I think today was one of the most beautiful summer saturdays I have ever had! When the day started with an eye irritation for Sree, I was thinking things were going to be tricky, but everything in the end turned out to be super amazing! Thought I will blog today for memory :)
Today's plans were as follows
- Breakfast at 9:30 am at our teacher Miss Orissa's place
- Grab subway salad bowls and drive to Felton for the roaring rail camp steam train experience. Our train ride was booked for 1:30 PM
- After the train ride, go to a beach, have dinner and return back.
Sree woke up with severe eye irritation which affected him even to function. He rested and cleaned his eye multiple times and then managed to get ready by 9:15. We left to Orissa's mother in law's home promptly. It was very close by in Los Gatos. The whole day was planned with our neighbors Asha and Bharathan too and they were also coming for the breakfast.
The property is so beautiful with a beautiful front yard, backyard with redwood trees and a very nice house. Los Gatos always have this charm! Orissa and her partner Vince were prepping some amazing food. We explored the house, played with Haku (their dog) and helped around a bit.
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| Beautiful redwood trees in the backyard |
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| Haku |
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| Lovely front yard |
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| The yummy spread |
We had an amazing breakfast of waffles, fruits, tofu scramble, coffee in the lovely front yard in this amazing weather with some great conversations. My friend sent me a note that there is an accident in CA-17, due to which the entire southbound is blocked. So we decided to finish up and leave earlier than required, as we might have to take an alternate route to reach Felton for our train ride at 1:30 PM. So me, and Bharathan went to the nearby Subway and grabbed our lunch and came back, while Asha and Sree helped Orissa and Vince clean up.
Orissa was also joining us for the trip, so we all started around 11:30 AM. The ETA was already cutting it too close to the train ride. We took Hwy-9, the alternate route which was also super slow! We called the roaring rail camp, and they were not hopeful on moving us to the next slot, as there were folks waiting to be accommodated. But since we were on the way, we thought we will go there and decide what to do, incase we missed the ride. I was the most concerned, while Tara was comforting me telling that we can always do the train ride another day. Great attitude for a 7 yr old :)
We drove through the windy roads, small towns and reached the roaring rail camp around 1:45. The crew right in the front, told us we will make it to the train, as the ride was delayed. So we parked and we ran to catch the train.
The train ride was a wonderful experience. We enjoyed it thoroughly, and so did the kids. It was a total of an hour and 15 minutes. It goes through the giant redwoods and had some interesting experiences on how it would back up, and change tracks to make the loop.The conductor also was so informative and was telling a lot about the redwoods, the area and history behind.
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| ready to ride! |
We took a lot of pics. After the train ride, we found a picnic bench, and then had our lunch. We spent some time here checking out the general store and stopping over at a blacksmith shop. We decided Santa Cruz boardwalk might be too crowded for today, and decided to go to Capitola beach instead.
We reached Capitola around 4:30, found parking and walked over to the beach. Asha and Bharathan and kids joined us too. I was pleasantly surprised and happy that the weather was so perfect today! Usually i sit and shiver in the CA beaches due to the cold winds, but today it was so pleasant to sit and enjoy. The kids played with the beach toys and the water. The water was very warm today, and you can truly enjoy it.After a while, Vince came by to pick up Orissa, and the rest of us hanged around a bit more, then cleaned up. The guys loaded the stuff in the car, while we girls found a seat in the restaurant. We were hungry, so we all had to our hearts fill. I had ordered the New England clam chowder and completely enjoyed having the hot chowder as the day started to become chilly.
We packed up after dinner, and returned back home and it was just a short drive of 40 mins.
Its amazing that, just 25 miles away from where we live, we have amazing redwood forests, beaches and beautiful scenes for us to enjoy.
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