My sister visited us and we also had a mini-family reunion - a lot of my cousins and uncles. It was a lot of fun. Suddenly our home feels very empty and lonely now that they are all gone.
Below are some pictures of all the things we did over summer.
Summer of 2006...Ohhh...what a lovely time
Our song...Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Muir woods, PCH and Half moon bay
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Half moon bay...what a foggy day. The Ritz carlton and golf course.
You, me and Dupree :)
San Francisco Golden gate...could it get any more foggy...!!
Stinson beach and Muir woods...we did a part of the Dipsea trail (3.5 miles hike) got lost in the middle, fortunately found some other hikers with a map...
Then drive along the pacific coast to Stinson beach..oh what a lovely beach. I wish it was not that foggy that day.
Los Angeles
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Getty Museum is amazing and definitely worth visiting. They have sculptures and paintings from Europe - Monet (and his water lilies), Rembrant, Van Gogh, etc. The museum is also very open and all natural lighting. Mr. Paul Getty has really brought the feeling of a European museum to LA.
Beverly hills and Rodeo drive - ofcourse fantastic houses and shops. Unfortunately we did not spot any stars.
Hollywood boulevard and sign - For the first time we saw the hollywood sign clearly from the Hollywood and highland mall. We also walked along hollywood boulevard and met Elvis, spiderman, marilyn monroe..etc, etc. Saw the hand impressions at Chinese Gruman theatre
Universal studios - No visit to LA is complete without a tour of the universal studios. We saw the sets of war of the worlds, bourne identity and fast and the furious and ofcourse the famous Desperate housewives. Can you believe wisteria lane is actually in LA. We experienced an earthquake, psycho, mummy and jaws all in a day..Amazing...
Getty Museum, Rodeo Drive
Hollywood, Universal Studios (War of the Worlds set)
Las Vegas
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Was absolutely great. This is the best trip to vegas of mine. It is kind of amazing how they have built up a city just for entertainment. We saw the show "O" which was fantastic..it is absolutely impossible to describe it..you just have to have to watch it.
Also this was the first time we roamed around in the casinos during the day and I think it it much nicer than in the nights because all the shops are open, good food at various cafes, lots of people and free live entertainment
Some of the other highlights are:
- Watching some live performances at the Venetian
- The chocolate fountain at Bellagio
- Going up the Eiffel tour and seeing one of the Bellagio fountain show
- Food at Venice
- Live music at New York New york..the band was pretty good.
New York New York ;) , Venetian
Chocolate Fountain @ Bellagio (yummm) , Sugar & Spice @ Wynn
Stratosphere
Yosemite
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Well no visit to the bay area is complete without a weekend at Yosemite. No matter how many times you go, it just gets more and more beautiful. We covered the usual suspects - El Capitan, Bridal Veil falls, Yosemite Falls, Glacier Point, Tenya Lake, Merced river and vernal falls.
The most memorable were sunset at Glacier Point, the trek upto the top of vernal falls and dancing on Tenya Lake :)
Glacier Point sunset (Half dome..Gorgeous!!)
At end of the trek to the top of vernal falls, Tenya Lake
Napa Valley and San Francisco
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Napa valley - Beringer
Visited the wine country at Napa. Took the tour at Beringer. The tour was an extended tour including the cellars, the leaning oak, the demo vineyard :). the mansion and ofcourse tasting of some of their premium wines. Have been to other wine yards but this was very interesting and nice. The wines tasted were pretty bad. The leaning oak chardonnay was the most decent.
Cellars @ beringer, the mansion
Oh such lovely grapes on the demo vineyard. Had to resist real hard to not pluck a few :)
San Francisco - II
Went to San francisco a second time. Absolutely perfect day with lovely views of the Golden gate, the city and ofcourse the crooked street
Golden gate, San Francisco city
Crooked street (Lombard)
Lake Tahoe
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The final weekend we went to Lake Tahoe. It was a lovely trip. We spent tons of time in the water. We took the Gandola ride to the top and visited Emerald bay. The highlight was jet sking in the lake.
Lake Tahoe from the top, Emerald bay
Jet skiing, Me water Skiing ;) (Just Kidding!!)
