What a difference a month makes : Seattle : Mysha

Mysha ( ok, i did not take this picture, Soumya did)
Rainbow Bridge in La Conner

La Conner

Fish Bridge , La Conner

Seattle

We are back to Seattle after one month and one day. What a difference it makes in a new born's life. Mysha was three days old when we saw her and now she is over a month old. She tries to smile and even makes the funny noises I tried to teach her. As soon as we came to Soumya's door , I realized how tired i am from all the adventure. It is so nice to see a home, a baby and friends and a home made meal.

We left the Whidbey island i nthe morning and spend few hours hiking the Deception pass area. It is gorgeous with the bridge and the river meeting the sea and water churning all over. The area is a strong Navy base and you see the Navy planes flying all the time. We , then, headed down to Seattle and took a little detour for La Conner ( recommended by Sue). It is a cute town with lots of Sculptures and Quilts and bridges ( two pictures above) .

Soumya , Ruchi and their parents as well as Mysha were waiting with warm smiles and welcome. We have been eating non stop ( took a break and drove to the beach for a little stroll and view) and now everyone is sleeping .

So, like all good things, this adventure is coming to an end , so that a new and better adventure will have a place to get hold and form ideas. I do appreciate you taking the journey with me and making it such fun.

We will be home tomorrow and as always, you are welcome to come by ,call or just stay in touch. If you ever plan a trip to Alaska or Canada 's west coast please do not hesitate to consult with me. Good night and stay in touch.

Day 30 : where in the world is Coupeville???

Ghost Mountain

Deception Bridge

Coupeville Marina

Coupeville downtown

Coupeville Marina famous for Mussels

We are back in US of A but guess where? At Coupeville . You have to look at the map below to see where we are and how we got there. It is a pretty little town on Whidbey islands in Washington State. The place is a national historic town ( one of its kind in USA) was established in 1903 and still has most of the original structures. It is most famous for the fresh mussels that it supplies all over the world. It is a pretty town with 1700 people and mostly bed and breakfast places.

Just for fun guess how much a one bedroom 0.75 bath ( not sure what a 0,75 bath mean..half a shower??). The house is built in 1932 and looks pretty rundown but is on the ocean bluff.

How we got here is interesting story too. We took the ferry from Sidney , BC to Ancortes ( because our friend said this is very pretty route and it is very pretty indeed) but did not realize that there was no easy way to get to Olympic Pennisula from here. So, with some searcha nd with Smita and Soumya;s help figure this out. It is actually very nice and is an adventure.

The Deception bridge is a Washington Icon and was built in 1932. More on that tomorrow. We are staying at a very nice house, a home away from home. I found it on line and the host is very nice. It isa two bedroom cottage with everything one needs. We cleaned up all over laundary ( of last month) and are just realxing, watching stars and moon. It is nice to be back in our own country of miles, pounds and Fahrenheit and great politics ( :)

Good night, hope the power is back in San Diego and life is back to normal.

View To the top of the world in search of Bears and her wild llifeother things...Sarah ... in a larger map

Day 29: Buchart Gardens with 1000 Japanese Tourists

Buchart Gardens

View of ocean from the gardens

Flower and the bee

Sample of what you see there

Victoria at night

We are still in Victoria and went to Buchart Gardens with 1000 other Japanese Tourists. The gardens are over 100 years old and are spread over 55 acres. There is no way to describe how pretty they are. We took hundreds of pictures and none of them really justify how they really look. So, here is just a sample.

This is where we saw most people in Canada. I think we saw more people here than in all of the month we have been travelling around Canada and Alaska. Today is our last day in British Columbia, Canada and I have to say I am very happy that we came. Shalini is thinking to move here :) My short term impression is that people are very gentle and friendly ,land is beautiful and animals are amazing.

Good night from Canada , I will blog from somewhere in US of A .

Day 28 : Pacific Rim National Park and Victoria

Pretty Victoria

Victorian Trash

Canadian Post Boxes

Oldest China town in Canada

Family in down town Victoria

Victoria

Bell Tower gifted by Netherlands

We made it to Victoria today. The drive back was non eventful. Stopped at the Pacific Rim National Park andvery pretty. The p hiked for about 6 km. The views were gorgeous and the ocean and tides were big but we are too spoiled by where we live. The amazing views were "just" like Point Lobos , in Monterey. But, we still enjoyed it a lot.

Drive back was long due to windy roads but the downtown Victoria is soooo pretty. We are staying at the best western and have valet parking ( free) internet ( free) and they even have a laptop desk for me. This is Best Western Plus and i think this is a lot better option than Hyatt that offers fancy lobby and charges extra for everything else.

Weather is perfect and we walked around everywhere today. The schools have started and there are not that many vacationers around. Still , lot of people here. There are many European tourists still hanging around. I was talking to one young couple from France and the Girl said , " San Francisco is her most favorite place in the whole world"...I sort of agree with her :)

We will do lot more sight seeing tomorrow. Till then good night

View To the top of the world in search of Bears and her wild llifeother things...Sarah ... in a larger map

Day 27: Tofino: Bears, Rain Forest and Pacific Ocean

A tree in the rain forest

Trail : mostly board walk over swampy land

Finds at the ocean

Ready to find Bears.

A big Mama Bear

A baby looking for worms or honey

Family, just hanging out at the beach

Mama is trying to get the babies away from us

We are still in Tofino. It is still a nice day even though it rains over 200 inches a year. I guess we are just lucky. This morning we did one of many trails to the Pacific Ocean. The trail itself was amazing, mostly on the board walk and surrounded by virgin rain forest. It was an adventure in itself and once we got to the ocean we were surrounded by blue water filled with little islands with more trees on them. Today is low tide , so we were able to walk upto these islands and find shells etc.

In the afternoon Shalini and I got outfitted in "space suits" and went for Bear watching. It was a tiny boat with four people ( other two from France) . The driver was a naturalist and was really good in finding wild life. We saw Bears, Eagles , wolf, seals and assortment of birds. It was wonderful experience. A small boat makes a huge difference. We saw other people in big boats not being able ot get close at all, whereas we were right there at the beach ,the bears were looking at us and eating away. We could clearly hear the crunching of the twigs , breaking of branches and turning of rocks to see what was underneath and then the crunch of the Crab . It was really amazing to see them so close in the wild and stil lbe totally relaxed .

So, after that, nothing could have matched that, so walked home and just stayed and watched the beautiful view from our cabin.

We will leave in the morning. Tofino is definitely highly recommended for a nature lover and spending few days in not a problem at all. Too many trails to travel and wild life to see. That's all the report for today. Good night and keep in touch.

Day 26 : Tofino ( Guess where it is ?)

View from the Ferry to Vancouver Island

800 year old trees and the lychin on them on highway 4

Shalini wanted to see the Bear

View from our cabin

Tofino downtown

We are in a nice cabin in Tofino and Shalini is sneezing away. The place has amazing views but there is something musty in the place but I guess this has to do. The hosts were very nice and helpful also but the place is basic.

Tofino is a cute beach town on the west side of the Vancouver Island. It is the most west you can go on land in Canada. We took the ferry to Naniamo from Horse shoe bay and then drove west on highway 4.

My first impression of the island was highly influenced by the Walmart, Costco and KFC etc we saw driving by. Shalini asked , " are you sure we took the right ferry and we are not back in USA?) .But, as we drove on highway 4, our opinions changed quickly. The highway is most windy and road I have driven on. The road goes from nothing impressive to rain forests, lakes and huge 800 year old tree forests. It has numerous hiking options nad this being a long weekend, lot of people were in the lakes ( swimming, boating etc) as well as hiking. Traffic was there but luckily no traffic jam. It is a mostly single lane road, going up the mountain and than steep downhill.

We made it to Tofino around 4pm and had time to check out the time and get some grocery. This is situated on the edge of Pacific Providential national Park and we plan to do some hiking etc tomorrow. Good night and stay safe, ( it is nice to have Shalini around , i just hope she will stop blowing her nose :)



View To the top of the world in search of Bears and her wild llifeother things...Sarah ... in a larger map

Day 25: Look who we found in Vancouver??

Queen Elizabeth Park

Shalini at the airport

Vancouver from the Bridge

Stanley Park

Queen Elizabeth Garden

Original Houses of Vanvouver

Canada Geese

Guess who we found at the airport? ShaliniJ

We decided to go on a little adventure and took a train to the airport, it worked out really well, excellent public transportation system. It cost us only 3 dollars ( two of us) to get there and no one even checked the tickets either way.

Back to the hotel, there is a Taiwan festival going on , we saw that a little, not too interesting so we went ot the Stanley Park which is supposed to be the biggest park in Northern America. It is indeed very big, we saw a little glimpse of it. It is full of big cedar trees as well as lakes , trails and beautiful views. People were biking, roller blading all over. We walked around a little and then got hungry.

We tried to go to the Indian section for the best Indo Chinese food but turns out all the restaurants were closed for lunch ( may the thing to do on Saturdays). Jagdish was getting really hungry so we ended up eating at Subway ( so much for nice Indian food). Afterwords we did find good Indian shops, bought snacks and fruits.

Queen Elizabeth park was near by and it is amazingly beautiful. It is a real garden with flowers everywhere and excellent views of the city. We could even see snow covered Cascades from here, mount Baker etc. Next was Gas Lamp area but it was amazingly quite today. We think it is because the cruise ship was gone In the evening so it was normal activity. But, yesterday , during late afternoon, the cruise ship was still on the dock and the place was full of tourists.

This is our last day in Vancouver. We really liked the city and feel like we know it quite well. We will not mind coming here again. One little Canadian information: Top three languages spoken here are English, Punjabi and French. hey teach all three in the schools here. There are definitely lot of " Desis " here.

Shalini loves the city too. SHe keeps saying that it is amazing that they have so much activity and yet has so much nature and trees around. I am really tired so will not go down to post this.

It is really annoying that I can go down and get free internet at Starbucks but Hyatt will not provide it...no more Hyatt in my future :( Good night

Day 24 : A walking and eating day in Vancouver

Granville Island

Gas Lamp town

Fresh Fruits

China Town Garden

A busy harbour

A walking tour of Vancouver. We started walking in the morning and did not stop till my legs just could not move any more. The day was beautiful and so is the city. A city of black top yellow cabs and people with kids all over. People are so friendly that as soon as you take out a map, someone stops to help.

We started the walk on the Robson street, the very heart of Vancouver and a place to eat and hang out. We took the boat to Granville Island which was a two minutes ride for three dollars. The Island is beautiful, full of arts and crafts , food and people. We had a really good Chai tea ( recommended by Smita) at the public market and bought fruits ( it is really inexpensive to buy fresh organic fruits)

We walked back to the main land on the bridge and were rewarded very nice views of the city. Then, walk through the Yale town, we found the original homes ( three of them remaining) of the Vancouver city and then on to the Gas Lamp section. This is the old part of Vancouver, quaint and full of shops and food places.

This left only China Town and my feet were killing me. So, we took a break and then decided to see the China Town Garden. It is definitely worth the trip. The China Town itself is old and run down but the garden is very nice and authentic looking.

Overall, the city is beautiful and I think it offers all sort s of options to visit. We have one more day to explore and quite a few more things to see. Good night for now . Hope you are all doing well.

Day 23: Back to civilization Vancouver

An angel at Hope

Grumpy old man at Hope

100 year old Gurudwara ( Sikh Temple)

Outside of Gurudwara ( national heritage now)

Vancouver walk

We made it to civilization , with 560,000 people Vancouver has everything, traffic, freeways, excellent food ,wonderful soft beds and hot bath. We are at down town Hyatt , location and comforts are perfect except that internet is not free. ( this is generally true with four and five star hotels. Best Westerns etc have free internet but these fancy ones do not…why? ) Anyways, star bucks downstairs has the free wi fi ( with a cup of coffee) . We walked along the harbor and decided it is a very pretty city. So far, lots of architect and water fountains in this down town, busy ocean side with float planes, cruise ships, fancy a boats and people biking, roller blading . We have two more days to explore. We had a great Chinese food, thanks to Smita who looked up on Yelp and gave us the directions from San Diego J

We decided we liked Hope a lot and now we are also liking Vancouver. Hope is small and pretty and interesting chain saw sculptures all over the city. On the way to Vancouver , we stopped at Abbadford. This is an agricultural town with lot of Indian ( Sikh specifically) history. They have the oldest Gurudwara outside India , just celebrated the 100^th anniversary of it’s construction. We had free lunch there ( it is really nice to walk in and have fresh Indian food, only requirement is that you do not smoke and cover your head with something) . Little history lesson: Sikhs from Punjab ( india) came here from 1900 to look for jobs. There was lot of discrimination ( one of the telling story is that a Japanese ship full of Indians came here after three months of journey. Even though everyone had British passport and they were legally allowed to come to Canada, the ship was turned back. There was lot of press about that and the government officially apologized later) . The Gurudwara is Canadian National Heritage now.

On the way, we saw lots of small farms with fruits and vegetables. Fist time I saw blueberry bushes and Indian men and women workers hand picking them. ( I have been wondering with no illegal Hispanic people around , who is doing all the work here…now we know) . Blueberries are really cheap and delicious. We have been eating them like candy.

All though our journey we saw mostly Europeans , few “first nation people” and some Indians here and there. But, this part of Vancouver is as mixed as San Francisco. We will explore more tomorrow and report. I need to catchup on sleep tonight. Good night….