A Sight to Behold!

When we started out on this small trip to the Golden Gate Bridge, I thought heck, this is just another trip to this place. I have seen this bridge before and I did not think much about it. I thought maybe Subodh would love to see this place.
The moment we turned into the curve that led to the bridge, I could feel myself leave out a short "Gasp!" - what an awesome sight it was that unravelled right in front of our eyes. The bridge beckoned us in all its glory and splendour. 

The Livermore Temple

My weekly trip to a temple continues in the USA. I visit this temple every week. It is one of the better temples that I have seen in the US. Not to mention, that the drive to Livermore is awesome.
We also saw Peoplesoft, now Oracle, buildings on the way to this temple.

I will never get tired of this sight!

The beach has always had a calming effect on me - be it at the Marina in Chennai or at the Half Moon Bay in California. The Pacific ocean here was not as calm and quite as at the Monterey Bay but it was still not as rough as the Bay of Bengal.
The water was icy cold though - not that I fancy getting into the water anyway - and one cannot imagine getting the feet wet in the waves.
Can you believe me if I say that this was a foggy day during summer, and that there was a light drizzle and low visibility? And within 10 miles away from the beach, we had bright sunlight and no clouds, drizzle or fog. :) 

How did I manage this?

The Mystery Spot became even more mysterious when I managed to stand this way without losing my balance. In fact I did not feel that I was tilting forward. The strange force at this spot made me feel a little heavy headed too!!! 

At the Mysterious Spot :)

I was standing right outside the Mystery Spot. The place looks calm and has no signs of any mystery. Is the story of the Mystery Spot really true? 

The Monterey Bay

You can see the Pacific Ocean behind me. I could realize why they named it the Pacific - it was so calm and quite and the only noise that we could hear was that of people on this terrace. The town can be seen at a distance behind me and there were people having a good time boating as well. 

Gushing Waters!

No - I am not standing next to a water fall. This is just a periodic gushing of water that is used to simulate the splashing of water on rocks on a rocky seashore. The effect can be experienced only when seen from the inside. This photo was just to picture the water gushing!! :) 

Monterey!!

The town looks straight out of an old English movie. They have tried to retain the look which adds to the charm of this small but very busy town. 

Colorful Monterey

Monterey is a picturesque small town, almost a village. This picture was right next to the place where we parked our car. The tree next to me is just beautiful. Phew! 

A Humbling Experience

When I stood between these two trees, I realized how small I am when compared to the rest of the world. Here are two huge trees, on my sides, and the camera is able to cover just 10% of their height. You can imagine how the tall and wide they really were. This was an amazing sight to behold. 

Can I make this my home? :)

This looked awesome. The tree was hollow and even split at the bottom and yet stood quite tall. How did it manage to? I do not know the answer. But the space at the bottom of the tree made me feel that one small family of 2-3 people can easily make it their place of stay. :)
 

Bridge to Nowhere?

Is this the bridge to nowhere? Look at how thick the forest is behind Subodh.

 

Exploring the Redwood Forest

It was quite an experience, to explore the Redwood Forests reserve at the Big Basin. This was the place where we entered the forest. The beginning of an amazing 2-3 hours of walking around in the woods.

Driving in USA :)

I was back behind the wheels in the USA after almost 3.5 years and after an initial couple of days of apprehension, I was back at my very best on the roads. I have been driving so much on this trip that I believe I am making up for all those miles lost in the last 3.5 years.

Tour Dairy - 2

The last couple of days have been real fun. I ventured into the freeways with an enthusiasm that a child would display while entering a candy store. I decided to go to a place that I was familiar with - Fremont. My colleague and I got back from work to the hotel, had a quick wash and off we were on my Ford Taurus screaming past exits on the 101 South towards Dumbarton bridge. The evening traffic on this route was heavy but nothing compared to the 1999-2001 period when traffic moved bumper to bumper.

When I got on to 880 South, a wave of nostalgia swept me back in time as I saw the Thornton Avenue exit. I was on my turf now and I needed no maps to guide me. I drove straight to Coconut Hill on Cedar Blvd and we got some frozen Indian food and snacks. We then drove to the New Park mall and ambled around for sometime before we returned to the Coconut hill strip mall. We ate at Woodlands and the food was really good. oh! How I wish this hotel existed when I lived in Fremont. My wife and I could only go to Udupi if we wanted some authentic (well....more or less) South Indian food.

On my return trip, my colleague commented - "so are you getting used to the roads - I can see you are more confident now". That made my day.

Today we decided to go to Sunnyvale and had some decent food at Saravanabhavan. I probably overate and am struggling with my tummy even as I type this blog.

It has been a very busy day with tons and tons of work piling on my plate. I am filling in for two others who are going on vacation this month. On top of this was the announcement of yet another acquisition by Oracle. This was followed by some serious gossip on the acquisition with a sales person who had sold Oracle's product against the acquired product in the midst of fierce competition. The guy was wondering what he was going to tell his customers now. :)

Life at HQ is what you can call as "Boring" - with a big B. There is hardly any face to face interactions and the whole place is like a museum. Quite and dull. Each man/woman is unto himself/herself - people do not go together even for tea or coffee or lunch. If you are to go to lunch with someone, it has to be planned in advance. No dropping in at a cube and asking "Lunch?" ;) No group chai sessions or the animated discussions on Oracle v/s IT services companies or the debate on reservations. The place is vey quite and dreadfully desolate.

Given this scenario, I guess it makes real sense to outsource for the Americans. If interactions are by Instant messenger, phone or email even within the team here, then how does it make a difference if the person is sitting here at HQ or at far away IDC?

Met an old colleague of mine and went all nostalgic for close to half an hour. Will meet him again later during the weekend for a further dose of nostalgia. :-D

The next time someone at IDC crib about food at the cafeteria, I am going to ship him on the next flight to HQ and condemn him to lifelong sentence of food at the cafeteria here. :p

Ciao then. I am signing off for the day and will post later this weekend. We plan to go out someplace nice.