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 -

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

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

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

Who doesn't like  Disneyland ? Disneyland in California has been our go-to park more than a decade. Growing up in India , I always wanted to visit Disneyland - " The magical place on Earth ". I have watched classic Disney shows on TV like H ouse of Mouse, Ducktales, Aladdin, Chip n' Dale, Peter pan  and many more since my elementary school and they were amazing brilliant animated series that hold dear to me. My Sunday morning time would be watching cartoons. Somehow today, I’m reminiscing those beautiful days and simpler time! 😇😇 So when I came to US, since then till now we visited Disneyland many times & honestly never got tired of it. We even visited  Disney World, Florida  few years ago and I will definitely write a blog about it separately, so follow the journey with me! Disneyland in Southern California was originally named  “The Mickey Mouse Park" changed to “Disneylandia” to now "Disneyland Park&qu

Who doesn't love Chocolates? 🤩🍫 Since childhood, I had a sweet-tooth. I loved eating chocolates in India, My parents would get me chocolates regularly and coming to US especially California excited me to experience my all time favorite Ghirardelli. I frequently visit Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco which is a landmark public square with shops and restaurants.   Domenico Ghirardelli (founder), an Italian chocolatier in 1893 purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company division of Swiss confectioner Lindt. I would always buy collection of Chocolate bars, goodies,  boxes and baskets  from the  Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop  as gift to family and friends  before going to India for summer or winter holidays. ✈ My  favorite chocolates  flavors are  Milk & Caramel, Dark & Raspberry and Intense Dark 72% Cacao. There is another place in that building which is G hirardelli Chocolate Marketplace.  Whenever I visited th