After a long and prolonged debate about where to go for the long weekend we decided to go for camping at RUssian river. As usual we were late in booking the camp sites and could hardly find any campsites available. Prafulla finally booked some site which we had no idea how would turn out to be.
Friday 4th july - American Independence day. We had so much stuff to take that even the back seats where packed with stuff. Myself and Thiru could hardly squeeze in the back. We reached the campsite at around 2:30. As it always happens with us the campground was in the heart of a town - Sebastopol. And the camp site was next to the road....haha...always happens... Tarun had great expections about the campsite....he had thought it would be in the woods or near the beach far from the citylife...he was zapped looking at the site. But Me and Vinod knew it wud turn out like this only. Neways we decided to make the trip a memorable one. The first thing we did was opened some beer and took a chill. Next was setting up the tent..we had become experts in putting up the tent together and within 20 mins the tent was ready. All of us were feeling soo hungry...thanks to thiru for getting the chicken and Pravin for getting the boiled eggs and Chutney...lunch was yummy.
We decided to hit one of the beaches around the river. Thanks to Bhup's GPS we kept on circling to find Johnsons beach...donno why his GPS gets mad and takes us places bfore actually taking to the right place...The beach was very small and none of us liked it....so we went to one of the beaches on the Pacific. The Russian river flows into the pacific and so the pacific beach was not far. The beach was one of the deadlist in California...around 126 people had lost their lives on this beach. We were strictly advised not to enter the water..it looked dangerous...Bhupesh and company had got the cricket kit along...so time for some beach cricket...the second match was the most interesting...double inings per side...the teams were 1.Vinod, Tarun, Seejoy 2. Pravin, Praful and Thiru. Bhupesh was the common man playing in both teams...No boundaries...only running..run as many as you can...in first innings both the teams made 43 each. The star was Tarun for his amazing catch of Bhupesh....man that was a good catch...Tarun you shud be in the Indian team...In the next inings we made 30. So 31 to win for Prafulla and company. First over - Seejoy to Prafulla...and Prafulla is clean bowled...middle stump goes off the ground..woww...that was nice. In the next over Tarun goes for a few runs but they havent lost any wickets since Prafulla..Third over...Vinod to Pravin...and he too is bowled..hey we still have a chance to win this one...Next Thiru and Bhupesh are at the crease..Thiru goes for a lazy run on an overthrow..he was just walking to the crease instead of running. Vinod sees this and knocks down the stumps...haha...Thiru is out. Last man standing is Bhupesh. Last over...just four runs needed of it..shud be very simple for Bhupesh...we had almost lost hope. Bhupesh took two singles off the first 2 balls..2 of 4 required. I called in the entire field very close to the bat. Next ball..i bowl it a bit fast at waist height..Bhupesh tries to finish it in one shot..the ball skies..Tarun is under it..take it Tarun...take it...thats the match for us...and Tarun makes no mistake..hahaha..we win...an amazing win :). Next we had some snap sessions after which we left the place...
Time for some Barbecue :) Marinated chicken and Prawns were ready and the charcoal was lit. All set to have some booze. Chicken and Prawns along with the potato fries tasted yummy. All of us got a bit drunk and had a blast.
Next day we set out to find out abt Canaoeing along the Russian river. The first place(SOARS) we went said that they were full. The second place wont allow if guys dont know swimming. We had only three swimmers between us :(. We went back to SOAR's and after a lotta debate, booked for canoeing the following day - they comforted us by saying that swimming is not required and even 13 yr old's can make it through...it helped :). With Canoeing planned for the next day we went hiking to Armstrong Woods for the rest of the day. Clicked a lotta snaps...was nice but tiring.
Friday 4th july - American Independence day. We had so much stuff to take that even the back seats where packed with stuff. Myself and Thiru could hardly squeeze in the back. We reached the campsite at around 2:30. As it always happens with us the campground was in the heart of a town - Sebastopol. And the camp site was next to the road....haha...always happens... Tarun had great expections about the campsite....he had thought it would be in the woods or near the beach far from the citylife...he was zapped looking at the site. But Me and Vinod knew it wud turn out like this only. Neways we decided to make the trip a memorable one. The first thing we did was opened some beer and took a chill. Next was setting up the tent..we had become experts in putting up the tent together and within 20 mins the tent was ready. All of us were feeling soo hungry...thanks to thiru for getting the chicken and Pravin for getting the boiled eggs and Chutney...lunch was yummy.
We decided to hit one of the beaches around the river. Thanks to Bhup's GPS we kept on circling to find Johnsons beach...donno why his GPS gets mad and takes us places bfore actually taking to the right place...The beach was very small and none of us liked it....so we went to one of the beaches on the Pacific. The Russian river flows into the pacific and so the pacific beach was not far. The beach was one of the deadlist in California...around 126 people had lost their lives on this beach. We were strictly advised not to enter the water..it looked dangerous...Bhupesh and company had got the cricket kit along...so time for some beach cricket...the second match was the most interesting...double inings per side...the teams were 1.Vinod, Tarun, Seejoy 2. Pravin, Praful and Thiru. Bhupesh was the common man playing in both teams...No boundaries...only running..run as many as you can...in first innings both the teams made 43 each. The star was Tarun for his amazing catch of Bhupesh....man that was a good catch...Tarun you shud be in the Indian team...In the next inings we made 30. So 31 to win for Prafulla and company. First over - Seejoy to Prafulla...and Prafulla is clean bowled...middle stump goes off the ground..woww...that was nice. In the next over Tarun goes for a few runs but they havent lost any wickets since Prafulla..Third over...Vinod to Pravin...and he too is bowled..hey we still have a chance to win this one...Next Thiru and Bhupesh are at the crease..Thiru goes for a lazy run on an overthrow..he was just walking to the crease instead of running. Vinod sees this and knocks down the stumps...haha...Thiru is out. Last man standing is Bhupesh. Last over...just four runs needed of it..shud be very simple for Bhupesh...we had almost lost hope. Bhupesh took two singles off the first 2 balls..2 of 4 required. I called in the entire field very close to the bat. Next ball..i bowl it a bit fast at waist height..Bhupesh tries to finish it in one shot..the ball skies..Tarun is under it..take it Tarun...take it...thats the match for us...and Tarun makes no mistake..hahaha..we win...an amazing win :). Next we had some snap sessions after which we left the place...
Time for some Barbecue :) Marinated chicken and Prawns were ready and the charcoal was lit. All set to have some booze. Chicken and Prawns along with the potato fries tasted yummy. All of us got a bit drunk and had a blast.
Next day we set out to find out abt Canaoeing along the Russian river. The first place(SOARS) we went said that they were full. The second place wont allow if guys dont know swimming. We had only three swimmers between us :(. We went back to SOAR's and after a lotta debate, booked for canoeing the following day - they comforted us by saying that swimming is not required and even 13 yr old's can make it through...it helped :). With Canoeing planned for the next day we went hiking to Armstrong Woods for the rest of the day. Clicked a lotta snaps...was nice but tiring.
Canoeing - We rchd the place at around 11 in the morning. All a bit scared as the river is as deep as 20 feet at some places. So they put us 2 in 2 boats and 3 in one boat. Seejoy went with Praful, Vinod with Thiru, and Pravin with Bhupesh and Tarun. So we start...the guy in the front has to paddle and the guy behind controls the direction. Praful was the controller of our canoe. And he had no idea what to do. We kept circling at the same spot. Later we switch positions. I somehow found how to get the direction going. Once we had that, it din't seem very difficult...but we were struggling the most out of all the three groups. We hit the trees a lot...got bruised...but kept it going..Vinod and Thiru were doing a good job...seemed like they had a good hang of it. So we switched partners...i went with Vinod and Praful with Thiru..It was long and tiring ride.. even after taking a lot of breaks we were shit tired. Finally we rchd the end point...man it felt so nice..the whole canoeing trip is a very memorable and cherishing for me.. wud love to do it once again...hey but not with Praful ;)
