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Purisma Red Creek
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| Purisma Red Creek Trail |
Near Sunnyvale there are many scenic spots and gardens. Purisma Creek Redwoods is located on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz mountain overlooking Half Moon Bay. One can watch the wild beauty of Nature with tall Redwood trees, ferns, flowers, shrubs,creeks and mountain brooks.Many people visit these woods to enjoy hiking and spend their time in peaceful and natural surroundings.There are many trails passing through wooded space consisting of creeks, and forest trees like redwood,huckleberry, hazelnut and tan oak trees.The All-access redwood trail is a three mile walk with all picnicking facilities like wooden tables and chairs.The North Ridge trail is 4.5 mile walk which passes through a grassy knoll with a wide view of open space and ocean. One can see fir, tan oak and huckleberry trees. The trail affords a very quiet and tranquil atmosphere without any disturbances from outside. The Bald Knob Trail provides a beautiful view of the rolling hills of western San Mateo hills. In these woods there is a very spacious (4,412 acres) open space preserve called Purisma Creek Canyon overlooking the Half Moon Bay. Nearly twenty one miles of mountain trails are developed passing through different directions for the hikers to view the woods and various flowers, birds and small wild animals.
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| Baylands Park, Sunnyvale. |
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| Bay Trail, Baylands Park |
The next scenic spot is Sunnyvale Baylands Park.This park has seventy acres of developed parkland with natural scenery and wild life. It is very near Sunnyvale Heritage Museum.The park has got many recreational facilities and comforts like picnic tables, shaded canopies, grills and barbecue facilities.Adults as well as kids can enjoy here as there are many playgrounds and tracks for cycling and places for sports like kite flying. One can also walk along trails like Bay Trail and Stevens Creek Trail to watch mountain slopes, wild trees, birds, streams ans grassy lands.Children can watch the replicas of wild animals set up in the park premises. Beside this park there is Twin Creeks Sports Complex if you are a sports lover.
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| Winchester Mystery House, Santa Clara |
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| Inner Chamber, Winchester House |
If you are interested in seeing a weird and mysterious place, You may visit the famous Winchester Mystery House at San Jose. The house has nearly one hundred sixty rooms constructed over a period of thirty eight years,from 1884 to 1922.This Victorian mansion has six kitchens, forty-six bedrooms and forty-seven stair ways with seven floors. A very awe-inspiring construction indeed! The owner of the house Sarah Winchester, who married a manufacturer of Winchester Rifles, shifted her residence from New Haven, Connecticut, after she had suffered the double loss in the death of her beloved daughter in 1866 and her husband in 1881. A psychic person from Boston told her that it was the curse of the spirits of the dead native Americans and Civil War soldiers who were killed by the Winchester rifles. So she was advised to shift her place of residence and go on building a mansion to pacify and to escape from the vengeance of the spirits. So in 1884 Sarah moved to Santa Clara and bought an eight-roomed house and extended it to this vast size sprawling over an area of six acres in 161 acres of farmland. You can also see the Winchester Rifle Museum and electric elevator machinery.Of course her artistic tastes are clearly seen in designing the gardens and orchards with marble sculptures and fountains. She constructed the mansion with meandering and abrupt openings as if she had wished to confound the spirits and escape from their influence It was said that she used to sleep in different rooms to avoid the confrontation with spirits. Even now some visitors say that they have seen some apparitions when they entered her bedroom. Sarah died in 1922 and was buried in New Haven beside the grave of her husband.Now this palatial building is looked after by Union Trust Company of San Francisco.
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| Mountainview Library |
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| Mountainview Public Library |
Another place I visited is the Mountain View Public Library just five miles from Sunnyvale.This library is seen in the peaceful surroundings with a spacious parking space surrounded by greenery and shady trees.Here we found many facilities given to the customers and public so that they can use the library services in a congenial atmosphere. Besides a large collection of books in various languages we also found video and audio C.Ds with internet facility.It is said that there are more than two lakh books and four hundred periodicals and journals. I had the opportunity of watching more than thirty films during my stay in U.S.Another salient feature I noticed is that there is a collection of old books displayed neatly on the shelves for any one interested to take them without any entry in the issue register.. They are called honor charge books. To my surprise I found books written by old writers which I think may be out of print and are not so easy to get in the shops.I selected some books as the prized possession to read them with much joy thanking the authorities for their generous help. This practice is worth emulating in other countries as it gives an opportunity to share our books with others free of cost and avoiding to throw them as waste material in the garbage can. In U.K. I found books exhibited for sale on the pavement by the library authorities for nominal rates. This is also a good practice as the library will get benefit to some extent without putting a large burden on people.This library also organizes various awareness programs for parents and entertainment programs for children. There is also a mobile library service to help those who are not able to come to the library. Every year more than eight lakh people make use of the services of this library This library also gives information to people's queries on various topics and subjects. This library was established in 1997.
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| CHOCOLATIER DESIREE |
If you are a chocoholic you can visit "Chocolatier Desiree"in Sunnyvale where high quality Belgian Chocolates are hand-made with natural products without adding any chemicals and colorants.These chocolates are made by the famous Belgian Garter company that has more than fifty years of experience in this field.There you can see colorful and tasty truffles, milk chocolates and dark chocolates embellished with nuts and cream in more than forty flavors to gladden your taste buds.For diabetics there are sugar-free chocolates also.This company also accepts orders for big parties and functions.
Thus in this city you can enjoy the modern luxuries along with natural sight seeing with so many resources to enrich your experiences and enthuse you very much.
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DATE: 3rd JULY, 2013 SOMA SESHU GUTALA
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