When I was moving from Bay Area California to Boulder, Colorado I was quite sad. I was moving during the winters and I heard from my other colleagues that Boulder is not the place for winters because it snows a lot there. I am used to very cold winters and 1 degree celcius but I am absolutely not used to snow and blizzards.

The even more sad part about the move was that I had to work from Colorado office for 6 months and I was the only one form my team. This mean't my social life was about to go down the drain ( not that it was great at that time.. but something is better than nothing). But I had no option and had to move. See the things we need to do to earn our daily bread and butter :-) .

At that time I had absolutely no clue how beautiful Boulder is and I was only focused on cribbing about that fact that I will be all by myself and you know how cold gloomy winter days make you feel. But now when I look back I feel so glad that I got a chance to stay over there. I could see the Flat Irons from the downtown which about only 2 miles from my hotel. The Rocky mountains were just an hours drive, Estes Park for about 45 min.

Apart from the beautiful mountains and the snow covered peaks, the one thing I was most surprised about was the number of lakes/ reservoirs in this State. Almost every 2 miles you could see a small pond, a lake or a big reservoir. Thankfully for me not all these water bodies were frozen. The ones that were frozen were only the ones which were deeper in the mountains, the ones around the city were not.

This is the Estes Lake. It looks beautiful with the Rocky Mts in the background.



This is the Barker Lake/Reservoir which I stumbled upon toward my drive to Nederland



This one was in somebody private property. I was standing on the road and taking photographs. I saw two ducks here and a Red Coat Wolf or Coyote or something planning its dinner by trying to attack those ducks.

And Lake Lilly which again was in Estes Park ( me thinks) was completely frozen.

In Love with California :-)

The first time I came to Bay Area, CA was in 2005. My Uncle had arranged for me to come from Columbus, Oh. Actually Columbus was the first city I visited when I first came to US and quite honestly I did not like it much. On my second trip I got his invitation and came here for the weekend. I was quite excited and when Sunday evening came and I had to fly back I really cursed Columbus a lot. The weather here was awesome, the people seemed interesting, SF itself has this magnetic charm that you don;t feel like leaving. I visited a few palces and this Chapel was one of them. After that the only other time I visited this place was in Dec 2008 when my friend came down from ATL to visit me, and now. I've been dying to take some shots of this place. I really love the painting on the outer wall as you can see in the pics below. Also the carvings in much details and is very impressive. These shots were taken in the late evening when the night sky was almost dark but thanks to the full moon it was still blue. I need to take some day shots as well, hopefully before I head back to Florida.

If you have studied in Stanford then you can get married in this Chapel.

“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”

I was back on CA 1 highway also know as the Cabrillo Highway in California, One of my most favourite places. In the US I prefer West Coast to East coast because its much more scenic here, more picturesque, more serene, more laid back, perfect weather .. I can go on and on .. :-D . Although there are many other states here like Arizona, Colorado, Utah and few more which has beautiful landscapes, colors, mountains etc. Out of these I have only seen Colorado So far (and ofcourse a few other states/cities). California is kind of an All in one place, as in you have the sandy beaches and also the mountains, you have beautiful lakes and also the pacific ocean, you can see different species of birds, also during the seasons you can see whales migrate to Alaska, from wine in the Napa valley to beautiful farms in the mid valley .. Like I said I can go on and on about California. It feels like 2nd home to me.

One of my favourite places here is the Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Pescadero on the CA -1 State Route. I have taken quite a few shots of this place but I think there are a lot more opportunities .. I need to be back here and living for sometime so that I can go visit during different hours of the day to get that perfect shot i have been dying for .. Below are a few latest shots I took ..

“Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.”

This one is right under the bridge that connects Sarasota to St. Armands circle and the Longboat key.



This the the back leg of the bench :-)



This one is in Myakka State Park facing the Myakka Lake.



This one is on Longboat Key facing the Ringling Causeway. There is a Marina here, also you can see the bridge I mentioned in the first pic. This one was taken at about 7 in the morning when the Sun was rising from inland..