It’s a small world. Joey’s littermate happens to live just a few miles from our house. Anjali and Annika went to the park to visit Kieran. Here they are resting after an hour of play time!
Archive for July, 2010
Joey Meets His Brother
Posted in Dog, tagged Rough Collie, smooth collie on July 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Conquering Half Dome (again)
Posted in Boy Scouts, Vacation, tagged Boy Scouts, Half Dome, hiking, Yosemite on July 31, 2010| 4 Comments »
We just got back from a weekend of camping and hiking in Yosemite. Nikhil, Vikram and 12 of their boy scout troop joined in the fun. I had arranged the camp sites and pre-ordered the half dome hiking tickets last February. This is a strenuous 21 mile hike (from Upper Pines Campground via John Muir Trail) with 4800 feet of elevation gain and took us over 12 hours.
We started our hike at 5:30 AM and started up the John Muir Trail. Here we are at our first break about an hour into the hike.
Vikram and Shree at Nevada Falls
We were fortunate to see this rare sighting of a bear cub at about the 10 mile mark. Vikram snapped this shot and we moved along quickly just in case the mother bear was near.
Here is a great shot of the approach to Half Dome. If you look closely, you will see the trail of people. The lower half is a rock scramble up the mountain, the upper half is the famous cable hike.
Half Dome Cables
Here we are at the hump right before the cable section.
Finally, we reach the top. I had all the boys harnessed into the cable with an Alpine Bod harness, runner and carabiner.
The hike back down the mountain was a bit quicker and had some glorious views of Nevada and Vernal Falls (below). We had all carried up over 4L of water per person and yet nearly all of us were running out at the end! Once again, it amazes me how many unprepared people we saw along the way with a bottle or two of water in 90 degree heat!
San Juan Hike
Posted in Boy Scouts, tagged Blue Jay Trail, hiking, San Juan Capistrano on July 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, I took the boys and their Boy Scout buddies for a training hike up the San Juan Trail in San Juan Capistrano. It was a 13 mile round trip with over 2200 feet of elevation gain.
Here are the boys at the beginning of the hike:
The first few miles are a series of switchbacks carved into the side of the mountain.
Here is Vikram taking full advantage of one of the few places with 4 bars of AT&T cell phone coverage. We don’t get this kind of coverage at our house!
The boys conquering a rock halfway up the trail.
Here we are at the top of “Cocktail Rock”. Appropriately named because after 6.5 miles of hiking I felt like having a couple of cocktails.
Finally, here is what we had to look forward to going back down to the trailhead. It was almost 4 hours up and 2 1/2 back down.
Monsoon Wedding in Pune
Posted in Family on July 11, 2010| 1 Comment »
Anjali just got back from Pune and here are some of her pics.
Theses are some of her cousins.
Here is Anjali with her favorite uncle Makarand Mama.
Here is Anjali with her favorite fruit Jambul – a cross between a plum and a blueberry (and very sweet).
Anjali went to Pune for a wedding. Here is a picture of the bride and groom (Sujay and Aparna) along with the family.
Here is Anjali with her cousin Shantanu (also an elegible bachelor).
Summer Races
Posted in Family, Track on July 5, 2010| 1 Comment »
I have some catching up to do as it has been several weeks since my last post. The kids have been keeping me very busy.
Annika and Nikhil had their final two races of the season.
The first was the SCMAF Championship. This is a Southern California track meet with qualifiers thru our city and county meets.
Annika qualified for and ran the 400M and 200M. She placed third overall in the 400M with a personal best of 79 seconds and 9th in the 200M.
Nikhil ran the 1600M and placed fourth overall.
A couple of weeks after the SCMAF races, both raced in the Junior Olympic Regionals. Both ran on two consecutive days the 1500M and the 800M races. These were much more competitive and they were running against kids that were one year older in most cases.
Annika brought her friend Lizzy to help cheer her on.
After the race on Sunday, we went to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant in Cerritos called Jay Bharat.
Khare Family Adventures 