A few tips
* Please do not attempt Pinnacles in Summer. In Winter itself, the temperatures at noon were high, and did get a bit hot.
* Go early, as parking spots are limited.
* Carry essentials like food, water, first aid with you
* Hollister downtown is a nice little downtown to stop for good food options
The past few months, we have not exactly had much family time, especially a trip where we could spend time together. Even though we did not have any plans earlier, we thought making a quick trip to Pinnacles during the thanksgiving break will be a welcome change. We can actually do Pinnacles in a day from Bay Area, but we wanted to avoid the 2 hr drive in the morning, and hence decided to go the previous day, stay in hollister and then spend the next day in Pinnacles.
Its always the small things that always give so much joy and this trip was no less.
On black friday, we did some quick packing and left around 1:30 PM. We had not had lunch, so we got a quick bite for kids from 7/11. Their Pizza is good, and we just got two slices of that. We drove to hollister which was just an hour drive. We reached hollister around 3, and decided to have food there, in a Pho place. But this place was closed. We walked through the cute downtown of Hollister and got into a small mexican place. There were only few staff, and there was a wait for the food, but the food was yummy! I had mexican soup, and kids and Sree had tacos.
We decided to go to the hotel, checked into our room, rested and decided to go to the pool. The kids always loves the pool, and this one had an indoor heated pool. There is a general excitement around staying in a hotel for the kids. We enjoyed the pool, where Tara and Pappu showcased their swim skills and after an hour and half, decided to go back to the room.
In the room, we all took bath, and had PB&J and decided to call it a day after a bit of TV.
On Sat, our plan was to leave around 7:30 AM from the hotel after breakfast, to reach Pinnacles early.
But, we all woke up a bit late, and we hit breakfast only by 7:30. The kids enjoy hotel breakfast. So they had that, and we started to Pinnacles around 8:00 AM.
We were just about to reach Pinnacles, when Pappu felt nauseous. We had to stop, make him feel comfortable and also change his clothes. We reached inside pinnacles around 9:15 or so, and got the last two parking spots at bear gulch trail.
The weather was perfect and we enjoyed hiking this trail. The caves were the most amazing and the reservoir at the end too was very serene. The kids cooperated very well. After this hike, we rested for a while and had PB&J again. There are no restaurants in Pinnacles, so its important to carry your essentials into the park. You do have a visitor center store, but thats at one end.
After this short break, we decided to do the contour gulch hike till the overlook. This one was steap, and the sun also made it harder. Pappu and Kungu had falls, and they were also a bit more cranky. But we managed this hike. I was not too impressed with the overlook view.
We came down. After we reached the car, we were thinking if we should head home, or stop for early dinner at Carmel or Santana Row. Then we just stopped at visitor center, got ice creams and decided to head home straight.
And thus our short + sweet trip ended.
The little things that we enjoyed in this trip
* Getting roses from the seller inside the mexican restaurant :)
* The holiday vibe and food
* The hotel pool
* The clean and comfortable hotel room + bed
* The hotel breakfast
* Pinnacles bear gulch hike and exploring the caves
* The short nap in the car post lunch
* Kungu's random jokes as we hiked
* A nice man lending us bandages for Pappu, and Pappu mentioning, we should meet up with him sometime :)
* A quick break in nature from the normal routine
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