Yosemite Falls

 

The Forest in the Yosemite Valley

Pebble Beach, Oracle and Sundry Pictures

These are some sundry pictures from my collection.

Pebble Beach - some scenic spots

This one below has a faint hint of fog in the background. The fog was actually setting into this place just as we managed to get in. It was a beautiful sight to watch.

This is at the Pebble Beach - adjacent to the world famous Golf Course - one of the best on the PGA Tour.

This picture justifies why this is called the Pebble Beach!!!


The Palm Drive at Stanford University. It did look very very good. The day we drove into this university, there was a wedding at the cathedral and lots of people arriving for the wedding. There was a huge limo waiting for the newly wed couple - with attenders dressed in traditonal attire and with almost a royal presence. :)

A view of the Oracle Headquaters from the main road - Ralston Avenue.
To round this post off - I have one picture left from the Yosemite trip which I really liked. You can see that here below.

Yosemite - a video clip

This is a video clip of the Yosemite Valley!! I think we got it initially wrong by holding the camera in the wrong direction. But all the same, you can get a wonderful view of the place!!

This is nature at its serene best!!!

This is a small movie that captures the drive from our place of work to the hotel. A good drive - almost deserted - and a enjoyable one at that.

Happy viewing!

Yosemite - What a Trip!!

Our next trip was to Yosemite. We expected the place to be picturesque - but to tell you the truth, we really did not expect it to be this good. Some of the views were breathtaking and it looked as if we were right inside a calendar. Take a look at this picture towards the right. If you remove me from this picture, it will look straight out of a calendar. :)
Since this is summer, we hardly expected to see snow, but then the moment we entered this part of Yosemite, we saw the white snow capped mountains. To say that we were amazed is an understatement. The only expression that came out of us was a big - WOW! This is not the first time I am seeing snow - but the it was still a sight to behold. This place brought out a kind of weird streak in us. We took our cameras out and started clicking like two mad men. The photograph below is just another awesome view of this really, really, wonderful spot in this part of the world.
The unfortunate thing about a 3.2 MP digital camera is that it does not provide pictures with "depth". If you look at the picture here, it does not really make you feel that I am standing at a point which is a clear 5000 ft above sea level and I am actually overseeing a valley that is just huge. The experience of being there is just not captured. It is just a photograph that I can use to remind myself of this experience - an experience that will stay fresh for a lifetime. It was a bright and sunny day, in fact, a little on the warmer side at 82 F, and to see these snow capped mountains was indeed a great sight.
But our astonishing journey did not just stop at looking at these snow capped mountains. We even got to touch and feel the snow. I don't really understand how we really were able to see snow on the road side at 82 F!! Subodh and I did not waste one moment to stop the car, and rush into these woods and click some snaps with the icy cold snow in our hands. When we told people after we returned that we got to see snow, not many people believed us. I have these snaps here just to prove a point. :)
See the snap below to see me almost meditating at this scenic site. :)




This made Subodh give meditation a try and here is he seated like a Buddha!!! In fact, I am sure Buddha would have been happier to be at a place like this. Or probably it was like that in India too more than 2000 years before. :D


And the glacier peak however looked anything but a glacier. My knowledge in geography says that a glacier is actually a large mass of ice. And this rock is anything but ice! But then, maybe it would look like a glacier in winter.

Oh! That reminds me - it was lucky that we made it to this place in summer. Seems in winter the route to glacier peak stays closed.

We then proceeded to enter the Yosemite valley. The route to the valley was again awesome - to use the oft used and probably cliched American expression. But truly, this place made me grope for words. I felt handicapped, and bereft of a good vocabulary. My limitations stand exposed today while writing this travelogue.







I have seen these only on Discovery channel!! :D. That brings me to an interesting discussion that Subodha and I had. Are there not similar, if not more, beautiful places in India? There are, but unfortunately, we do not promote tourism the way the Americans do. So such places are not very easily accessible by road. The Western Ghats in Kerala, Karnataka and the Konkan region are probably the best places in the world. Wish we are able to go to such places as easily as we are able to in the United States.
The photograph on the right is the Yosemite Falls. I don't think I need to say anything about this absolutely fabulous view. And the photograph below probably even looks like a fake - like a postcard.