Glance Digitally - Travel the world with me virtually !

Hello All, I'm back after a few months of continuous work, both personal and official. Missed writing my articles , hope to continue my blog regularly from now on !!!  We recently again been to few places for a vacation in the beautiful Golden state of California 🌁 with plenty of sunshine 🌞, easy access to the beaches 🥽 and delicious food 😋.. One of our visit was to the Fort Point, a National Historic Site (NHS), located on the south side of the Golden Gate bridge which was once a strategic importance place in securing San Francisco from any attack by foreign countries. Fort Point became a US historic site in 1970. It's a well-preserved old fort and, surprisingly, not crowded.  An interesting experience just right under the Golden Gate Bridge. The admission to the fort is free to visit with either a self-guided or docent to lead the tour. Small history -  Fort Point underwent many uses over the years since its construction -

 As you all know for now if you have read my previous travel articles in this blog that whenever I have time, I often go thru my family albums and recollect the good old memories and start writing in my blog for you all to have great experience whenever you visit these places.....😉😉 I remember someone in my friends' group suggested visiting the California State Railroad Museum @ Sacramento , and it had been many years since I'd visited this museum, but my my this turned out to be one highlight for my kid who loved all kinds of trains. If you are visiting Sacramento, you really need to experience the museum atleast once, as well as the surrounding attractions. It's a self-guided tour for 3-4 hours I guess depending on your interest and enjoy strolling along taking amazing photos of these trains. It was a great museum experience. I remember my kid was so excited and happy with all the trains and hands-on exhibitions. The marvelous displays of remarka

Having visited most of the major tourist attractions in California before, we thought we would go to some place relaxing after visiting de Young Museum, an Art museum in San Francisco. Check this link for the details to visit major tourist attractions in California - https://sk-digilance.blogspot.com/2021/12/california-golden-state-top-attractions.html So, we visited the Japanese Tea Garden @ San Francisco , just a short walk from “de Young Museum” and “the Academy of Sciences”. We enjoyed this peaceful gorgeous gardens about 3 acres for a short self-guided walk with no map in hand (mind you 😉  you have to guess your way around) with very interesting structures influenced by Buddhist and Shinto belief to see 🏯! I loved to see the koi fishes in the pond. I expected more, but again it’s a garden with manicured shrubs, winding paths, bridges, pagodas, gift shop and a cafe. Perfect scenery place for you if you love photography and short time peace from the

  Shirdi Sai Parivaar (SSP) temple is one of my most favorite temple of Saibaba in Bay area. This facility in Milpitas was established in 2010, is a non-profit volunteer based spiritual and charity organization. They have considerable big size murti of Sai Baba in the Main Hall as well as a small murti in Chavadi. A huge photo of Baba is placed in Dwarkamai.  Very well maintained, peaceful environment and organized by volunteers. This environment calms me whenever I visit and when I'm sitting in the main hall. There is a huge seating area with seating benches in the main prayer hall. There are many free classes offered throughout the year including summer courses for both Kids and Adults purely conducted by the volunteer participation.  My kid loves to attend those classes. I appreciate the efforts made by all the volunteers of Sai baba temple. Ps : They serve free Prasadam everyday especially evenings and Thursdays is crowded as it i

California with almost year-round sunshine entices tourists to explore the great outdoors, sightseeing and gourmet food in dazzling multicultural cities like San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, San Diego and many more.  Visitors love to explore the historic neighborhoods, sophisticated cities with top restaurants offering local and global ethnic cuisine, universities towns, rural communities with organic farms, sandy beaches, iconic sights of Hollywood, world-class museums, Silicon Valley's technology, authentic themed gardens, kid-friendly attractions, mountain resorts, national parks with biological diversity of many different species of animals and birds in an expansive meadows and huge tree groves along with free-flowing waterfalls for hiking and mountain biking, mesmerizing lakes near snow-capped mountains with brilliant turquoise water for fishing and water sports, world-class and family-friendly ski resorts and many more never-ending fun to describe the beauty

Los Angeles has been my go-to place past 15 years. Whenever we had a long weekend and did not have a plan to travel other states or countries, we would road trip to LA ( since it was few hours drive). Among many places in LA like Disneyland, Universal studios, Warner's Brothers studio and many more Landmarks, Hollywood Boulevard is one of my favorite downtown spot I often go every time I visit LA. Its a 4-5 miles long stretch in Los Angeles starting from Highland Avenue to Orange Drive with the following attraction -  Museums like - Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum featuring replicas of famous celebrities. ( will upload the link here once I finish writing the article) Landmarks like - TCL Chinese Theatre formerly known as the Grauman's Chinese Theatre ( the exterior is designed in the Chinese Style) Dolby Theatre formerly known as the Kodak Theatre Hollywood Pacific Theatre Grauman's Egyptian Theatre ( the exterior of the theater

Yosemite National Park , a natural beauty carved by glaciers and waterfalls was delegated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. I have been to this captivating place many times to see the ethereal sight of the waterfall and an undisturbed meadows surrounded. Yosemite National Park is 160 miles from San Jose and around 170 miles from San Francisco.  It is a beautiful place to explore and I would never risk going to Yosemite during holidays or long weekends because of the place getting crowded with so many people hiking or running around everywhere and would definitely miss the scenic beauty of the falls. Below are "Some" of the attractions in this park for visitors to visit -  Glacier Point (a viewpoint)  Tunnel View (a picturesque viewpoint on State Route 41)  Half Dome (a granite dome at the east end of Yosemite Valley)  El Capitan (a vertical rock formation at the north side of Yosemite Valley)  Bridalveil Fall (a 617 ft. waterfall with Ostrand

More than a decade ago, me along with my then toddler took a tour @ Jelly Belly Bean Factory in Fairfield.  I was looking at my previous photo albums and it showed we went to Jelly Belly Factory on a particular Sunday since it was date/time stamped on the photos.  I remember it was intriguing but since the factory was closed, we didn't get to see the employees working or the machines in action. Instead we got a walking narrated tour around which gave us the history, production, future and sometimes tons of fun facts & information of the company. It was fun & satisfying tour. This was the best place for kids to hangout for at least 3 to 4 hrs. minimum. After the narrated tour we were given free sample thank you bag for visiting. There was a gift/candy Store which had lots of colorful, yummy & weird flavorful Jelly Beans, souvenirs, school accessories, gift cards, hats, wearable clothing etc.  Before going to this factory, I never heard of the Belly Flops , bu

Confusion Hill is a another roadside attraction in Piercy, California 15 minutes drive from Chandelier tree ( https://sk-digilance.blogspot.com/2021/05/chandelier-tree-leggett-california.html ) . Confusion Hill (similar to Santa Cruz's Mystery Spot) is a home of mystery and Gravity. There is a small train ride, a quick thing, kind of cute and you go all the way up the small hill and then just ride backward down just to feel the weird magnetic pull. Not a major destination attraction but worth a stop in my opinion for those who have younger kids as it has a World's tallest freestanding redwood carving as mentioned in Ripley's Believe It or Not! My son loved it of course because of his love for trains. We did hangout near small playground and enjoy the shade watching squirrels. Ps: The gift shop/ snack bar is typical but has nice things available. Visit their website for further details like

This article is part of the same trip we visited Fort Bragg @ Mendocino in California.  Here is the link to this article -  https://sk-digilance.blogspot.com/2021/05/fort-bragg-mendocino-california.html Next day (in the same trip above), we visited Chandelier tree, a Drive-Thru Tree @ Leggett in California and Its around 1 hour far from Fort Bragg, if you drive non-stop . I know I know, I said Drive-Thru Tree because it has a 6' wide X 6' 9" high hole cut through its base to allow cars to drive through. The height of the tree is 315ft and 21ft diameter and age of the tree is estimated around 2400 yrs ago. As per my opinion, there is nothing much to this place except a Drive-Thru Tree and you will definitely find picnic tables, rest rooms and a gift shop with plenty of parking space. There is a wide open and serene meadow nearby to walk around.   I think we bought entrance tickets for driving thru the tree either $5 or $10, not sure, but

Fort Bragg is a city in Mendocino in California. I was looking at my photo albums and thought I would definitely write about this beautiful place which we visited almost a decade ago ( in 2011). We visited Mendocino especially Fort Bragg in California, I remember, it wasn't jam-packed with tourists, but the weather was very uncertain since it was windy, cloudy and later sunny.  We had planned some light sight seeing, lazily walking around to different places like  Chandelier tree ( https://sk-digilance.blogspot.com/2021/05/chandelier-tree-leggett-california.html ), Confusion hill ( https://sk-digilance.blogspot.com/2021/05/confusion-hill-leggett-california.html ) and beaches like Glass Beach and then decided to try out the Skunk Train (famous for its Rail tours originated in 1925) which is a steam locomotive that crosses the historic Redwood forests of the Noyo River Canyon. Skunk Train: 🚅🚄 There are few rail tour pack