Following two more, very successful Chinamya mission events on Sunday, our two traveling monks decided to visit the Livermore Shiva-Vishnu Temple in the afternoon. Gurudeva gifted the temple its first Ganesha murti many years ago. Today it has several talented priests who perform services throughout the day. Upon arrival there was a new car blessing being performed out front, a small havana inside the temple to the left, what appeared to be a namakarana happening to the right, and of course hundreds of Hindus performing personal worship. We noted that the Ganesha shrine was particularly powerful in this temple. That evening the monks attended the Golden Gate Mission satsang, where Aurumuganathaswami gave an abridged version of the presentation he'd given at the Chinmaya Mission events, as we as a explanation as to our goals in regards to the textbook issue and this trip to Sacramento.

The following day had a more open schedule. Our two monks made their way across the bay to find some redwood trails, and sure enough they did. A redwood reserve nestled along a hilly ridge was the destination. The wooded trek involved a little more ice-cold winds and freezing rain than anticipated, but it was still quite enjoyable being out in nature and getting a little much needed exercise after such an abundance of travel. Of course it was mandatory to hug a few redwood trees. Following their hike, the monks made their way to Google, where an acquaintance of ours, Rolf, is one of the team leaders of Google's transportation initiatives. Rolf gave us a tour of some of the Google campus, all the while explaining a lot of what goes on there and some of the history behind it.

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