Our new Favorite spot- Lovers point park

We had visited this park in Monterey right after San realized she could only limp along for a few days. Lovers point park is perfect to park right near the beach, get down just 15 steps and get your feet wet in the waves. 

When the BIL's family visited, we made another trip to the park..

We made it in the evening and it was overcast and almost started drizzling after we spent an hour at the beach.. so we made it back home with a nice dinner at Los Gatos in a Mexican place. 

Here are some pictures from the outing..

I started doing a yoga pose.. but the wind was stronger than last visit and I was not that confident of my balance.. so abandoned the attempt halfway..

Then a gull came and sat next to me.. very close to me. Must be a very sociable gull.. so I took a Gullfie..

and here is the "making of the Gullfie" shot from Jr. 

the star of the show..

I think it has been trained to pose.. maybe it expected me to hand it food after posing for photos.. dont know!

We had fun in the waves..

We will be making many more visits to this place over the years is our guess.

Love this beach!

Why did this blog go dormant?

It has been almost two months since any blog entires. It was not intentional. We had a great summer beginning when every weekend saw a new hike, nature photos and happy smiling faces. 

Then things changed, in a fraction of a second. My wife went to Windy hill hike with a friend and did the simple common mistake of not looking where she is walking. In a spilt second her shoe gets stuck in a root on the path and her ankle was twisted. She decided it was "just a sprain" and decided to go on a larger hike during memorial day weekend which made matters a lot worse.

After many X-rays, MRI, bottles of Ibuprofen,Voltaren,Icy-hot,dencorub,CBD oil, etc. etc.. (it is actually a long list), ankle braces, doctor appointments, chiropractor visits, even Bikram yoga with me and my MIL later... she is almost walking normally again within the house and on solid concrete floors. 

Every week was "it will get better in three weeks" and almost three months passed. We are still happy with the progress. If the queen is not happy, the kingdom cannot be happy. Given the blog is usually positive, I just stayed away from it. 

My new job also got interesting. A lot more work came up in the last 6 weeks. After being in startups for 15 years, a big company has a very different feel. Some things work more efficiently. There are systems in place for everything and that is great. Some things are incredibly slow which is to be expected and I had to significantly reduce my internal clock speed to set realistic expectations. Think I am reasonably adjusted now, we will know in a few quarters (you expected me to say "shortly" didn't you! have learned my lesson). 

Then things got interesting everywhere else. We had a flying visit from the BIL's family for three days during the July 4th weekend and more sickness around the house. We are all on the mend now and that is why I decided to catch up on blogging.

First for some small things. My co-sister decided to bring us a gift when they visited. We have a lot of hummingbirds in our backyard. So asked her to get us a hummingbird feeder. I had plans to get a regular bird feeder. We recently had a bird hit our window and die right there. Wanted to give back something to our backyard birds for the hours of entertainment they provide when we drink tea on the swing and watch them.

Got a couple of shepards hooks, posted them inside flower pots and set it all up. As an added bonus set up a water fountain as a project, working with my two nieces. It was an instant success. 

Here are some photos and videos..

I have never seen a baby hummingbird.. we all call it "baby hammu" and it is incredibly cute! 

The rest of the sparrows, finches, crows, doves and squirrels are all gathering around this small area and I just watch the backyard as I work. Making powerpoint slides becomes easier when these critters are around!

Never even got to edit all the photos from the July 4th trip. Will spend an hour a day and get back to blogging and the photo editing! My connection to music also got stronger over the last few months. Will write about it later!

For now, I am happy that the blog saw a post!

Lovers point Park - Monterey

Given San is still on the restricted ankle regimen and wanted to go somewhere, anywhere.. we went to the easiest accessible beach, at Lovers point park in Monterey.

It is a 90 minute drive from here, but totally worth the drive. The weather was perfect there, a good 15 degrees cooler. We parked right next to the park, walked around the park and went down to the beach and got our feet wet.. 

My photographer is getting better every day!

There is a carpet of pink flowers everywhere, which makes for great pictures! 

we had to dry our feet before wearing shoes again.. so we just sat on a bench and watched the waves and seagulls and the incredibly human friendly gophers that were everywhere! they even beg for food on two legs and that was scary to watch!

I also got to climb on the rocks here and there and try yoga poses. Not recommending this to others as it was a risky move.. was in the moment and shocked my wife by trying to do this on top of the rock.. by the time she started to protest in terror, was out of the pose.. 

Long exposure trick on the waves.. 

slowly getting the hang of this.. have to go wider as the long exposure adjustment crops the picture!

Some pictures from the park and beach!

and what is a blog post without a short video?

Had a lot of fun in two hours and drove back! Definitely recommend it for a short walk in a scenic setting!