florence trip

when we decided to go for this trip it was an exercise which called for planning, monitoring and coordinating. well the team was good coz they were already on the team working for nike and it was no surprise that they did a great job at arranging this trip too

3 vans and a car took 20 adults and 4 kids to two guest houses housed on a scenic area in florence..the drive was good with regular coordination with others. our GPS couldnt find the cottage :-) silly ,, we had to be guided to the cottage which made the whole thing a hillarious adventure.

finally at 9.00 we all reached one of the cottages called viewpoint. oh man,, the house itself was a joy to watch right fromt he word go. the whole place had the theme,, sea items,, with a sea compass, telescope, fishing rod , small ship, 

it was cozy and very much homely. all of us settled down and later had dinner,, 

after chitchatting and all a couple of us rode to the other cottage... 

we were in for a surprise,, man this is completely different from the homely cottage. this house was totally contemporary. large windows everywhere with 3 bedrooms in the ground floor ..

photos of the family members lit up the place and gave it the personal touch for an otherwise magazine kind house.

we all slept like a log without exploring further. morning in the daylight, man,, the scene was just too beautiful,, the lake was visible frome very window in the house . 

the lake in the morning looked as if the topmost layer had frozen, so calm and so scenic. some one was kayaking disturbing the otherwise calm 

today is adventure day, time to go and get set for the day.. 

we all marched ahead to the viewpoint cottage. had sumptous breakfast. left for the sanddunes. 

well i have written about the  sand dunes already.. check it out. exhilarating experience. 

from the dunes we went ahead to the beach. to have lunch ofcourse, we were famished already. 

the beach was nice less breezy and sunny ideal for a holiday. the whole family set down to eat.. 

we spent time on the beach playing walking ,, etc.. then hiked up to the light house. ok.. the hike was good but not worth the scene we had fromt here.. well it pays to go holidaying as a team,, the fun is retained..

after the hike we drove back to viewpoint..now time to kayaking..

kayaking well a new experience to everyone of us..

each one tried and each one had a different tale, i personally enjoyed it thoroughly. wanted to stay there and experiment my twist with water.:-) but everyone was waiting for the kayak.. so had a minimum amount of fun,, my son also enjoyed it..

who wouldnt if your KAYAK is safely held with a rope :-)

anyway fun was the key and we had fun period..

well after that we had a sumptous dinner ... all the items were class apart .. ummm delicious 

after that we all went to the other cottage vista point and had a big round antakshari

this moment was like a big joint family coming together for an after dinner hungama ..

the next day began our adventure with horses, sea lions and once again the beach

well horse ride was fun for those who went for it,, manu simply enjoyed it ,, i wasnt there to witness him though..

the rest of us who werent horse riding went to watch the sea lions.. that was a bit dissappointing  though coz i expected to get a much closer view of the sea lions in their natural habitat but what we get to see is hundreds of sealions from a far distance across a gated wall.. the smell is certainly nauseating but yes the caves were a marvel and the sea lions were at thier natural best .. relaxing and sunbathing.. for once its not worth the money you pay to watch them from taht distance but then coming to think of it the money is well spent to safeguard the species ...

a good lunch at the beach and that set the adieu to the trip.. so we thought until we all landed in the traffic jam that took us another 2 hrs to reach home

home sweet home... what say 

neverthless florence trip set a new trend among us ... now outing should be grouping and outing :-)