FILOLI - a day trip

After living in the bay area for ten years, we found a place this week that we have driven past over the years, but never checked out.

Somehow we did not even register the sign on Highway 280 that says "FILOLI - next exit. National Historic Landmark Site".

Thanks to Anu.P and K. we knew about the existance of this wonderful place called FILOLI.

It is a mansion named for FIght LOve LIve. You can read more at their website.

We had a blast. It was a really hot day, but some of the gardens in the place were extremely cool and refreshing. We also went on a self tour of the mansion. Wow!! It was just amazing. The whole family had a blast. The added bonus was that we were joined by the cousins and a host of friends!

The best part was that daddy got to dance with his daughters in a beautiful ballroom and there was a lady playing wonderful waltzes on a piano in the corner.

Here is the trip in pictures.

The Landmark marker!

Posing with the kids and the MIL at the garden entrance...


Have no idea what this flower was, but it was inviting the camera. Missed my Tamron for a few seconds there!


The wonderful Allium. We have this in our house as well. The ones in our front yard never got to this size!


A wall of flowers!


A beautiful shot of San with the kids in front of the garden!


Jr. in front of the pool and clock tower.


This was a beautiful arrangement at the end of the rose garden


The rose garden. Really well maintained. Jr. though had a big issue with the "buggies" aka bees and wasps!


Another fantastic garden with tall well pruned hedges. When you have 654 Acres of land at your disposal, you can have many such gardens each visually more enchanting than the previous one!


The rose garden


A sample of the roses (there are lots of rose portraits, liked this one the best)


Note the dark pink looking plant on the right of this photo...


It is full of a rose looking miniature!


One of the coolest places at FILOLI outside the gardens


One of the majestic rooms at the Estate mansion! Gives you some idea of what half a million dollars can get you in the mid 1800's!


The ladies of the estate used to have tea ceremonies where they would gather and discuss the matters of the day. So says the informational video! When you put two Madrasi granny's in the same location a 150 years later, they still have a discussion alright, tea or otherwise! The two grannies were busy discussing anything under the sun (or shade) while the younger generation was busy running after the youngest generation!


One of the murals on the walls of the ballroom. Apparently made in the artists studio in New York. How they got it to this place in the mid 1800's is beyond me! Ship? Road? Did they break it in sections?


Finally a picture of daddy with the little one. A little blurry but you can still make out the happiness in the little one's face when she is dancing. She has this divine smile!


It was a memorable trip. If you happen to live in the bay area or you are visiting in spring or early summer, this is guranteed to be a good day of fun!

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Mission at Santa Ynez

Continuing on the series of photo blogs on the Solvang trip...

Santa Ynez is right outside Solvang (you exit Solvang, enter Santa Ynez). The highlight of course is a Mission that is 200 years old! (not a big deal by Indian standards where old means 1000+ years!), but definitely historic considering how young the US of A is!

This mission has a museum of sorts which show earliest pictures (from 1800's and early 1900's), the clothes worn by the early clergy and a beautiful garden, not to mention the actual church itself or the 200+ year old paintings..

The corridor reminded me of Rameshwaram (a place I am yet to visit! and have seen only in pictures..) Extremely peaceful place..

There were actually two shrines, the big one where everyone worships and this little one which had only two chairs in front of it (maybe this was the original shrine?). Did not get a chance to ask anyone because they were closing pretty soon (we were there Christmas eve!). I am not a big church goer (maybe this is like having a Moolavar and Utsavar type thing in Indian temples ?)


Here is the main shrine. I actually had plans to sit there for a few minutes on the seats and soak in the atmosphere.. but they were vacuuming the carpet and that plan went nowhere..I could still visualize the place and the awe it would create when it was silent!


Now for the paintings, which are on an average 200 years old.. Flash photography was not allowed inside, so please bear with the quality of the images (this is the best I could get with 15 second exposures with F8.0)


Another large painting


There were lots of smaller paintings which were equally amazing, but you have go see them on the walls for yourself..


Then we visited the garden and courtyard, which apparently was the site of the very first educational instituion in California!!


The garden reminded me of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicheri.. Very quiet in spite of lots of people milling around. For me, a person who is noisy by nature, More people always means more noise. The only deviations from this linearity are,

1. few people making too much noise (which does not surprise me anymore after seeing my two kids)
2. lots of people making no noise (that always puts me ill at ease at first and then suddenly slows my internal clock down. It is as though I start to move in slow motion). I experienced that in this garden..


On the whole a Christmas eve well spent!

That leaves Morro bay and Limekiln State park.. Considering I am going to be very very busy at work starting tonight, I will at least have those photo blogs ready before tonight and post them over the next week..