Cherry Picking! a small quick post

Since the summer '11 started in California, I was hearing a lot about Çherry Picking from family and friends. Then started my research, this time just by asking friends. So after many email-threads and discussions we decided to go for it. Nikhil-Ashlesha, from our DkD (Desh ki Dhadkan) friends group also joined us.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning (19th June) after the tasty group dinner at Sarvana Bhavan, when we left for Brentwood CA, north of Sunnyvale. 

from Sunnyvale >> Brentwood >> Livermore >>Sunnyvale

First thing we noticed outside the Cherry Farm was the crowd of cars in parking 

and beautiful views opposite the farm.

we The Cherry Pickers!

first picked cherries

empty bucket, to collect  cherries

boys posing with Cherries

(they didn't pick, just posed! great work done by we two girlies)

Gaurav posing, see I am actually picking behind him

Nikhil posing

good work by me *smiles*

love this pic!

beautiful big farm

going up high for fresh cherries!

almost 10 pounds of cherries! yayy!

After picking loads of Cherries, we headed back to Sunnyvale but stopped planned to stop by at the Livermore Hindu Temple!

beautiful Livermore temple

look at queue for that day's 'prasaad' i.e. lemon rice and curd rice

trust me both were delicious

finally we were back home by the evening, waiting for next summer!

note: there was no dramatic twist in this a day's trip! *wink*

Carmel + Big Sur

Sometimes, a day unplanned trip can be much better than you ever imagined. This is what happened when we visited Carmel Valley, CA. It was mid-April 2011, when my brother-in-law came to San Francisco for work. He visited us in the weekend. So we planned see the natural beauty of Carmel and Big Sur in a day's trip. Not just the city but the route to reach there was full of beauty. Now I know from where these beautiful nature wallpapers come from! Once while searching about the weekend getaways near Bay Area, I came across Carmel Valley Village. And the word 'village' attracted me most. Imagine a village in USA??? Since ever I have came here, we are visiting all developed places. Hence I was so excited to see the village. So after having heavy breakfast, we started off for Carmel. According to our GPS, the route towards village was quite weird. We didn't see any village. Of course, the small Carmel city is beautiful, but we were searching for the 'village' there. Finally we gave up and stopped at a coffee shop. There we came to know the city is only called Carmel Valley Village and also Carmel-By -The-Sea! I was little disappointed as I was expecting a typical village scene, but the beauty of the city brought smile! It was like as if we are in dreamy fairy tale land. Small little fairy tale cottage houses in rows, beautiful creeping plants all over windows, colorful flowers, cool breeze and  calm streets. After walking down the beach and a nice Mediterranean lunch we headed towards  Big Sur. Have a look!

Carmel Valley

fairy tale cottage homes!

colorful flowers

beautiful windows

beach!

and soo many Dogs!...everywhere, all around!

longest French Fries

Big Sur

Monterey, CA

We live San Francisco Bay Area, and there are a lot of weekend getaways north and south. So when we finally settled in Sunnyvale, it was the time for weekend getaways and hikes. To start with, we decided to drive south to the Monterey Bay. Monterey is famous for its bay aquarium, beach, whale watching and of course the natural beauty. But remember, our all travels have a dramatic story and that I'll discuss later in this post. This was a two day trip which included The Monterey Bay Aquarium & walks in the city the first day and Whale Watching in the Pacific Ocean the second day. 

the entrance of the aquarium

these Jelly Fish, I was just stuck to them...these were amazing. 

Watch the video below.

the beautiful color palette and textures from these lovely underwater friends!

watch the video :)

I was already imagining beautiful silk fabrics with these textures and colors! OMG! the imagination was beautiful. I wished I could create it right there!

baby Sea Horse

here comes the Flamingos!

and even the little Penguins! 

beautiful view of the ocean

we took Princess, Monterey Whale Watching

lots and lots of Seals, Pinnipeds

Now we started our 3hrs journey into the deep Pacific Ocean to see whales. It was all exciting till about an hour, but after that the excitement was all gone. I have a common problem of motion-sickness and since our Princess's vessel was little small and waves were huge, the combination was bad for my situation. We did see the whales, huge ones and beautiful, but there was no interest left to click them. After 3hrs, all was well :). I was all ready for the next vacation! 

Details!

Just found these detailed maps,

details in a different way!

World Map

If we are talking about Around The World, 

so this is the perfect picture to start with. 

lets travel the world :)

So to start with India, from where belong.

Then comes USA, where we are.

and finally California State

and last, but not least, home away from home, San Francisco Bay Area