenes were shot on a set in a studio. The mission has a $3 entry fee.

Church

We saw the museum, the church and the gardens. As mentioned in my previous post, I was too drowsy from the tablet I had taken to pay any attention to the historical artifacts. I walked past them casting a quick glance.

Handwritten music books

Museum

I loved the gardens with all the colorful flowers and giant cacti. The stables and the Hall opposite to the museum have a separate entry fee so we skipped it.

Colorful flowers

We took a few pictures and headed to a nearby cafe to fight off our drowsiness with caffeine. The cafe, not surprisingly, was called 'Vertigo.' I chose to have the affogato and to my delight it was the best coffee I have ever had in my life! Everyone else also loved their coffee. For us, that coffee was the highlight of trip!

What: Old Mission at San Juan Bautista
Where: 406 2nd st San Juan Bautista CA
When: 9:30am-4:30pm
Fee: $3
 

Whale watching

Last weekend, I took my in-laws on a whale watching trip in Monterey. I knew they would find it interesting and fun. I personally wasn't too excited about it as I knew there is no guarantee of seeing the whales. Since I found a decent groupon deal, I decided to give it a shot.

I booked the trip through Seagoddess whale watching. A quick google search told me that morning tours have the best probability of seeing whales so I picked the 10am slot. It being the Gilroy garlic festival weekend, we started earlier at 7.45am to avoid traffic. To our surprise we didn't face any traffic and reached at 9am. There is plenty of parking although it costs $8!

We checked in and received our tickets. They offered us donuts and coffee. As I had heard that the waters can be choppy, we decided to take some sea sickness tablets. It was an overcast day with a heavy layer of smog about us (there was a very big forest fire in the Big Sur area that week). We wore several layers as we were told that it gets really windy and cold on the boat.

 

The cruise started on time and we kept our eyes peeled for whales only to be told by the marine biologist on board that we are quite a distance away until we actually locate them. On the way we saw otters, sealions, cormorants, seagulls and various migratory birds. The playful sealions could be easily mistaken for dolphins.

After about an hour, we reached the whale territory. Within minutes we spotted a humpback whale followed by a blue whale. We could see the splash caused by the whales coming out and then the huge grey/black body before it dived back in. It was an amazing site and hard to believe how large in size they were. There were a few babies too. It was so quick that it was hard to click any pictures. Anytime there was an announcement of a whale sighting in a particular direction, everyone ran to that side and crowded. That made it a little hard to actually see them unless I stood on my tip toes or elbowed my way to the front.

We then made our way back and reached back by noon. No sickness but a terrible drowsiness took over us which kind of ruined the rest of the day. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant and made our way to San Juan Bautista.

What: Whale watching
Where: Seagoddess whale watching 7881 Sandholt Rd, Moss Landing CA 95039
When: Multiple trips during the day
Cost: $45, cheaper if you get a Groupon

Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose

This weekend, our family outing was to the Gurdwara in San Jose. I had heard about it from many people but never got a chance to go there. In fact, BAO even conducted an event based on my suggestion last year but I got to go there only now.

The Gurdwara is about a 30 minute drive from Sunnyvale and is located on a hill. You get a great view of San Jose from up top. We reached there by noon. As soon as you enter, there is a place to leave your footwear and wash your hands. Entering the main prayer hall, we offered our prayers and sat down for a few minutes. A satsang in Punjabi was going on at the time. We then proceeded to the langar hall where lunch was being served. Grabbing a plate we stood in line, got the food and sat down to eat. Seniors and those who have difficulty sitting on the floor can sit at the tables.

The food was delicious and volunteers kept walking around serving more. After a satisfying meal we walked around clicking pictures and then made our way back home.

With my lovely In-laws

The noise caused by kids treating the place as a playground and adults socializing took away from the peaceful and meditative environment one expects from a holy place. The walls of the langar hall had a lot of posters explaining Sikhism and its tenets. It was an eye opener and I was amazed at how modern a religion it is. The teachings are very practical and are a good guideline to lead ones life by. The most impressive poster was the one which listed out the reasons why the Guru Granth Sahib is the most unique religious book. Some of the key points were as follows:

-Written by the original Gurus so there is nothing lost in translation or room for misinterpretation unlike other books which were compilations of word of mouth teachings.
-Followers consider the book as the ultimate truth and no one is worshipped above the book.
-Has a lot of different languages and dialects.
-Written in poetry form and has literary value
-Stress is on morals and value rather than miracles.

I'm very curious and will be taking up further reading about the book and the religion.

What: Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose
Where: 3636 Murillo Ave, San Jose CA
When: 24X7

Cooking Event

I am not particularly crazy about cooking.But when our team organized an offsite at a cooking school, I wanted to try it out.

 

The event was conducted at the Draeger's Market in Menlo Park. A small section of the store is turned into a cooking school. We arrive there at 11.30am. The 15 of us were divided in 3 groups. 'Rustic Italian' was the theme for the day. 3 groups together was responsible for cooking up one complete meal. Keeping with the theme, the groups were appropriately named as 'Team Milan (my team, yay!),' Team Rome' and 'Team Venice.' Each team was also assigned a dedicated chef to help them.

Team Milan

Team Rome and Venice made a salad, grilled vegetable and dessert. 

Blending

Grilling

Our team was tasked with making 'Homemade Farafelle in creamy lemon sauce with peas and mint.' This was exactly what I wanted to make so I was thrilled. All ingredients were duly measure and prepped for us to work with. Our chef, Sukanya, had already kneaded some dough for pasta and also made a sample of the farafelle pasta. There was fresh flour, eggs and butter kept ready in the blender. All our team had to do was run the blender to get the dough kneaded. The next part was the most interesting. The dough was then put through a pasta maker and rolled multiple times to get flattened strips. These were then cut using serrated cutters and then pinched to make the bow-tie pasta. Everyone took turns to do this. Afterall we were making pasta for 15 people so we used all the help we could get.

Pasta making

More pasta making

I took up the job of chopping onions. I got started with it and chopped a whole bunch of them. Others busied themselves with zesting and juicing lemons, cutting cherry tomatoes and chopping mint leaves.

Chopping

Once all the vegetables were done, we moved on to make the sauce. Most were still occupied with the pasta so I took over the making of sauce. A large quantity of butter was melted, onions sauteed, heavy cream and spices were added. Post a few tastings and adjustments we were ready with the sauce. It was a fun experiment. With Sukanya in tow, I had no fear of going wrong.

Sauteeing

 

Once all teams were done, the final touch was provided by the chefs and post a 15 minute break, the meals were served. Unfortunately, I didn't click any pictures of the final product :( But it was a satisfying meal with the best dish being the pasta!

It is a fun place to be and can be an excellent team building activity. I hear kids host their birthday parties there although it is quite an expensive affair. Nevertheless I had a great time donning the Chef's apron followed by a delicious lunch. They even provided us a copy of all the recipes scaled down for 6.

What: Cooking class
Where: Draeger's Market 1010 University Dr, Menlo Park CA
Fee: $125

Family trip to the East Coast

I have family visiting from India so I foresee a lot of fun travel in the future. The first of our trips was to the east coast. We covered Niagara, New York city and Washington DC over a period of 7 days.

Selfie in the flight

Since it was their first time in the US, we covered all the tourist spots and highlights of each city.

Maid of the mist and Cave of the winds in Niagara.

Maid of the mist

Niagara falls

Cave of the winds

Statue of liberty, One world observatory, Empire state building, Central park, Grand central terminal, Wallstreet, Brooklyn bridge were spots we covered in NYC.

Empire State Building

Grand Central

One World Observatory

Cruise to Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

Brooklyn Bridge

We barely had 24 hours in DC so that limited us to seeing the White House, Lincoln Memorial, US Capitol and Washington Monument. It was a super sunny day which drained our energy and walking the distance between each of these monuments made it even worse. Towards the end, we resorted to using Uber! The only place we could enter was the Lincoln memorial and the rest of them were merely photo ops. Since I wasn't too keen about American history, I didn't spend time learning more about the monuments and so I don't have anything to write about them :)

The White House

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

US Capitol

We were visiting most of these places for the second time so the excitement wasn't there. The only exception being the Niagara falls which invoked the same sense of awe as my first visit.