Summer Fun 5

Tennessee Valley beach

Marine County is almost always cold through out the year. So if you want to go the beach it is better to go in summer.Our last destination was some beach towards the end of the summer. One day one of my friends suggested going to Tennessee Valley beach. Though I went to Marine County several times, but I didn’t know about this little beach there. 

Summer Fun 4

Visit to Kolb house 

Born in Bavaria, Germany, George Kolb migrated to America in the second half of 19th century. He made his way to west and settled down in Dublin, California. He purchased a general store and settled down in a small house behind the general store along with his wife and children. Later he built another bigger house for his family. 

The last Kolb was Bill Kolb, grandson of George Kolb, who lived in the same house what his grandfather built in 19th century by himself. According to his wish the house was donated to the city to keep as heritage. 

The house is now located adjacent to the historic cemetery of Dublin. Also the historic old St. Raymond church of Dublin is located in the same heritage park. 

One afternoon I took my son there to see the historic school house, which is now a museum, the Kolb house ,and the cemetery in Dublin Heritage Park. 

Kolb House

Summer Fun 2

Summer is the time to spend outside the home, in nature. This year one of friends and I decided to take our kiddos somewhere at least once in a week. So, they can enjoy together without any electronics. After visiting Lindsey museum we decided to go somewhere in nature, might be a little hike.  I found out one little hike little outside of the city bustle. 

Summer Fun 1

Lindsay Wildlife museum

At the ripe age when sit down in our slow life and delve down in our memories, the memories of childhood raise up from the abyss to the top. Childhood memories are often sweet. We do not recollect our performance in school, but we can vividly remember what mischiefs we did during that time. We cannot remember how much we studied during summer, but can remember how we made excuses to get rid of the same during that time. 
Those little memories always make us smile. In this age we can shower plenty of games, dresses, shoes, and many more consumable stuff on our children, but I bet they will remember any of them. As the children grow up so fast, that we hardly get time to spend with them. Only few years of life they love to go out with parents, want the parents to be involved in every activities. Those few years for parents also to be cherished through out the life. So, all the summers when the little ones are at home, are the time to make beautiful memories, whether crafting, going outdoor, visiting some museum, doing chores together. 

One is experiencing eagle's flight, his companion is watching him thoroughly

Sun Valley Diary 7

Ketchum

The picturesque little town on the lap of the emerald green rolling mountain always reminds the name Ernest Hemingway to the Hemingway readers. No, I didn’t read much of his works. I only read “The Old Man and the Sea” during my early teens, that remained in my memory. But I didn’t know that in his final years he lived in Ketchum. Before going for the Sun Valley trip, I rented few of his books from library. After reading few books, and his life story I was kind of overwhelmed. In his remarkable life he penned down some of greatest novel of the century, travelled many places around the world, worked as journalist in war-trodden Spain, but killed himself at the end. I sometimes wonder, why he  killed himself, was he loosing his ability to produce great works, I don’t know. 

Sun Valley Diary 6

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls is one of most spectacular natural beauties along the Snake River. The Falls is also known as “Niagara of the West”. 

Sun Valley Diary 5

Crater of the moon National monument

Driving on an uneventful straight highway, suddenly we arrived at a region with very different rock formation. The expansive plain green land surrounded with distant mountain suddenly changed to gorgeous black rocks.As we started in the mid morning, we reached in the afternoon there. However, the burning July afternoon couldn't resist us exploring the gorgeous landscape.   

Sun Valley Diary 4

Sawtooth National Forest

After visiting Stanley Lake we drove through the enchanting jungle of Sawtooth National Forest. The sun was blazing from the top on that summer afternoon, and we were driving on the almost desolated valley road with towering granite peaks which were still snow-capped. Though we couldn’t see any wildlife, but this forest is home of many exotic wildlife . Every year chinook and sockeye salmons travel 900 miles to spawn in the roaring rivers of the valley. 

Sun Valley Diary 3

Towards Stanley 

After visiting the historic district of  Idaho City, we headed towards Stanley, through Boise Nation forest. I planned to visit few lakes near Stanley before heading to Ketchum. The coniferous forest is very much similar to Yosemite national forest. The elevation is from 2000 to 7000 feet. The forest includes ponderosa pine, many types of fir, other coniferous trees. 

Sun Valley Diary 2

Driving from Boise to Sun Valley

To most of us Idaho is just another state. Another few think it is state which grows potato. Idaho has much more things to offer from ragged terrain to stunning lake to spectacular falls. As the state is big you need to consider which part you want to visit, as all the parts has something to offer.

Sun Valley Dairy 1

Planning:

After buying air tickets, booking hotels Mr. Man gave me the responsibility to plan our much waited Sun Valley tour. 

You may ask, why we chose lesser known Sun Valley. While searching a place to visit in summer suddenly Mr. Man saw an advertisement on Sun Valley. Then I searched about the place on Internet , and found that a place worth to visit. 

It was a four day tour. My target was to utilize most of the time. 

Mark Twain's Hartford Home

Quarter Twain, Half Twain, Mark Twain! They those are steam boat terms of old age, when steam boats were a popular way of transportation on Mississippi Rivers. Mark Twain means safe water. Though we are not familiar with the terms quarter twine and half twain, but we know the word Mark Twain. Yes, one of the greatest writer in American literature  of all time made those two very word famous. 

A day trip to San Diego

No, it was not a fun trip. We had some jobs to be done, and we decided to drive all the way to San Diego. It was more than 8 hours drive, still we decided to do that. 

It was a weekend. Our plan to go Saturday morning, and come back  Sunday night. It seemed very uneventful long journey.However, it turned out  exactly opposite. Still it gives me chill on my spine when I recall the journey. We departed home Saturday morning . It was a beautiful shadowy day. Soon we left behind the neighborhood, and started on freeway with rolling verdant green hills on the both sides.

A day trip to Lake Berryessa

First we thought of visiting Russian River in Mendocino County, but it was nearly impossible to make it a day trip. So, we decided to visit Napa Valley, instead of just the Wine County. Though we visited Napa many times, but the rolling hills and miles after miles vineyard always attract me. The valley always looks fresh to me. We first visited Napa long back with our then little baby.

Napa Wine Train line

Ferry Building, San Francisco

It was late October weekend last year. Mr. Man had some works in San Francisco. My son and I tagged ourselves with him and went to Ferry Building in San Francisco. As he went for his works we had nothing to do beside sauntering around the building. First we went to a book store. After shuffling few books, we went to the back of the building where we could see the boats, the ferries, and a whole bunch of seagulls who always search food. We had been standing beside the water and arguing whether ferry service were closed on weekends or not. While arguing we saw a beautiful blue-white ferry was coming from Sausalito to dock at the ferry Building.

One ferry is coming keeping the Bay Bridge on back

Cape Cod

The gloomy gray sky had been indicating a bad wether in Rhode Island. On the top that our tired mind and body was longing for some rest. Quickly grabbing some snacks we headed toward Cape Cod, our last stop to stay that night. Next day we had flight to head back to our nest. 

Rhode Island

Again the sky showed the gloomy face in morning.  We were almost at the end of our ten day long road trip. All of us  were already super exhausted. The exhaustion overpowered me so badly, I didn’t simply want to visit the historic Rhode Island. It was very unlikely. The historical buildings, the museums, anything historical always attract me. I didn’t even read anything about the historical mansions of Rhode Island. 

Next stop, Hartford

Happy New Year!

I'm trying to come back after crazy December. I yet to catch up. As kiddo yet to go back school, I cannot not come to my 'normal' routine. 
I yet to finish the travel story of my last year's road trip. I wrote up to our Yankee Candle trip. Again, I'm resuming the last parts of our trip. 

Yankee Candle Village visit

Leaving Vermont we started driving towards south again. When we started in the morning from Hardwick, it was cold and drizzling. Cold wind was blowing.

Vermont Stay

After our visit to Moss Glenn Falls we decided to go to another fall crossing the historic town Stowe. While driving through Stowe I found the town is very beautiful, and cozy. We didn’t have time in our hand to get down there, though I wanted to do that. It was already evening. My son and I was really tired and restless. I wanted to abandon our plan to visit the next fall. However, my stubborn Mr. Man didn’t want to do that. He continued driving. After reaching the foot of the mountain he realized that , he had to drive another one and half hours. The sun was already started saying goodbye. Then he realized it wound’t be wise to drive on unknown mountain roads in dark. So, after reaching there we made tune around, and headed towards our lodge.