Kenai Fjords National Park

“Some feel the rain, others just get wet.” says John Muir. Sorry to say Mr. Muir, I fall in “others” category. No matter how hard I try to appreciate rain, I always fail at it. Only thing I enjoy doing while it is raining is to get inside the blanket and sleep but I did not go to Alaska to do that. Second day of the trip and it was still raining. Was it going to be this way the whole trip? This question started to weigh me down. Anyway, me and my hubby reported to Kenai Fjords Tours office at Seward harbor at around 8:45AM. It had stopped raining for a while.

Right after boarding the cruise and getting all set to stay on water for 8 hours (well, at that time - that is what I had thought but I had forgotten one very important thing but about that, later! ) , sea otter greeted us. Tour guide told us about how they have millions of hair per square inch and how they can survive without blubber in cold water ( this will come many times, so please bear with me. :) ). Also, they do everything on their back - use it as dining table to eat shells, take their babies on back and teach them to swim. They even use rocks to break open mussels/oysters and if they like one rock, they keep it safe in between their arm and body. We observed them for 15mins and I must say, measuring at 5feet, they are pretty cute.

Cruising straight into Resurrection Bay, I was feeling like I was entering into some ghostly ocean because you know one of the charm of rain (really?) is to make everything foggy. Next stop was at the rock full of Steller sea lion - I mean hundreds of them. It did not look like they come into endangered species category. Scientists are still researching why their population declined by 80% in last 30 years. Was I thankful for my heavy binoculars now? Yes - I was. When I saw them through binocs - I found out that they all had upped their neck to look at us. Sight of seeing them gliding smoothly into the water was a pleasant one. It feels so different to see wild life in natural habitat rather than zoo. It makes us realize how they are part of this world and not something which is for our entertainment.

The Northwestern Fjords cruise that we had taken takes passengers to spectacular Northwestern most end of the Kenai Fjords foraging through three tidewater glaciers. Floating on the smooth Resurrection Bay waters and seeing porpoises play with our boat for 2-3 miles, I was actually starting to enjoy the trip. All the feelings of rain playing foul were started to take backseat in my mind. May be, that is why when captain announced that to reach to northwestern most end, cruise has to go through rough waters of Gulf of Alaska and today it was more rougher than it usually is, I totally ignored it.

So, it all started once we started to ride on rough waters. Remember adventure rides we take in Six Flags and all? It gets over in 2 to 3mins. Well, this was more worse than an adventure ride and continued for almost half an hour. All the food that I had taken since morning ( it was only one muffin and 2-3 cups of coffee ) was swirling around in my stomach and I could feel it coming till my neck. Drinking ginger ale and standing on the back-side of the cruise to breath fresh air for half an hour, I felt a bit better. Also, we reached our first glacier - Holgate glacier. Captain had changed the plan because of weather and instead took us to different glaciers. Holgate glacier was huge....really huge and beautiful and awesome.

After two more glaciers - Aialik and Pederson glacier - they were equally beautiful and awesome, we turned back. Back into rough waters. Oh my God, oh my God. This time I was feeling even worse. I ran out to the deck to - you know, throw up and i did. I did it like three times. I was feeling like I am going to die. Somebody told me to see still objects but there was nothing still. Water was having wild, wild waves and sky was full of moving ( or were they running?) clouds. Thank God - my hubby was with me the whole time - even when I was grossing out with all the vomit and all. Yuck!!! He stood close to me the whole time, holding my head some times and hand other times - that was impressive. Now to think about it, he had put classic Mills and Boons character to shame with his behavior. :)

Experiencing three glaciers and three vomiting attacks, I reached to Seward harbor at nearly 5:15PM. My dear Mr. Mills and Boons took me to the store to buy sea-sickness tablet (because, you know we were going on Cruise next day too.). We boarded the park connections bus from Seward to come back to Anchorage. Not willing to go to “pppppssshhh - good luck with that!!” hotel again, we booked another hotel in Anchorage Downtown and called it quits for the day.

Hello Anchorage

There are some things which we always dream. Even when we know that chances of those dream coming true are very bleak, we still carry on to dream on.... And if universe is favorable, sometimes those dreams do come true. Going to Alaska was one of such dream of mine - ever since I read about it. As a kid, every time i looked at the horizon, i wanted to go to that magical place - where earth seems to meet the sky...i always thought Alaska was as far as i can go to get as close to the horizon as i can possibly get. And now that I am on my way to Anchorage - the biggest city of Alaska - I am quite not sure about how I am feeling. My mind just seems clobbered with so many shades of emotions. Sun is setting down in the sky making all the endeavors of blue pacific water to turn into gold successful. The harmonious beauty created by the combination of real pacified Pacific below and raging fire-ball up in the sky is a sign of how universe maintains equilibrium. Pacific and Sun are so different in their nature but right now they are looking in total sync of each other....wish human beings could learn something from this and respect individuality of every person and still love each other - World could have been different place by now. But hey, why complain about the world? It is beautiful.....well, as long it has sun, moon, oceans, forests, rain and love!

I am seeing some islands carrying plenty of icy mountains on them...with no trace of human touch. Looks like we are flying via wild route. As we are going more and more up north, mountains are appearing to get bigger and bigger. The might of nature below has already started stirring some uneasiness in me but I think I am all set for my first encounter with something deep into the wilderness.

I have seen people trying to act normal and try to fit into the society. I have seen myself trying hard to act normal to fit into the society. But I think I am at my own peace - when I can be all myself. My all crazy self. I think that explains why nature looks so peaceful - because it is void of all the pretensions. It is always in it's True state. Wow!! Enjoying the flight completely, we reached Anchorage at around 10PM. I slept off by just saying "Hello Anchorage!"

Life is not fair (well, at least not always) - suck it up!!

Our first day of Alaska trip started off with funny (or was it humiliating?) incident. In order to reach to Seward, we had to catch Alaska railroad train which leaves at 6:45AM in the morning. So, we got up early and went to reception area at around 5:50PM. Confused whether to take a cab or wait for hotel's 6AM shuttle, we thought of making an informed decision.

Me to receptionists - Hi, Good morning. We need to catch 6.45AM train to Seward, will it be okay if we take 6AM shuttle? Will it take us to train-station on time?
Receptionists - pppshhhhh- Good luck with that!!!

....and she continued to do her work. Me and Arnab went away from her and burst out laughing. You see, we were in vacation mood - I don't think any sort of humiliation would have brought us down. Anyway, we did take 6AM shuttle and reached on time. Unfortunately, it was raining. Being Seattlites, it is not a new thing for us but it was a bit disheartening.

Coastal classic is really classic - A very comfortable train ride from Anchorage to Seward. We got first glimpses of Alaskan wilderness here when train reached shores of Seward passing through Turnagain arm ( Captain Cook had to turn here while he was searching for passage to Pacific ocean here), strings of beautiful glaciers and Moose pass ( moose outnumbers human population here). It was great to see Dall sheep looking down from mountain cliff and Moose munching on his breakfast totally ignoring huge train making noise just 20 feet away from him and Bald eagle chic waiting eagerly for his mom to return with food. Occasional water falls made this ride even more beautiful.

So engrossed in enjoying beauty of Alaska, I had totally forgotten about the rain...well, almost! But it hit me right on when I got down from the train at Seward. There was no other option other than heading towards our hotel to do luggage drop-offs. Our bad experience with receptionists continued here too. Upon asking which street was right in front of the hotel, our dumb (sorry - I do not have any other word) receptionists told us that he does not know it. But he said he can mark it for us on the map. Huhhh???

No outdoor activity was possible in the rain, how about some hot meal? This thought cheered me up a bit but guess what? Downtown is 2miles away. To catch half-hourly shuttle bus to Downtown, we ran to the bus stop as bus was scheduled to come in 3mins. Very happy to reach on time and see bus coming towards us. Well, you would think we climbed the bus and reached Downtown in 5mins. But nope - it did not happen. The bus driver lady gave us big smile (really - all 32 out) and waved at us but did not stop!! What the ****? We had to walk for 20mins in rain to reach Downtown. First day of our trip was not at all going good. I could see all my excitement slipping away from me.

Following Frommer's Alaska 2010 suggestion, we went to Mediterranean restaurant for lunch - food was ummm, abysmal. I thought - well, here goes my last hope of something I can feel happy about. Our happiness meter was going down and down every passing minute. I got tired of thinking about how my expectations out of Alaska were going into drain and thought - Life is not fair (well, at least not always) - suck it up!!

Sky was still crying his heart out. Okay, what is wrong? Hopeless!! Only solace was to get inside Seward Aquarium. It is good one (nothing compared to Baltimore or any other big city one) but still. Spending 2 good hours in aquarium did cheered me and my hubby. You see - we are bit boring kind of people. We actually feel happy when we learn something new - both of us. So, knowledge about sea lion, sea otter and puffin did made us happy. Do you know that sea otter has millions of hair every square inch? That is how it can survive in cold water without any blubber. :)

When we came out of the aquarium, sky had stopped pouring down. And all the beauty hidden in the cloud came out. We soaked all the beauty - Resurrection bay surrounded by green lushy mountains by walking National historic Iditarod trail. At the end of the trail - we were smiling and we were at Kenai Fjords National park visitor center. It was 5PM but hey, it is Alaskan summer time - time of 20hours of sunshine. Ample time to go to Exit glacier and come back.

Exit Glacier , 12 miles away from Seward harbor is one of few glaciers accessible via road. A bit stiff "Edge of the glacier" trail took us right in front of edge of the glacier. Huge mass of blue glacial ice coming down from Hardings icefield above, vast meadows below and mountains standing tall surrounding the area - I was totally in awe. Dear hubby asked me to close my eyes and sit still for two minutes - hearing winds gushing, smelling wild fragrances and birds chirping in sweet melody - I was in eternal bliss.

Our first day ended with nice dinner at Ray's waterfront restaurant. Over-all, day was great. Was Universe teaching me that it does conspire to maintain balance in every little thing that it encompasses. Life is not fair many times but it is fair - well, most of the time. Isn't it?

Into the Wilderness of Olympic Peninsula

Mystic mountain range of Olympics, rupturing rivers, lucent lakes, vampiric valleys, frightening forests, wonderful wildlife, peaceful Pacific Ocean beaches - that's Olympic Peninsula. Surrounded by Pacific ocean at west, Strait of Juan de fuca at north and Puget Sound at east, the sheer abundance of natural beauty this Peninsula hosts, is more than a mere miracle. For the complete 2 days that we (me, Arnab n Maa) were exploring this exotic place - we heard ourselves saying "wow", "Oh My GOD", "amazing", "beautiful" a lot. :)

So, it all started with we taking early ferry to Kingston from Edmonds ( 17miles up north from Seattle) to cross Puget Sound. After nearly, 1.5hrs of drive, we reached Port Angeles - largest city of Olympic Peninsula. A surprising thing that we noticed here was within two miles of main city street, we came across churches of many faiths - Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic and few more. This makes one believe that Port Angeles people are either very pious or with not-so-good history that so many churches had to be built to enthrust power of good-doing in them. Well, I would like to believe in former. :). After eating hefty breakfast here - we all geared ourselves to explore the wilderness of Olympic National Park.

First stop was heavenly Hurricane Ridge, 17 miles south of Port Angeles. One can see wonderful things standing on this ridge on a clear day (and thanks to sweet luck of mine, it was a clear day :) ) - mysterious u-shaped valleys formed by ever-moving glaciers right down in the southern direction makes one think of power of nature, Strait of Juan de Fuca far north, Victoria BC island of Canada on other side of this strait, glaciers on mountain tops and meadows full of wild flowers right on this ridge. We were even lucky enough to see black-tailed deers doing his morning munching of grass. What a picturesque scene. While trailing on .2miles Cirque Rim, we saw a big mountain full of naked trees - there was a wild-fire in 2004 here which had gulped down entire forest viciously. I was bit disturbed to see ruins of this massive destruction made by fire. Anyway, I consoled myself by thinking that nature did this as a balancing act and moved on.

While riding down and trying to save divine beauty of Hurricane ridge - we could see Mount Adams of Canada across strait and San Juan islands. Radiant rays of Sun shining over and ferries riding were adding to the beauty of Strait. Our next stop was Neah Bay - north-west point of Peninsula and accessible via US 101. True to it's fame, traveling on US101 is always a pleasure to the eyes. Its winding highway is so dramatic - I could never realize when I was on top of a mountain or by a lakeside. So, on the way is Lake Crescent. It is as if many mountains has artistically carved the lake into its crescent shape. Blessed by crystal-clear serene water, we had to stop here to savor its beauty. What we witnessed was a beautiful blending of reflection of densely forested mountain and clear blue sky in the water. Picture Perfect!!!

It was already 3o'clock when we entered into Makah Indian Reservation. The drive on US 112 plays hide and seek with Strait Juan de Fuca and you. It is beautiful nonetheless. :). We could feel the abundance of sea-life when we saw Seal pub resting on shores just below busy highway. It was amazing to see it playfully swimming in the water towards shore. After having Lunch on the Bay-side, we set off to Cape Flattery - north-western point of USA. Trail for nearly .75miles through tall trees and you are standing on the cliff overlooking strait of Juan De Fuca emptying itself into Pacific Ocean. Hard gigantic rocks, foamy waters, chirping sea-birds and soaring waves hitting against the cliff keeps this place ablaze. Seeing something like this makes oneself believe into rhythm of life. It gave me chills to even think how native Indians used to live in a place like this. It must had been such a hardship to hunt for food in such adverse climate. Thanking God for giving me wonderful life, I retreated myself towards parking lot.

Feeling overjoyed for witnessing various states of Mother Earth throughout the day, we decided to travel to our Lodge at Kalaloch beach. An evening at Kalaloch (pronounced as Klay-lock) was as mesmerizing as the entire day was. When we reached, sun was about to go under Pacific ocean. Sand all over the beach had beautiful golden tinge and so was the water. If a kid was told that Water is colorless on that beach on that evening, he would had surely disagreed and would had told you that water is yellow. After amazing sunset, we indulged ourselves into wine and food. When we came out of restaurant, Kalaloch treated us with star-studded sky. The sky was so clear, we could see Milky way through our naked eyes. It was also first time in US, I was seeing Ursa major in the sky. How very wonderful. Don't know whether it was miraculous natural beauty that I had seen entire day or the wine I had or the soft noise of nearby Pacific waves or the warmth of my hubby's arms wrapped around me, I fell asleep within few minutes after hitting the bed.

Courtesy of Photos : Arnab Deka

Twitter Words

Lot is being said about how Twitter is changing our lives and the fact that it is showing potential of becoming something really huge. Besides that, it is really mind-blowing to see new words twitter adding in our vocabulary. People use them everyday in their tweets and otherwise, but do they have potential to make it to the English dictionaries like Oxford? Do they have potential where literature guys will search for their origin? Like who used that word for the first time? I think only time can answer these question. :)

Some twee-words I often read/hear :
Twitterniverse
Twitterature
Tweepeople
Twitterific
Twitterish
Tweaming
Twittonary

Seattle Downtown - Tourist Attractions

Well, I agree when people say Seattle has got a depressing weather and I do not wonder that suicide rates are highest in this area but I have no-where seen more livelier city. It is like, weather does not matter much. For all it is worth, I just just love to live in this city.

Seattle Downtown has got its own culture - you can see people with purple colored (you can imagine any color here - you name it and you will find it) hair and green colored tights (same applies here too) roaming even at around mid-night. Young girls and boys - totally doped (dont know for sure but their behavior makes me believe so) singing loudly on streets and spreading joy of happiness :). I am sure they must be feeling on Top of the world. When they pass by you - they will make nice comments - like "You are looking very beautiful" or "Your coat is top-class" or "Hey, your boots are sexy" or when you are with your boyfriend, they would say "You guys look cute together" or "Are you guys getting married?". Where have you found a girl complimenting other girl with so much honesty? Here, I see it happening everyday. It is such a feel-good factor here.

What is amazing about this city is you always have something to do. Now here is little insight about some of the tourist attractions of Seattle

1. Pike Place Market
Now this is a kind of place you have to visit to experience it. Pike Place Market is always in chaos but you get the freshest of vegetables and fish and flowers. At early dawn, they have this peculiar practise of throwing big fishes at people - who-ever catches it, gets it for free. You get best view of Seattle waterfront from balcony of this market. It has got romantic restaurants too - it is very quite inside and you can get really lost with your special one their very easily. It is amazing how it can be so much of hustle-bustle outside and so much of shush-shush inside. Regarding merchandise cost, do not assume that you will get things cheaper here - a pashmina shawl will cost you the same as in Nordstrom or Macy's. This place also has the Starbuck's first coffee shop. They have still preserved it in its original state.

2. Space Needle
This is a symbol of the city. It is 600 feet high structure which has observatory dock above and a gift shop below. Well, in-between, you have a revolving restaurant, Sky City at nearly 510 feet height. You need to book this restaurant in advance and minimum of $35 needs to be spent on each person. Consider this situation - you are planning to take your special one to a lovely evening - you need best of wine, best of food and if you get to enjoy beautiful view, it would be like icing on the cake - this sophisticated restaurant is the place to go. You get personal attention here - get best food (warning for veggies though - you will have to survive on salads. ). You start getting glimpse of what is ahead of you while you are on-board on the elevator to the restaurant. And once seated in the restaurant, you start getting nice view of restaurant - you can see Union-lake, illuminated cruises on glittering water, totally lit-up downtown - It takes around 45mins to complete one rotation. This restaurant has one very interesting desert - if you want to surprise other person, you should definitely be going for it. It is an ice-cream called Lunar Orbiter. Well, it is not ice-cream that makes it interesting but it is the way they serve it you. I wont reveal much about it though :P.

3. Shopping Attractions -
Like any other US city, Seattle too has big shopping centers. Nordstrom's first store (it was just Shoe store then) was set up here in Downtown in 1901. This store is now its head-quarters and flagship store. Then you have Macy's and many other big brands. So, if you like to shop till you drop - you can do it here.

Well, I am running out of time now - I'll finish this list later. But if you stay nearby and have not been to these places, please go and visit - you will start loving this city as much as I do.

An Interesting World Of Goo

Well, it is 11.30 in the night and it is raining cats and dogs outside. And the only other sound that is noticeable is that of cars speeding on nearby high-way. Sound of rain somehow makes me sleepy. I have always felt that water dripping from balcony telling me something. Well, this "something" is always interpreted (of course, by me) as "Go girl...you had a hard and long day. Take some rest. Go, go and sleep". I thought it is same case tonight too. So, I dashed to my bed early. While I was pursuing my favourite habit of sleeping, all I could see in-front of my eyes were some multi-coloured, funny-shaped, sort-of-animated balls dancing away to glory. Now, wait- what is that? For a split-second, I was not able to guess what I was seeing. And the moment this scary thought of "rain slowing down my mind" cropped up, I realised that they were Goo balls.

Hmmm, Goo balls! Lately, I am playing this WII game named "The world of Goo" and I must admit that I've fallen in love with it. What initially started as "What-the-heck, let me try this game everyone is so raving about" is soon turning out to be "Woohoo-what-a-game!". So, this game is about an aim, lots of goo balls and lots of physics. Ohho, don't get demotivated reading the word "Physics" there. To tell you, if I had played this game when Physics was one of my academic subject, I would not had hated it so much.Nevermind. Game has basically 4 seasons - Summer, Fall, Winter (I am right now in in this season) and Spring (Don't know for sure but I dont think we need Einstein here to guess it :)). Each season has different levels - you clear each level and then you reach to the end of the season. Aim is defferent in each level. But Before talking about aim, let me tell you something about Goo balls - aesthetically, some of them are beautiful and some of them are not that fortunate. Behaviour-wise, some really beautiful balls are real vile and ugly ones are pretty understanding and caring. Wait - Have you already started to imagine Goo balls as Human beings? Well, they are just balls. But they laugh, they cry loudly, they weep silently, they jump, they dance or for that matter, they even shout at you. Quite interesting...isn't it? Now, what can be so useful by just being balls? So, they have this wonderful power of getting attached to each other through strings (which gets formed automatically when you try to attach them).

What makes me fall in love more with this game is the way it is played. You begin with some Goo balls - running merrily in a teeny-tiny structure. You have to construct a well balanced structure (by applying basic Physics rules) using these Goo balls on the original one and take it to the aim. In most of cases, aim is a suction pipe which sucks rest of the balls (i.e. the ones which are not used in constructing structure - so, you see, you need to be economical to earn more points). The way to take Goo balls towards aim goes through lots of struggles and pains. In some cases, you have to be really creative to take them from one point to another. There are lot of things in between which can either make your life easier or may even make you think "what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-these-guys?"

Ohho, while writing this, I am getting this strong urge of restarting WII and playing this game rather than blogging here. Looks like, Goo balls are calling me - I gotta go......