After a good nights sleep we packed said our goodbyes to Amrit Phenji and drove to San Francisco airport, as we are only forty minutes away from San Francisco airport we got to hertz rental company for 8:30. It was definitely sad to leave California.
We then took the air train to terminal 3 (United flight) the check in queues were very long, luckily we had enough time.
Once through security we proceeded to the airport lounge where we caught up on last minute emails.
The lounge, where everybody looks so happy!!
The plane
View of New Mexico from the plane
The flight to Albuquerque takes two and a half hours, also Albuquerque is ahead by one hour. As soon as we landed got our luggage and picked up the car from hertz. We headed over to Annapurna for cheese toastie and Sangeet had burger. Both were good vegetarian and gluten free meals.
Annapurna Restaurant
Cheese Toastie
Sangeet's burger
We then headed over to Espanola. Shanti Kaur phenji has very kindly offered her amazing house to us. After seven years we have finally got to spend quality time with phenji. We have often said we will chat over a nice hot drink!
On the way to Espanola
We chatted with Shanti phenji and paji. Shanti phenji has been a huge inspiration for me and many others since the Jaap sahib course in 2007. It was such a powerful course and it lead me to take Amrit. I truly made the connection on this course.
Phenji and paji had a evening function so attended that. We visited the Gurdwara. Afterwards we thought of going down memory lane and visiting the house we stayed at, the gold house. I stayed there for my Kundalini yoga teacher training and Sangeet stayed there for the super health course.
Whist entering the compound where the gold house is situated, two ladies approached us looking stressed and said they are attending the 21 stages of meditation course. They were at a loss where everything is, Gurdwara, registration area. We said jump into the car and we will show you, we showed them the Gurdwara also drove down to Walmart so they could call home. Sangeet explained the Sunday programme and the daily Sardhana. The ladies name are Ciclia from Brazil and Tanya from Moab they were very grateful for our help. It was great to exchange stories on how they came across Kundalini yoga and their love for the Sikh way of life.
As it was getting late and everybody had plans for Sardhana (3:40am start!) we decided to head back to Shanti Kaur Phenjis house.
Looking back it is amazing how things work out. We had no plans for the evening. Waheguru did not want us to be idle so put us to work and help the two ladies!
Today we went to see Avtar Kaur, more affectionately known as Beji. We first met Beji in 2007 at the amazing Jaap sahib course. Beji is 80 years old but you could never tell, she keeps active. Even though we met Beji and Papaji a few months ago it is a great pleasure to always meet when we are in the Bay Area. As always Beji had made some food which we ate with the many fruits they had bought. Very tasty and filling. Papaji had made us some very tasty carrot celery and apple juice too. We spent about three hours there which just flew by because we were enjoying their company so much.
There was an Akhand Paath in a smaller Darbar sahib
Lungar hall
Chopping of vegetables was done on the balcony
View from the Gurdwara
the sangat here felt so familiar. As if we were back at our own local Gurdwara in the UK.
Manicured gardens
We are looking to meet up with my cousin Upkar phenji, Shakti Singh paji her husband and Upkar phenji live in the Bay Area. So whilst waiting for a time and place to meet we decided to head to Berkley and find a nice cafe. We looked like two geeks ipad and laptop out, Sangeet was working on course work, whilst I was playing games and trying to look smart!
Upkar phenji called to say come to their house and we can arrange where to meet. We got to theirs for around 7:30 pm, to our surprise phenji had cooked an amazing vegan meal. We have not met Shakti paji before. It was fantastic meeting them both and we look forward to many more meetings!
We headed back to Gurrinder paji's house to get a good nights rest, especially as it will be our last night in California.
Last day at this amazing location, we were very lucky that the lady at the information centre in Truckee mentioned this hotel. The hotel is in a town called Camp Richardson which has a population of 75, it is only ten minutes drive from South Lake Tahoe.
Before making our way to Bliss Cafe, we walked to the beach which is about five minutes away from the hotel. We made our last trip to Bliss Cafe for breakfast, I had the pecan waffles. Sangeet had the chocolate chip pancakes. These were balanced with very healthy smoothies!
The short walk to the beach
The cabins you can stay at
The beach
The walk back to the car
One last stop at Bliss Cafe
Vegan and gluten free chocolate chip pancakes
Vegan and gluten free peach waffle
The scenic drive to Sacremento
The drive to Danville is around three hours, we decided to stop for lunch at
Plum Cafe
2315 K Street
Sacramento,
CA 95816
USA
T: +1 (916) 706-3302
Hours:
Mon 11a-9p
Tues 11a-9p
Wed 11a-9p
Thur 11a-9p
Fri 11a-10p
Sat 11a-10p
Sun 10a-8p [Brunch 10am-2pm]
Sangeet asked for a gluten free burger and no tempeh (as it contains gluten) the bun was gluten free but she got Tempeh in the burger which was missing from mine so Sangeet gave it to me. When one places an order for food the staff give you some fruit as a table marker, when the waiter who also cooked the food came out he asked if that was a pear on our table…..it was an apple, not sure how, especially a chef can make this mistake!
The burger was very good. As we have been to this restaurant before we can definitely recommend it.
Onwards to our very good friends in Danville.
On arrival in Danville I remembered why I want to move to the Bay Area, this town is amazing, pristine and has many gated communities. So love this place!
We drove up to Gurrinder’s house, Gurrinder paji (brother) and phenji (sister) came out to welcome us, it was great seeing them.
The evening was spent chatting and playing with their six year old sun called Daya Singh. Phenji had cooked a amazing meal which we all thoroughly enjoyed in their lovely garden where we spotted a hummingbird!
So off to Bliss Cafe for fantastic gluten free and vegan pancakes
Also for the readers who say we do not healthily we ordered a dip!
Vegetables, hoummus, guacamole and cashew cheese
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. Opposite the hotel is a bike hire company, we enquired about rates and what bikes they have, the prices were very reasonable. Will be back here.
Also around the hotel is a coffee shop, ice cream parlour and a general store
Hotel
Coffee shop
General store
After stocking up on sun tan lotion we headed over to the Taylor Creek visitor centre
Unfortunately it was closed!
On the drive to Cascade waterfalls car park
The start of the walk to Cascade waterfalls
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6800′ / 6910′
Mileage (one way): 1 mile
Directions to Trailhead : Take Highway 89 north from South Lake Tahoe approximately 8 miles to the Bayview Campground across from Inspiration Point.You will find parking is located at the far end of the campground.
Trail : Look for the trailhead sign at the far end of the parking area. There is some limited parking so in the summer months you might want to get an early start to guarantee a spot. The hike is a fairly easy and at a good pace you can make it to the falls in roughly 40 minutes.. There are spots with trail rocks that you need to step up or down. This is a good easy hike if you want to get out and see some beautiful scenery, but not wear yourself out. It’s a great place to pack a lunch into so you can relax, take in the views and enjoy your break near the falls. The surrounding large rock outcroppings are impressive as trees seem to grow out of small cracks. Kids would enjoy this “not to long of a hike” with a wonderful creek and rushing falls at the end. The creek is really running hard in the late spring, early summer and slows way down in the fall.
Views from the walk
The walk is very easy but is was fun to see people coming back from the walk commenting how difficult the walk is!!
We took a crazy route down, at some points it was easier sitting down to come down!
Way down
Amazing views of Cascade Lake, the lake further away is Lake Tahoe
Amazing flowers growing in unusual places
Whose idea was this crazy way down?!
This was our route down!
Path back to the car park
Room light switch
Back at the hotel we played a game of mastermind before heading off to dinner at Cafe Bliss….well it is a good restaurant!
Good old burger!
A blissful burrito
After dinner we drove to the east of the lake to view the sunset. On holiday you do not mind driving forty minutes to see a sunset, as home we would just look out of the window, if you cannot see it, it is not a big deal!!
Views from Mount Rosa overlook
Mt. Rose may be the second tallest peak in Tahoe basin and prominent feature of the northern Lake Tahoe skyline.
More views from Mount Rosa
Advertising for Toyota! Hope they pay us for this!
Views from Mount Rosa were amazing, but we could not see the sunset. Therefore we drove back to the lake shore.
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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