Speed Boat Ride in Quincy Bay - 09 June 2013

It was the first sunny Sunday @ Boston this season, and our VP offered us to take 8 of us from office on his Sundancer Boat called 'Serendipity' (model name to search : "2008 Sea Ray 310 Sundancer")
View Larger Map It was lot of fun time.

Boston-MA

Been to Red Hat Summit 2012 @ Boston-MA. Before that stayed two days at Westford 40miles north of Boston. (20th June -> 2nd July)

Went through Frankfurt Transit.

Point Reyes National Seashore

People: /me, Scud, Nadeem, MS, Fahad and Raghu (du)

Date: 27th Dec, 2009

It was a nice drive throughout. Nice curvy roads, and it was cloudy, chilly day.. sun came out at the light house when we went. It was a nice place.

Went to beach.. Also just walked through another beach on the way to Muir Woods, but the parking in muir woods was so full, we decided to head back home.

'Photos from Naddy'

Lake Tahoe - 20091225

People: /me, Scud, Naddy, MS, Fahad and Raghu (Du)

Day 1:

We went to 'sierra at tahoe', and took intermediate classes for skiing. It was fun this time, and I could get very comfortable with turning and all.

Temperature in night was around -5*C

Day 2:

Went to Gondala Ride @ heavenly ski resort.. it was fun and temperature on top of mountain was around -11*C.

After that, went through few view points, and headed back to home.

Over all a nice trip, and we all enjoyed skiing a lot.

'Photos from Naddy'

New Mexico

Dates : 20-22 November, 2009

People : /me, Scud, Fahad and MS.

Miles in car: 1200miles

Day 1: Santa Fe, NM

City, known for old architecture and buildings. One of the early cities of USA/Mexico, tells lot of history about US Vs Mexican war.. Spanish history too.

Drove and stayed near WhiteSands.

Day 2: White Sand National Monument

One hell of a place. Played Football, volleyball, throwball, 'sikkor chendu'., did sand sliding. etc. It was complete fun.

went through El Paso, TX. One of the Border town of US / Mexico. Felt like we are in majestic area of bengaluru. on the roads, instead of guys staring at gals, gals were staring at us :O

Drove and camped near Carlsbad, NM.

Day 3: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Another natural wonder. The caves here are "BIIIIIGGGGG' and AWESOME. they have electricity here, so the cave looks good. cave is 750ft below the mountain top, and they have elevator. These limestone caves are really a wonder.

Also visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park on the way back.

Some Photos:

* Fahad's Album here
* more later..

DeathValley National Park

Date: 7th and 8th November, 2009

People: Sudharshan (Scud), Fahad, Raghavendra (Du) and /me

Car : Mitsubhishi galant

Miles Travelled: 1350

Expectations were low, but it turned out to be very nice trip. did see waterfalls, deserts (sand dunes), canyons, lake (282 feet below sea level), golf course, castle (history.. manually constructed monument). mountains.

First time in the trip, I actually took time off and slept in back seat of the car while travelling (blame it on changed lifestyle, or jetlag or anything else). Counted stars :p

Lot more to tell.. but well.. may be sometime later.

Photos from Scud's Camera Here

NYC, NY

Date : Sept 30th - Oct 1st, 2009

Visited NewYorkCity for the first time. It was on work, and the customer was @ 5th ave/50th St. Took airtrain/subway from JFK to reach destination. Day went in working with customer, hence nothing interesting.

Evening went on 'Top of the Rock', a ride to the top of rockefeller center. The Lift opened @ 67th Floor. It was the time of sunset. and the view of the city was beautiful. I could see lot of skyscrappers. It was cold wind out there.. I watched sunset, and waited till I see some sight of nicely lit city. But it was getting late to dinner to spend some more time there, also I was alone, which made spending time there more harder.

Met Sowmya after that. went for a walk for time's square. Took photo of NASDAQ center. later headed for dinner. Had dinner at South African Bar and Grill. It was very nice dinner, also this was the first time I met sow for dinner.

Nothing more interesting in this trip as I was very tired of timezone changes, and also I had some work next day. Flew back to Bayarea next day and didn't get any time explore the city.

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

People: Ashwin (aka, Scud, sudharshan), Kiran, MS, Fahad and /me
Date: 26th and 27th Sept, 2009
Distance : 720miles
Web: http://www.nps.gov/seki

Started from SanJose @ 03:30am in morning. Reached Sequoia @ 8am, Booked Crystal Cave trip. Visited Moro Rock. The experience of the Cave was 'awesome'.. Experienced 'The Darkness' inside cave. Overall, amazing nature. Had lunch, went on a drive to Mineral Kings. Saw a bear cub running across the road. My (and most of the people's) first spoting of wild bear in all these trip.


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Camped at Buckeye Campgrounds. Played Cards.. had nice sleep (thanks to new sleeping bag).

Next day started with few jumping snaps near the river flowing next to camp ground. Visited Hospital Rock where there are some scribbles from native americans, done few hundred years before.
Drove in General Highway towards Grant Grove, and on the way visited General Grant Tree, which is 3rd Largest tree in the world in terms of volume. Drove to Ceder Grove, and passed through the Rock canyons of Kings canyon, inside which flows Kings rivers.

The star attraction of the trip came when we visited Hume Lake Christian Camp (Well, it was indeed a religious place), where we enjoyed the beauty of nature.. A green grass.. lake, green forest and layers and layers of mountain behind... blue sky (view from bottom to top in photo frame). There we saw a sand volley ball court and reserved it for an hour. Played 3 sets. I enjoyed the game in spite of loosing all the 3, because i was diving all around, running across etc :-)

Food part of the trip started in Denny's, and ended in Chipotle. Inbetween, it was all kokila chapati and mint chutneys.. with lot of side (like chukly, koDbeLe etc)

Photos will be shared by janta who took them soon.. (links will be updated once i get them).

weekend - 20090912

Saturday played a outdoor volleyball tournament in SantaClara. Helped Prasad with shifting his house. Watched US Open. Evening swam a little.
Sunday morning went on a drive to Santa Cruz (with Kiran, Scud, MS), saw beach volleyball tourney. Had coffee, came back. Saw US Open. Went to Santa Clara for a hindustani Classical music concert by Vyshali KS, who is natively from Sagar. Overall a good weekend.

Rocky mountains, Colorado

Date: Septemper 4 - 7, 2009 (4 days)
People : Naddy, Scud, Kiran, Shilpa and /me
Distance Travelled in car : 750miles
Total hike : ~21miles. (all small hikes included)
Web : http://www.nps.gov/romo


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Attractions of the trip:
1. Mt Evans (14100+ ft) : Highest altitude paved road of USA takes you to Mt. Evans. Very scenic drive, we could spot some wild life along the way. Wind was very cold on top..

2. Pikes Peak (14100+ ft) : Again, another 14k+ peak where you can drive your car. It has a train which can take you to the top, called 'Cog Railway'. Also you can find lot of bikers (ie, cyclist) on the top.

3. Patel points of Rocky Mountain National Park: We tried and covered almost all the patel points as per the map.

4. Longs Peak (14259ft), camping and hiking: This was the main goal of the trip, camping and hiking. All of us did go up to the camping ground located at 12780ft, just below the Longs Peak, 6miles from TrailHead. It was a night to remember as 3 of us (including me) got altitude sickness <:-( and in the night temperature was in higher 30s (not C, but F). Wind was blowing almost around 70-100mph, which broke the rods of tent, and it fell on us. Happy stories, sad stories, good stories, bad stories.. overall a long night @ longs peak. Next day Scud and Naddy got up and headed to peak. We 3 had altitude sickness, hence packed the tent, and headed back to rangers station. 5. Chasm Lake (11740ft): Me and Kiran went up to the lake which is at the base of Longs Peak, and is a 0.7miles diversion from the longs peak trail. Its gave some nice view of the peak. Photos: From Kiran's Album



Overall a nice trip.

san francisco - n

Date: 08/08/2009

People: God(aka, Prasad), Avati, MS and /me

Went to city. Had pizza, spent time there in night, while coming back home, visited Golden Gate Bridge for 'n'th time. Also drove in crooked street, called Lambard.. Went on BayBridge, came back in San Mateo. Overall a fun night.. a night to remember..

No photos, the moments are printed hard in memory.

half-dome 2

People: Kiran, Mahesh, Suma and /me
Date: 07th August, 2009 (1:55AM -> 11:00PM)
Miles: 341miles

It was my second hike to the top of Big Rock called Half dome... Enjoyed it.

Photos from Suma's Album

redwood, crater lake

People: Sudharshan, Fahad, MS, Avati and /me

Distance: 1300miles

Date: 1st and 2nd August, 2009 (48hrs in total)

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Started off at 1:55AM from fremont. I took the car initially, headed towards, 880->101 and continued towards Fort Bragg. Took some nap there on curb side, and then headed towards Eureka, Orich, Cresent City..

Details of Redwood National and State Park:

* Kuchel Visitor Center

* Lady Johnson Tall Tree Grove

* Fern Canyon

* Scenic Drive

Camped at Mazama Village, Crater Lake, Oregon. Had soup and maggi. Later played cards too.. It rained in morning, thankfully there was no Thunder storm, (well, weather(dot)com predicted one). Travelled around Lake in Rim Drive. The Deep Blue water of Crater Lake was awesome.. Its till date the most wallpaper like place i saw.

We had booked Boat trip inside Lake, but due to previous day's lightening strike, there was some fire along the forest trail which takes us to down the lake, for boats. It got cancelled, and so we decided to leave early, and headed towards McCloud Falls.

We dived into water @ Lower McCloud Falls, and went below the falls. It was complete fun. Water was very cold, may be 7-8 degree Centigrade in temperature.

Photos from Scud's Album

CAS @ Golden Gate Park, SF, CA

After finishing up with 3 sets in volleyball by 9am, came home and left to San Francisco for visiting California Academy of Science Museum at Golden Gate Park. Took BART to reach SF, and then caught MUNI in city to reach the museum. It was very much crowded by 11:30am, and we mainly watched 'Fragile Planet' movie @ Planetarium. It was surely fun to watch. Also had a look at Aquarium, which had nice collection of sea animals.. also coral reefs..

Later visited Haight-Ashbury, and had Lunch at Eritrean Restaurant. Walked around for sometime, and headed back to home..

People involved: Avati, MS and /me
Photos: none taken
Miles: ~100 (all in public transport)
Date: Sunday, 26th July, 2009.

17 mile drive, CA-1 (upto bigsur)

Date: 19th July, 2009

People: MS, Avati and /me

Distance: 250miles

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Didn't even touch water even though we went all the way along the pacific ocean. It was beautiful day, all the stretch of 17miles drive was covered in clouds when we were there. Decided to visit bigsur and have coffee. It seemed like a good decision as the drive along the coast was nostalgic to me.. very relaxed after 800 miles driving this weekend..

lake tahoe

Date: 18th July, 2009
People: MS, Prasad, Avati and me.
Miles : 510miles

Target was to cover lake tahoe circumference by car, and stop at patel points and take photos. Also, enjoy the beauty of serene lake tahoe water, stored between sierra nevada mountains. We loved the place. At somepoint, we saw few people swimming in lake, and decided, we should swim too.. Went to Sand Harbor beach. Water was cold (may be in 45+ range), but sun was hot, so is the sight around us. Hence we went in and swam some distance. There were lot of young people who were jumping to water from rocks (10-20ft high). MS and Avati jumped too.. Avati swam around half a km (in 4 laps) over all. I swam not more than 150m, but came out and took sunbath looking at the beauty surrounding us.


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Had some good dinner at sacramento. Over all a nice trip.. for sometime at Sand Harbor beach, thought I am at Miami, not near bay area..

yosemite - 20090704

People: Manoj NV(mano, psycho), Prasad Hegde (God), Anand Avati, Sriharsha MS and /me

Car: Nissan Altima (hybrid)

Distance: 470miles.

Time: 4:30am on 4th July -> 1:00 am 5th July (~21hrs)

This visit was quite a normal one, and our goal was to just 'see' yosemite national park's beauty, instead of any adventure/hike etc. The park was crowded with cars and people. Sadly the department itself had put controlled fire in few regions, which blurred the view from glacier point.
I drove ~400+ miles. It was quite a lively trip with lot of brainstorming discussions.

baseball game -- oakland atheletics

been to baseball game today. Oakland Athletics Vs Detroit Tigers @ oakland's mcAffe Coliseum, as part of our company outing. I did enjoy the game. It was my first experience with live game, enjoyed it..

mission peak.. again..

This time it was with Hitesh (my CEO). Went through ohlone college trail and peak trail. The trail went half the way in shades, so it was a better choice. It was one of the hottest day of the summer today, temperature being 95+ F.

On top there was proper breeze, which compensated for the heat. Did 6miles in 2h45mins.

Mount Whitney

Date: June 12-15th
People: Sudharshan (scud), Dayanand Gayakwad (DG), Nadeem (naddy), Kiran and /me
Miles in car: 1247
Miles walk : 6.5 (06/13/09), (various range for each one of us on 06/14), I did 15miles (7.5miles oneway, summit was 11miles one way) - overall, reached around 22miles in 2days.

Travel Map :


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Photos from Scud's Album

Photos from Naddy's Album

Did I regret not making it to summit: Yes
Did I do the right thing by coming back: Yes
Will I try next year again: Yes

More writeups.. later