Rose Garden, Mystery Point and Santa Cruz Beach with the Cadas

Yesterday, we met Cliff and Bing Cada, my friends way back from my Sunlife days. We were also able to meet also their beautiful daughter, Marcy. We first went to their house in San Jose for lunch with a lot of kwentuhans and updates. After a delicious lunch, we headed first to the Rose Garden in San Jose. The garden is very beautiful with lots of roses with different colors.

The next destination is Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The place is really mind boggling cause it seems that there is really something that is happening there! As they say, laws of physics don't apply there. Or is it just a trick of the eye? Hmmm... it's hard to explain... but if you happen to be in Sta Cruz, California better go there to experience the peculiarity of the place.

After that weird experience at the Mystery Spot, we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. What's very interesting in this place is that it is a beach with a theme park! After enjoying the rides, you can have a swim on the nearby beach, that is if you can swim on the cold water! hehehe...

I wasn't able to try the rides kasi nakakatakot sumakay :P I can't stand watching people riding the Double Shot! Nanonood pa lang ako natatakot na ako... parang maiiwan ung kaluluwa mo sa taas... hehehe... But Rhefee, Chryshyll, Cary and Cliff tried it. After that, they decided to ride the Fiz Ball.

I was really a very exciting day! Meeting old friends and going to new and odd places.

* I also added pictures taken by Cliff and Bing.

Recovered!!! Big Sur Photos

Hay... I thought I would never see again the pictures I took at Big Sur in Carmel but they are here!!! Thank God that there is a program where I can still recover deleted files! Thanks too to Ekai for telling me that there exists a program for that - the Piriform Recuva.

And because of that, I added all the pictures I took on that SD Card here so you might think that the pictures are just repeating... hehehe...

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Big Sur bridge - by Edge

Last Sunday, we had a a chance to visit one of the beautiful towns here in California - the town of Carmel. Carmel is a small town in Monterey which I would consider as a little Beverly Hills. Why? Because it seems that everyone who lives here owns a Ferrari! Everywhere you look, you would see a parked Ferrari in front of their houses! Nakakalula!!!

There are lots of famous personalities who came from this town and one of whom is Clint Eastwood who is a former mayor of Carmel. Yep, si Dirty Harry mismo!!! hehehe...

There are lots of facinating places here in Carmel, the Mission Ranch (owned daw mismo ni Clint Eastwood), Mission Church (an old church established in 1770), and the breath-taking Big Sur located south of the town. We really enjoyed our trip here!!!

** Wonder where my photos at Big Sur are? Ayun, nadelete ko accidentally!!! Nakakainis d ba? Di ko alam kung baket ko nadelete, nagulat na lang ako wala na ung mga pictures. Pinaghirapan ko pa naman... Nagkagasgas pa ako sa hita ko para lang makakuha ng magandang shots pero ayun, nawala... huhuhuhu!!!

Birthdays + Picnic = new friends :)

Last weekend, we had a very busy schedule... hehehe parang artista!

We left Homestead early to meet Cary and Rhefee. We then went straight to Circuit City to take advantage of the tax free weekend that they are offering for all purchases! Cary, Chryshyll and I bought new cameras (I bought Nikon D80 :) - sorry Trina my sweetheart, di Canon ung binili ko) while Rhefee bought a new laptop. We got lots of freebees! I got Epson printer and a photography for dummies book! Then we had lunch in New Luk Yuen resto near Seafood City. After buying a lot of grocery items for the birthday party of Cary, Edge and Janice at Seafood City, we went straight to the party's venue - at Janice's place. I enjoyed the party since I was able to meet friends and relatives of Janice. Other headstrong peeps were also there. We went home at around 9pm since Abhishek has an early flight to Washington the following day.

Sunday came and it was Headstrong's Picnic at Saratoga Springs! I didn't realize that Headstrong Sunnyvale has lots of employees! I really enjoyed playing volleyball with the other employees as well as employees' children. At syempre, our team won two straight sets!!! hehehe... Yabang! After playing volleyball, the program started and we had fun games before the main event - the lunch! In the afternoon, we had another set of fun games but this time it's more enjoyable since participants will get wet!!! Good thing I didn't get wet in the pass the tumbler game. The afternoon ended with a raffle and Cary got the main prize - $100 gift certificate at Fry's! You know what? Cary's number is the one that Kathy gave me, she just put the wrong name on it... :(

The weekend that I had is really full of fun! Hopefully we could go somewhere this weekend... hehehe... abuso! :P

San Francisco Experience

Finally, after more than a month of stay here, we were able to have a weekend for touring around San Francisco. If not for Reshpal (Abhishek's friend) visiting California, we might not have planned to go out yesterday. Thanks to Reshpal!!! :P

First destination of the day is the world famous Golden Gate. We crossed the bridge and parked at the other end of it. We walked on the bridge and oh my! it was so cold!!! The wind coming from the Pacific Ocean is really very cold! We also went to a nearby hill to take pictures of the entire bridge. Ganda ng view!

After that, we decided to go to Lombard Street for the world's crookedest street but it seems that we can't find it at first so we decided to proceed to Fisherman's Wharf. Looking for a free parking area in this side of San Francisco is very hard! It seems that most people here in California are there to have a close encounter with the Rock, no not the Batista the wrestler but the real ROCK, the Alcatraz Island. Sad to say, tickets for the cruise that includes docking at the island is already sold out. So we just bought the second best tour, the San Francisco Bay Cruise.

Arriving at the gate, the line is already long. We have to wait for several minutes before we were allowed to enter the vessel. One of the crews there took our group picture for the usual souvenir photo. The tour includes narrations regarding the place and it was very interesting! We went first to the Golden Gate Bridge, but this time from a different perspective coz we will be passing under the bridge. Then, we proceed with the cruise around the Alcatraz Island. Seeing several people touring on the island, we promised to ourselves that we will go back for the real Alcatraz adventure. Then, we passed by the Angel Island (but I wasn't able to distinguished it from the other islands hehehe). Next, the narrator asked us to view the San Francisco's skyline. The narrator said that it is the first thing that early travellers see after sailing the vast Pacific Ocean. He told us some of the famous landmarks there, the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower (shaped like a fire-hose nozzle).

We then decided to proceed and find the Lombard Street's zigzag. Rhefee was able to ask a policeman for directions and at last we found it! :P The street is really crooked and small!!! There are lots of people taking pictures at the end of the street. We decided to try it and take the zigzag. The experience is really fun! It's like you're riding a roller coaster that is full of turns.

We tried to visit the wine city of Napa but we were not successful of finding free wine tasting. We just went around the city looking for a place have a free taste of wine. After several turns, we decided to just go back to Mountainview.

The experience in San Francisco is really enjoyable! But we still have to see a lot of interesting places there and as Douglas McArthur said "I shall return!".