The second weekend

Over the weekend, we went to Petaluma to visit a few relatives I had never met before. I made good friends with a five year old, Ashika. She is one big load of kinetic energy! She didn't let me sit still for even one second! We reached by night; so after a heavy dinner and some raspberry pastries, we jumped into bed. Surabhi and I hadn't had time in the past two weeks to catch up on important things. So we spoke till 2am and fell asleep without realising. The next day we went on a road trip to Redwood Forest. It was a three hour drive I think. It was a pleasant drive with greenery on either side of the road. We stopped at a rest area for a drink and somethings to nibble on.
The Redwood forest has some of the oldest trees in the world. They're so tall and their circumference is massive! Even six of us together could not hold our arms stretched around the tree. It's amazing how a full grown humongous tree can fall off in a flash when it gets struck by lightening. There were countless trees which had been uprooted or burnt. Even they looked good I must say. We went to a bench and ate all the food that we had and drank some juice. Sudarshan, Surabhi and I went exploring around the place into the forest. We jumped into ditches, climbed out, and kept away from poison oak. Just when we turned to go back, I heard the rustling of leaves and a brown and black snake scuttled just past me. It was so close, for all you know, it slid right over my foot! I was so overwhelmed that instead of moving away, I ran after the snake until I was told to stop. We spotted a lizard after that but I couldn't get a picture of it. We lingered around for an hour climbing trees, walking on narrow tree trunks that looked like bridges and admiring the beauty of the Redwoods. We found a small river that was as clear as crystal by the side of the road. Most of us took off our shoes to wet our feet and get them tickled by fish. Ashika was so captivated by the fish, she kept giggling all the time. She sounds really cute when she giggles. We drove back home. The weather was chilly and nice. There was a park before the house, so we slipped on jackets and went for a walk. We played Tag for a while, fooled around on the slides and monkey bars and petted other people's dogs. We came back home, racing each other (running), had a nice supper and made the bed. Unfortunately, making the bed was just a waste of time because Sudarshan and I had a pillow fight right from 9 till 11:30. It was so much fun throwing stuffed toys at him, hitting him, getting hit and all that.
The next day, we went to Berkeley. A very hilly city. The roads are so steep, it's crazy! We went to a summit, called Grizzly Peak. The view from above is not that grand because it's at a height of only 1,700 feet but the drive to the peak was super fun! It was fun because it was a single road that took us to an elevation of 1,700 feet! Imagine how inclined that road would have been! We all went "whoaaa" in the car as if we were ascending on a roller coaster ride. The worst and ironically the most fun part of it was, there were stop signs on that road! How do they expect us to stop and go forward on such a steep road! If you're a bad driver, consider yourself dead meat! Anyway, we finally made it to the top and watched the clouds making their way over the bay and hiding the Golden gate and the rest of Berkeley and San Francisco from view. By the time we could eat a couple of chocolates, we were in the middle of grey infinity.
So we boarded and started to our next destination, Napa Valley, Calistoga. There is an Old Faithful there. "Old Faithful" is the title given to geysers, which shoot out at regular intervals. There are apparently just four in the world and they claimed that this was one of them. Seshi mama refused to believe that it was a natural phenomenon because the geyser shot up every five minutes when we were there! It was a sight to see for the first time, but got boring by the seventh time. It was pretty much like a fountain. It was supposed to be boiling hot, but when I stood under it, the water was dead cold. We could see the smoke rising from the underground and all that but it was strange that the water was not even luke warm. It was there that I saw four horned sheep, llamas and goats. Lots of bamboo too.
That's about what we did over that weekend. Petaluma, Redwood forests, Berkeley and Napa Valley. Good times...