Monday, August 23, 2010

A very close encounter with nature ... and more

Past few weekends have been packed .... what with us exploring new territories, it has been exciting and tiring at the same time.

Two weeks back, after lot of discussions, disagreements / agreements we decided to go hiking. Now, this IS a brave decision considering we have 2 toddlers in the family to be entertained and not to forget the just turned 6 year old baby. (oh .. by the way, she has given me strict orders to not address her a "baby". Baby should be replaced by "Sweetie", "Putta" whatever ... but no more baby) Anyways, the place chosen was Uvas Canyon.... about an hour's drive from our house. We decided to pack lunch and had lovely visions of eating out in the open, beside a creek, enjoying the quietness of the place and soaking the lovely views.
We decided to start early .. around 10:00am (what ??? that is not early ??? well ... summer break, saturday morning ... waking up at a decent hour after a late night movie is hard ... and not to forget the hubby's P1 bug that needs attention first thing in the morning) Surprisingly, we got ready of time and drove to the place. The roads leading to the hiking trails were narrow and we finally reached the place and collected the map ... set the toddlers on their strollers and put on sun screen lotion, hats and set out to hike as true professionals. The place was indeed beautiful and quiet .... not many cars were parked. (only 1 more apart from 2 of ours). BP and my dad pushed the strollers ... the path was steep and rough. It was indeed hard to push the strollers (which contained water bottles, food, snacks, juice, swim wear, towels and extra set of clothes) We had hiked a little when, Junior decided to try hiking instead of being tied to the stroller. So I walked along with her short distance while BP and my dad followed us closely behind. My mom and Cantaloupe were walking along with me ... while my sister and BIL were slightly behind us. All of a sudden, Junior decided enough hiking and started back towards her dad (about 20 steps behind) and stopped in between, expecting me come get her. It was indeed steep for a 2 year old to balance and I was right behind her. Just then Cantaloupe came up to me and said as a matter of fact "Amma ... Junior pakka Haavu ide" (Amma, there is a snake beside Junior. Cantaloupe continued hiking after having stated the obvious ... but hearing out those words scared the hell out of me. I looked closely and saw a snake about 2 in of distance from Junior's feet ... just one more step and she would land on the snake. I screamed "Snake" and BP who had caught up with us immediately picked Junior up in a flash second. Had I not mentioned, he might have stepped on the snake too. It was very much alive ... it had perhaps eaten few mins before and had a bulged tummy.
The hike was never the same for me.... I was imagining all sorts of reptiles and could not enjoy much of the hike. We got down in one of the water falls and the kids did have some fun ... but I couldn't think beyond the snake. We spotted the same snake on our hike back too (it had moved further away) and warned fellow hikers about it.
There were picnic tables set up and we had lunch .. hiked some more and decided to drive back. On our way back, we also visited Mount Madonna ... a quiet place with a small temple and lovely views. Got back home in the evening and awesome chai (courtesy BP) and went out for dinner. I hugged and kissed my girls for No particular reason for the next 3 days ....


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Last weekend, we went to the Circus show in town. We didn't buy the tickets online (thanks UTBT for the tip) and bought them in person. This was my first experience of a circus show ... as was it for the girls and BP. Cantaloupe enjoyed the show for the most part ... but was put off when I refused to buy her Lemonade. (that was about 15 -20 mins before the end of show). So after the show, when my dad asked if she enjoyed the show, she said "Sort of OK" ... to which my dad asked her "Why so?", who had obviously heard her claps and cheers the entire time of the show. She answered "Because mommy did not buy me Lemonade" :)
Junior and my little nephew watched the initial minutes of the show startled by the color and music ... but later, almost the entire time was spent munching on raisins, bread, pop corn, cotton candy, cookies, chips and the likes.
I wouldn't say the show is must see ... but for first timers it was certainly worth the money we spent and an enjoyable experience overall.

13 comments:

utbtkids said...

Snake?????? Goodness gracious.

Reg Ringling Bros circus, I thought the show was good enough with the people. To me, 7 men going on a motor cycle in a metal sphere or three women squeezing their bodies in to a small cube is good enough. It was worth the $10 I paid for the tickets.

I simple cannot understand the tigers and elephants. The need for them to be in the show, the need for them to perform these unnatural tricks. Why do humans even 'train' other living things? Just because we can?

This has nothing to the people distributing fliers outside HP Pavillion. Even if the animals are happy and trained in the most humane of ways, it simple broke my heart to see tigers walking on their hind legs. They looked completely robbed of that majestic quality. Sigh.

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

@UTBT: Oh .. you just said what I had in mind ! I couldn't bring myself to see the tigers and the elephant ....
And the motor cycle and the small cube acts were so special !!!! Truly amazing ... very very talented lot.

And you paid only $10 ??? Discounted tickets ?? We paid $16 ...

utbtkids said...

Yes $10 + $1 for facility rental.
Trade off we were way high, in level with the tight rope and trapeze act people :)

Sujatha said...

Hi,

Not a regular commenter here but the places you have mentioned looks pretty close to me too, thanks for the post, now I can plan to go on that hike and encounter the snake ;-)

Sujatha

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

@Sujatha: Enjoy your hike

Lakshmi said...

I am so scared of anything crawling. Snake - wow, I would have just ran back home. We did hiking with kids this summer. S enjoyed it a lot. A did too, but had to be carried a lot by husband and me. Half a day hiking got us real tired.

Circus sounds like fun. I need to take these girls sometime.

starry eyed said...

Egad! I would've given up the hike, methinks! Glad its tummy was full!!

And yeah, my younger one was also focusing more on the vendors than the happenings last time we did the circus!

Rohini said...

Wow! That was adventurous. Hats off to you :)

The Print Lover said...

Whoa! I would've run back to the car after seeing the snake. Good job, cantaloupe.

She deserved the lemonade for being so brave :)

Average Jane said...

Snake?! Looks like Cantaloupe has the eyes and composure of a park ranger. :)

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

@Lakshmi: Circus is a good family outing except the part where the animals are featured ... somehow it makes me sad.

@Starry: I tell you starry, these vendors know their target age group so well ... they are around little kids all the time.

@ Rohini: I had no choice but to continue hiking ... my only supporter was my sister who wanted to run back to the car. The rest (5 adults) outnumbered us and thought we were over reacting.

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

@TPL: Cantaloupe perhaps forgot the snake episode when we went to Circus ... you see it had been a week ;)

@AJ: My little Park ranger is scared of spiders :))) But I think her composure was because she didn't sense danger. I doubt if she realised the snake was alive. She perhaps associated the snake picture in her mind to the real one she saw.
I am guilty of disturbing her composure ... once I screamed and acted the way I did, she thought something was wrong and clung on to me saying she was scared. (perhaps she didn't know what she was scared of)

mnamma said...

That sure was very frightening.... Particularly with Junior so close to it. Sounds like a sooper weekend!

 

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