Chirag's Space

Southwest Airlines Reward Program made me earn a free round trip within US after I completed 8 roundtrips with them in 2 years. To utilize my free ticket to the fullest, we decided to head for a holiday to somewhere in East Coast, and the chosen destination turned out to be Niagara Falls. Took one day off from work, and left for Buffalo on Friday the 13th, the luckiest day on my calendar. At the Seatac airport marketplace we had Qdoba’s new and unique Egg Quesadillas for breakfast after which we hopped on to the flight to Chicago. Sunny a day as it was, I clicked some nice pictures of Seattle golf courses and freeways as the plane ascended into the partly clouded sky.

 

As it is with Southwest flights most of the times, our plane landed into Chicago 30 minutes before time though it had taken off slightly late from Seattle. This gave us around 3 hours of break until our Bufallo flight was supposed to take off. Good for us, as we decided to make a surprise sneak trip into the city to meet up with Bhaiya and Bhabhi. So we called up Bhabhi to give her a heads up, hailed a cab and reached Chicago GSB. Spotted Bhabhi coming towards us in her new look with straight hair. She gave a call to Bhaiya and told him that some of her friends had come over, so he should come to meet them. As we were waiting at the GSB reception, Bhaiya appeared from behind and must have surely been surprised to see Rikti and me. I think we were meeting after almost 1 year and he kept commenting on my modest weight increase – "CP, mota ho gaya hai". As Bhaiya’s MBA was coming to end, they had parties and get-togethers every Friday and one such party was going on in the atrium. We got to wear paper bands on our wrists and grabbed some stuff to eat. After spending an hour of quality time together, catching up, sharing pictures of our new house and clicking some more, it was time for us to rush to the airport. The departure attempt from GSB turned out to be a little adventurous in itself as we kept running around trying to hail a cab. Finally we got on a bus to Lake Shore drive from where we cabbed our way to the airport safely on time. Bhaiya and Bhabhi had plans for some evening Broadway/Opera kind of show which they must have enjoyed while we completed the second leg of our journey to Niagara. So the Chicago halt turned out to be a bonus trip en-route Niagara.

 

I would rate Bufallo airport as better than most US airports. We took our pre-booked GPS-enabled rental car from Hertz and started driving towards the hotel we had booked in Canada – The Inn at Lundy’s Lane. In fact we had meant to stay at a hotel on the American side but did not realize until too late that we had booked the room in a Canadian hotel. Before crossing over the border, we decided to go to the Niagara Falls State Park on the American side. The midnight stroll in the park was amazingly refreshing as we walked along the boisterous rapids that would in moments graduate to status of American Falls. Red, white, green, yellow and blue beams of light projected from the Canadian side illuminated the falls and we clicked a few pictures. After a while we got into the car and crossed the border into Canada, checked into our hotel, but soon stepped out to savour a delicious margarita pizza at a joint across the street. It was the best pizza Rikti had in over a year and I would tend to agree. 

 

Next morning after checking out from the hotel, we had breakfast at Denny’s and then started for the majestic Niagara falls which was just a few miles away. The touristy area around Niagara Falls is sometimes also described as mini Vegas with flashy buildings and a few casinos. As we approached our primary destination for this trip, we got a breathtaking view of American Falls which we initially confused to be NF. It was fairly easy to find a parking spot and then we had nothing to do other than walk the Niagara Falls Way and enjoy the supposedly breathtaking views of Niagara. Quite honestly, my breath wasn’t taken away with the initial views of the falls until a little later when we got on the Maid of the Mist (MOTM) ride. Whenever you see pictures of people visiting Niagara falls or some travel program on TV, you can’t miss the blue and yellow raincoats that tourists are made to wear. The blue ones are worn on the MOTM, and the yellow ones are provided for the Journey Behind the Falls (JBTF) tour. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the moments when the MOTM boat slowly turns around in front of the Niagara Falls and all you can see is the majestic wall of water all around you. The JBTF tour was also nice and it was pretty interesting to see how the caves had been carved in the cliff behind the falls.

 

After treating ourselves to a buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant, we started to head nortwhards to Dundas, Ontario to meet Mickey didi and Mukesh Jijaji. The plan was to stay over at their place for the night and return to US the next day. We arrived at their house early evening and nibbled on some snacks. Jijaji took me for a walk on the trail behind their house. There was an old rusty windmill in their neigbours backyard. Their own backyard had a pond with lots of orange fish. I learnt that asements are a default feature in all houses in Canada. All of us including the kids Parth and Saransh went for a hike to the Sherman and Websters falls, just two of the scores of falls in that region. In the evening I had a fun guitar session with Parth. Didi made some wonderful golgappas and aaloo tikkis for dinner, after which we sat through first 10 minutes of a Saif Ali Khan movie, and then went off to sleep. The next morning Jijaji and Didi took us to Toronto where we went up the CN Tower and also walked by Lake Ontario. We had our lunch at Gerrard Street Indian Bazaar which was an Indian community market very similar to Devon street in Chicago. After returning back home to Dundas, we took our leave, waved goodbyes to the Jain family and returned to US. Early next morning was the flight from Buffalo to Seattle which we slept through.

The nearest you can hit snow driving east from Seattle is at Snoqualmie Pass (hereafter referred to as SP) which is a 3000 ft high range in the southern parts of Mt. Baker National Park. Its’ a major winter and summer recreational area in the midst of beautiful mountains and pristine national forests.  Within the state of WA, this pass is the largest skiing area. When Rikti’s friend Reins was visiting us last weekend, we drove out to play in the snow at SP, which is another 20 miles east of Snoqualmie Falls. The roads at Mt. Rainier were closed due to flooding that took place in Nov of 2006, and Mt. Baker had received heavy snow that morning causing the roads to be blocked. Anyways, when we got closer to SP, I realized it was not my first time there. I vaguely remembered that back in 2004, I had visited this place along with Deepak & family. We spent a couple of hours snow frolicking and enjoying the sights of the skiers who would get up on a trolley, go to the top of the mountain and zoom down on their skis. They just went going round in this circular loop forever.

 

The first time I saw snow in my life was when I was 5 years old. We had gone to Kashmir and stayed at a snow clad resort in the city of Gulmarg. We had gone up a mountain to play in the snow where mummy lost one of her shoes. I came back down on a sledge with a local sledge driver who sped the wooden board down the snowy slopes – what an experience that was! Bhaiya had noted that the roads in J&K (on the plains at least) were very straight and did not turn until after many kilometers. At that time I remember being so much impressed with this observation of his. Flashback over.

 

Snoqualmie: People of the Moon
Elevation: 3022 feet at the Summit
Bi-County Community of 250 full time residents
Major industry: Outdoor Recreation, Down hill and Cross Country skiing, Backpacking and Hiking
Four major Ski Areas: Alpental, Summit West, Summit Central, Summit East

 

Some links:

Live Snoqualmie web cam: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/

Snoqualmie Pass site: http://www.snoqualmiepass.com/

Jan 19th 2007 was mine and Rikti’s first wedding anniversary. Originally we had planned to be at  the Riverwalk at San Antonio, TX followed by a drive to Austin, but we ended up cancelling those bookings in lieu of our second plan of visiting Vancouver. Then Manjul visited from Japan on 1/13 and we met up with his friends Junejas here who over dinner advised that Whistler or Victoria would be great destinations. Whistler, a world class ski resort, was classifed as an adventure destination and Victora as a romantic one. Being the kind of milestone we were going to celebrate, Victoria turned out to be the obvious choice.

 

Our mild celebrations started with a Chinese dinner at InChin’s in Redmond on the eve of our anniversary. Next morning we were to board the Victoria Clipper crusie ship to Victoria BC from Pier 69 at Seattle Waterfront. I already had a mulitple entry Canadian visa and we got Rikti hers just earlier in the week. On the day of the trip we reached Seattle downtown at 7 AM and it was raining. After parking the car in the lot recommended by the Victoria Clipper website, we started to head towards the pier with a suitcase and an umbrella that sadly could not withstand the downtown winds long enough.  Finally we checked in the luggage and were the first passengers to get aboard the majestic Victoria Clipper IV. The ship had free seating and we changed our seats 2 times before settling down peacefully on the upper deck.

 

The journey started dot on time at 8 AM, and soon we were served the Champagne Breakfast which was part of our tour package. Wow what fun! A Friday mini cruise from Seattle through Puget Sound into the strait of Juan de Fuca, and finally arriving at the Victoria Inner Harbour. And a bottle of Champagne to top it all along with decent breakfast portions. The ship showed the GPS route on monitors and that taught me a bit of Puget Sound geography. Olympic mountains stretched on our west right up to the northwest end of WA. There was a small town called Port Townsend which its founders had ambitioulsy desired to be the main port of this area, but since railroad companies decided to set up shop near Seattle, Port Townsend has remained just that – a small town. On the east we sailed by Whidbey Island. The ship covered 71 miles in a little over 2 hours, averaging 35mph on a very comfortable and smooth ride over the ocean waters.

 

After going through the Canada immigration formalities at Victoria port, we were out in the streets with our suitcase that has now since long had squeaky wheels. The sky was overcast and it indeed looked like a nice small town – a perfect getaway for a relaxing weekend. Instead of taking a cab, we walked towards the Empress Hotel as it was pretty close by, and checked into a suite on the 5th floor. Our plan was to stretch a little, and then go out for lunch, which is precisely what we did. On Fort St, we found an Indian restaurant by the name of Indian Curry House, which served us decent Shahi Paneer and Nans.

 

While strolling the downtown streets, we landed up in a shop called Tony’s Photo Studio that had a lot of different props and dresses in which you could get your picture clicked. To capture our first anniversary into a special photograph, we got ourselves into Victorian outfits for a very Victorian wedding picture! Mr. Tony clicked around 20 pictures and we finally selected one in which both of us looked fab. Tony was an old man in his 50s, and he had this sticker put up on his shop – “Get even – live long enough to become a problem for your kid.” Tony and his wife wanted repeat business and they said that they hoped we will be back next year with our little one! 🙂

 

We then headed back for the streets and spotted Miniature World, which was actually housed in our hotel building itself. There were lot of different miniature exhibits showcased, but the one that awed me the most was the very first exhibit of space in Future World. It showed a view of the solar system from Jupiter in 2035 or so. As it is I am a little inclined towards space and aliens these days, and that particular exhibit appealed a lot to me. Other exhibits were kind of mundane showcasing different cities, wars, events, or tales. After this, we spent another hour or so in the streets clicking pictures of ourselves with backdrops of Empress, the coveted Legislative Building that glows with 3,333 bulbs, the harbour, and so on. Then we attempted to retire into the hotel room with tired feet, but they were inspiration enough to again walk down to the spa and immerse ourselves into the heavenly jacuzzi of the Empress Hotel. I am still not sure how, but the hotel somehow knew it was our anniversary and upon our return, we found in our room a beautiful greeting card along with chocolates and a box of famous Empress tea. In the evening, we dined at the same lunch restaurant, took a late night stroll back to the hotel with some more pictures on the way.

 

Our plan for the next morning was to visit Butchart Gardens. So we rented a car, got a free upgrade since we had stayed at the Empress, and drove northwards on the freeway till we reached the gardens. Being winter season, it was obviously not the best time to visit this place as there were no flowers but only greenery, which was also not too bad. The gardens had 5-6 different sections including the Sunken Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Italian Garden etc where we strolled around and snapped a few pictures but all without flowers. 🙁 So as to not disappoint the few ignorant visitors like us who had little sense of best seasons to visit the gardens, they even had an indoor display of flowers known as Spring Prelude. Anyways, I guess our next trip to Victoria wont be in winters and the Butchart Gardens will deserve another trip from us when there is bloom. In the afternoon we drove further up north to the small touristy town of Sidney from where we grabbed some fruits (for me) and donuts (for Rikti, hehe) at Safeway. Drove around a bit and on the way back to Victoria downtown, Rikti made me park the car in a public parking for an afternoon car nap in the sun – pure bliss! Our last stop in Victoria would be the Craigdarroch Castle, which at 4 storeys was the tallest building in Victoria a hundred years ago. For the first time in my life, I saw what a castle can be like from the inside, and it certainly was a delightful and a little enriching experience, if you will.

 

Finally we returned the rental car, got back on the Victoria Clipper IV, and upon reaching Seattle we had the pleasure of having dinner with Arun, Jagat, Sonia and Ashish at Inchin’s, and completed the whole round trip with the Chinese meal and fortune cookie.  

 

Day 0– Thanksgiving weekend of 2006 took me and Rikti to the other corner of United States i.e. from Seattle WA to Orlando FL. It was a long long hopping flight via Chicago where we had pizza for lunch. Finally our Southwest plane landed into Orlando and we rented a GPS enabled car from Hertz to check into the Legacy Grand hotel. Our holiday had begun and feeling fresh after a hot shower, we went to check out Downtown Disney. The place was full of life with music and lights, with many pubs at the Pleasure Island which was a part of the downtown. We got back to the hotel buying yet another pizza (this time Dominos) on the way and finally retired for the day.

 

Day 1 – The plan was to get up early next morning but the 3 hour jet lag was not in our favor. We got up at 9 which was 6 AM biologically since the body unlike the mind did not probably know we had moved from PST to EST timezone. By 10 AM we had collected our will-call tickets and were in the long queue of vacationers who were trying to enter Animal Kingdom. We started off our day by entering the roots of majestic Tree of Life to watch a 3D movie titled Its Tough to be a Bug. Then we left Discovery Island, walked about and spotted an Indian Chai Shop which I thought was really impressive in the way that the designers of this park had recreated a Chai stall from India. I was most excited to see that the red brick floor was made wet by pouring water over it, which gave it a typical Indian dhaba look. There was also a Sunil Shetty poster on the wall. After clicking a few pictures we walked towards the Mount Everest ride, a roller coaster encounter with the Yeti that we did not get on due to lack of motiviation caused by the 120 minute estimated wait in the queue. This was Asian part of the park. The African side had a few more adventures in the form of Kilimanjaro Safari and Kali River Rapids, the latter especially being very adventurous and thrilling. It was a recreation of a river rafting journey where you would definitely get wet, and you might get soaked! Kali River was actually a part of Asia and not Africa, just for the record before anyone sues me for this misinformation.

 

It was afternoon already and our next destination would be the MGM Studios to where we took a Disney bus, and I think it would have been a better idea to have driven as it was again a long wait. Anyways, this next Disney park was symbloized by a giant blue colored wizard hat. After grabbing a quick Chinese bite and checking out the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playset for kids, we headed for the Backlot Tour where they showed us round Pearl Harbor shooting sets and also a Grand Canyon set among other interesting movie things. The next show on the cards was The Extreme Stunt Show, which enthralled a 25000+ audience with well nothing but exterme car and bike stunts. The cars and bikes were flying all around and sharp-shooters falling from 4 floor high buildings. A very well coordinated and practised show on that large a scale I must say. The next ride was going to be the dreaded Tower of Terror, a scary random free fall ride owing to the horror story they weaved around it. We were ushered into a library room at the 100 year old Hollywood Hotel, followed by a vertical and horizontal elevator ride that was made to fall from the 13th floor not once or twice but several times in a random fashion. Quite thrilling and we were alive after the ride was over. Fantasmic, a light and sound show featuring Mickey and friends was the next stop. This show had again drawn a 25000+ (my estimate) audience into the open air amphitheater. It was a spectaular show with water fountains, fireworks, lasers, choregraphy and special effects amidst all of which Mickey Mouse heroically defeated the dragon who was trying to control his imagination. We then briefly checked out the avoidable Sylvania light show and took another bus to Epcot just in time to witness a spectacular display of fireworks and lasers in a show called IllumiNations: Reflections of the World.

 

Day 2: Another lousy morning when we left the hotel at 10 AM and still not having slept to our heart’s content. The day had to start with Epcot which later decisively figured out as our favorite amongst the 4 theme parks at Disney. Marked by a huge globe that symbolized it, Epcot was about science, technology and future. We started the exploration by getting on the Spaceship Earth ride, a slow moving ride that would take us into a journey of communications over time in a train vehicle that maneuvered its way around the internal sphere of the globe. The next ride was Mission Mars, a ride which for some reason Rikti dreaded the most and all my attemtpts to convince her otherwise were futile. You could be part of the green team or orange team on this ride. The orange ride would be more intense and give you a feel of up to 3G during the lift off – many people are not able to take it well and I did not want to take a chance either so I went with the green team, even the wait was much shorter and that acted as an incentive. When I returned from Mars, we took a fast pass for the Test Track ride which we did not later return to. Instead we went to Soarin, another one of the most popular rides at Epcot that had us in the queue for 80 minutes, but worth every minute of the wait. This ride was a flight simulation over California and was indeed quite exhilarating though it must have lasted a little over 5 minutes. We then got into a show called Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which was preceded by a long, cheap, forced advertising movie by Kodak. This was a 3D show where a snake was about to swallow us and it was quite an avoidable expereince to my unpleasant surprise. It had a gross ending where they made a dog sneeze onto the audience and sprinkled water from somewhere to make it appear lifelike. All these shows and rides were part of the Future World at Epcot, the other division being World Showcase, a reincarnation of 11 countries of the world. We went to Mexico, Norway, China to start with. Norway even had a ride called the Maelstrom, a doable ride that took you on a Viking voyage. Other countries around the lake were Germany, France, USA, Japan, Canada, Russia and a couple more. I wish they had India too as it would definitely have been a more exciting experience for the visitors where they could have been given an old Delhi rickshaw ride or a Mumbai local train ride!

 

The sun was about to set and we decided to have late lunch or early dinner at an Indian restaurant a few miles away that the GPS helped us to find. The food was okay but we did not want to waste a lot of time eating and headed straight off to the majestic Magic Kingdom. Marked by a huge color changing castle, this place was really a dream come true for every child. We hopped on to the Disney Train for a 270 degree round of the park. We checked out the town where Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and all these funny folks lived, though we only spotted Donald Duck being celebrated by a long queue of young kids for an autograph and a picture taken along with them. Splash Mountain at Frontier Land was a ride we did not get on but derived almost equal amount of fun watching. Then there was the coveted Disney Parade all with lights and sound that commenced at Main Street USA and went through all the streets of the entire Magic Kingdom. We then admirably watched the dazzling Wishes fireworks show over the Cindrella Castle. The best part was a fairy that they made to jump out from a window on the top floor of the castle and she flied all the way across to the other end of the park. Following this we went to TomorrowLand and boarded their Transit Authority tram for a tour of the whole mini-town. We also went car racing on the Indy Speedway and it was really not easy to steer that car. Finally after strolling around a bit and having a Rainbow Magic flavor ice cream, we left Magic Kingdom on a boat that took us to the bus station from where we caught a bus to the Epcot parking lot where our car was parked. The magical trip had come to an end and next afternoon we would head back into our normal world.

 

Day 3: It was an uneventful day. We checked out from the hotel at 11 AM and went to have an early lunch at the same India Palace restaurant where we had been to the previous evening. Most of the day was spent traveling and Seattle welcomed us late night with 2-3 inches of snow on our car that was parked at Seatac Parking. Finally we reached home safely and dreamt of nothing that night but all the spectacular fun rides, so much of them had got into our minds!

 

Some nice pictures from our Disney World trip are in the Disney World album here.

Alki (pronounced Ayl-Kaai) Beach is the only popular beach in vicinty of Seattle. Its a long beach strip along the west side of Eliott Bay and a great place to enjoy the sun on a summer day. Many vibrant eateries and joints dot Alki Avenue which runs along the beach. Mind you, this beach is not meant for water sports and people generally even avoid to wade the waters as they are very mirky. So long as you remain on the sand and enjoy the warmth of the sun, its a nice spot for a barbecue picnic. One noticable artefact on the north end of the beach is the miniature Statue of Liberty! If you like, you can also rent out bicycles, skating boards and even small boats for very reasonable amounts. As the beach is located on the other side of Eliott Bay, it offers spectacular views of Seattle Skyline and Olympic mountains.

On the weekend before 2006 Labor Day weekend, we made an exciting trip southwards to Crater Lake in Oregon via the Sand Dunes where we stopped over in the afternoon.  The Oregon Dunes extend for 40 miles along the Oregon Coast. Formed by the ancient forces of wind, water and time, these dunes are incomparable to any other in the world.

 

After several hours of driving the rented Subaru Outback on I5 south, we found many establishments that were renting out mud bikes or running scenic or adventure tours on buggies. Fortunately, we made the right decision of taking an advenure tour instead of a scenic one. The wait for our turn was long and we utilized the time to gulp down some food. It was a sunny day but it was windy too with cold winds making us feel, well, cold.

 

Once our yellow buggy arrived, we had no idea what was in store for us. All 4 of us (me, Rikti, Ashish and Sonia) belted ourselves tightly into the buggy seats and wore gigantic red glasses meant to prevent our eyes from the dust. This buggy could have easily passed for a lunar vehicle based on its look and feel. The buggy driver started off towards the dunes via a narrow pathway.

 

The first sight of the dunes was a sight to see with vast expanses of steep sandy slopes in all directions. Until then, we did not know what we had signed up for by paying the ~30 dollars per person for the ride. The vehicle suddenly sped up and raced towards a steep mountain of dust which I never thought a vehicle could climb. Ah, and as soon as we got to the top safely, waiting for us was a steep drop to the other side again at real great speeds. The great maneuvering skills of the driver coupled with the knowledge of low center of gravity that the vehicle was designed to have, we soon started to feel comfortable. Another factor for the comfort was that we had been subjected to the most cruel stunts at the very beginning itself. It was the most exhilerating and thrilling 5 minutes of my life in so many years.

 

The ride went on for 30 minutes, we stopped a few times to take some pictures. Some parts of the dunes had very clear blue water oasis. There were many other bikers enjoying the sporting adventure with high flags on everyone’s bikes. For a moment, I felt I was inside a video game. As a kiddo I used to have some games on Samurai or Media which were sand dunes simulations and for the first time I experienced what a sand dune adventure is really like.

 

Though the main destination of our weekend trip was Crater Lake, the 30 minutes adventure ride at the Oregon Dunes was worth 5 hours of drive and every galon of gas and penny spent. Rating: * * * * *

Around 30 miles east of Seattle is a very scenic waterfall by the name of Snoqualmie Falls. Rikti and I went there for the first time in April 2006 on what was a drizzly weekend. We had more fun than we thought we would and spent around 3 hours at the site. Seattle area as it is is very scenic and pretty with tall trees and greenery all around, but the site of Snoqualmie falls topped it all especially that day.

 

The official Snoqualmie Falls site says that 1.5 million people visit this natural scenic wonder every year. In my calculation that equates to around 1 person every 20 seconds! To get to Snoqualmie you just need to go I 90 east from Seattle and then follow the signs to Snoqualmie city and then the falls. You park on one side of the road, walk over an overbridge to reach the viewing deck they have constructed, and enjoy the musical sound of a lot of water falling from a height of 270 feet (a little less than half the size of the space needle). There is a hotel located at the edge of the falls and a railway track on the cliff across the river, both of which are picture perfect sites.

 

We did not forget our loyal digital camera behind (Nikon Coolpix 2.1 Megapixels that Raman helped me buy in Hong Kong in 2002!) so we did a lot of clicking away. One thing no one should miss at the falls is the hiking trail that takes you to the bottom of the falls. The trail itself is nothing extraordinary but when you reach the bottom, its a magnificient site altogether. We acted a little adventurous and climbed off of the wooden trail to get closer to the Snoqualmie river. We even saw a lot of cloud formation taking place in that area.

 

 

On the way back we stopped over at the Northbend factory outlet to spend some dollars on things we did not need. One of the pictures I have posted here has Mount Si in the background and Rikti in the fore. This mountain is supposed to have some history associated with it.