Monday, January 1, 2018

What I did in San Jose on Christmas vacation 2017

I had an amazing time for the last ten days vacationing at San Jose, California! It was such a pleasure to get away from the chilly minus 15 degree celsius weather of Toronto and stay in 15 degree celsius weather of San Jose. 
I could not believe that San Jose residents complained to be of how cold they were feeling!

These are the things I did to keep busy and enjoy my stay.

Went to a museum in San Francisco i.e. the De Young Art Museum.

Visited Fitzgerald Marine Reserve...saw marine life such as sea anemone and sea cucumber at low tide, for the first time in my life in nature and not in an aquarium!

Went on a nine mile hike to see redwood trees at Big Basin Park. 

Driven through Palo Alto town and enjoyed looking at the beautiful, tile-roof homes with lovely gardens. It reminded me of houses in Ghat sections of Karnataka such as around Mangalore and Udupi.

Visited one of the many offices of Apple and amazed by the bright, huge open space areas.

One Christmas and one New Year parties with great food, dancing to Bollywood music...

Photographing the thought-provoking graffiti at Clarion Alley in San Francisco

Great cocktails at a nice bar or pub in San Fransisco...I cannot recall it's name.

Eating at a few south Indian restaurants...I could not believe the number of restaurants serving such great tasting 'authentic' south Indian foods in and around the Bay area...not San Fransisco but around San Jose.  Also ate at Mexican and other 'nations' restaurants.  

Hanging out with two of my favorite people on earth...sis and bro-in-law who went out of their way to make my stay relaxing and filled up with things to do.

Watched these amazing shows which I cannot watch in my home as I do not have Hulu and HBO and Amazon prime.
Sweet Home Alabama: I love Reese Whitherspoon and so I saw this.
Big Little lies: Because I said I like Reese, my bro-in-law recommended Big little lies.  It's a one season only show. The first episode threw me off a bit, but then I enjoyed it. 
Casual: I love this show; saw the second season. I had seen the first season on my last visit here.
Insecure: Great show. Must watch for all. I hope I get to see the remaining seasons when they come on screen. 
The handmaid's tale:Must watch for people who enjoy Dystopian movies and shows.

While I loved all these shows a lot, I am getting sick of the huge amount of sex being shown in nearly all TV shows I see.
 20 years ago, when sex scenes were sparingly shown on TV, sex scenes were exciting. But now, watching sex scenes umpteen number of  times, in every show, in every episode ..ugh! The sex scenes are mechanical, repetitive, unnecessary and often seem pointless. The actors emotions are often incongruous to the coupling they are doing...  And the acts are so mechanical they turn me off or I am waiting for them to move to next scene. 
Maybe the idea of these show-makers is to make the viewers so blase to sex that  the population of humans will come down in future!

Key & Peel's show: I loved their skits.

I watched a few movies on TV such 'What we do in the shadows' but cannot recall the names of all. 

Saw Thor Ragnarok in theatre.

Practiced my car driving...taught by my sister and brother in law. They are my  10th and 11th teachers ...When will I learn and get the licence? They are both amazing teachers and patient and I thank their trusting me with their brand new car! Practiced in a huge car parking lot of a college daily for a week or so. Damn it ! I cannot continue the practice back in Toronto, in this chill and with snow banks on the sides of the streets and what not!

Enjoyed window-shopping at Macy's and Bloomingdale's. Loved the stuff (women's clothes) in Bloomingdale but resolutely did not yield to temptation. 

Enjoyed roaming the streets of San Francisco...the books stores, the eateries and pubs, the designer clothing stores. It's a bit chilly (you need a jacket) but it's fun...people watching, store-windows, the trimmed trees on sidewalks, everything seems beautiful here!

Read or rather  started reading "Cuckold' by Kiran Nagarkar loaned to me by my sister. You should try it. It's real, it's funny and it opened my eyes to the clay feet of Indian Maharajas!

Chatted with friends and family on whatsup.

Hope my next vacation is equally fun and relaxing!

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