Himanshu's trip

I decided to go to Seattle after having lots of discussions to meet my old BITS friends Rahul, Tulika and Srijan. I was going to meet them almost after 3-4 years. Tulika and Srijan had come to pick me up at the airport. We then headed for Rahul's home where he was busy in preparing paav bhajees for me. After a 'must stop' at Starbucks on the way, it was apparent that Srijan had become a hardcore StarBucks coffee fan. When I finally met Rahul, I felt as though he had grown thinner though there was no scope for him to become thinner any further. We had a nice dinner with the paav bhajees that Rahul had cooked. Then, Rahul, Srijan and Tulika had a long discussion that where should they take me for trekking. Lots of confusions, opinions and fightings and then finally we decided to go Mount Rainer next day. By the way, I was quite afraid at that time when they were planning trekking for me as almost all the treks covered a distance of 7-8 miles. Still, I decided to take the risk and anyway Rahul was always there to lift me up if something happened to me :-)

Day 1:
We started for Mount Rainier early morning though the weather looked very lousy and rainy. Forcasts of showers were already in the limelight. So, we had equipped ourselves with all the necessary stuff and we headed for Mount Rainer. We joined with two more people Swati and Arindam. I was with Rahul and Tulika in one car and Srijan was with Swati and Arindam in the other car. We started together but then we lost each other after sometime. However, thanks to mobile services because of which we could keep track of each other. It was quite cloudy and foggy and therefore I did not get a chance to see the Rainier from the I-95 bridge. After a long 2-3 hour drive, we reached the place where we had to start our journey. It had started to drizzle by this time as the forecasts went true and the chill winds were making life further difficult for me. It was the first trek of my life and I was quite excited to be near Mount Rainer , one of the icons of Seattle. We all started our journey along the forest. The land was sometimes rocky, sometimes muddy and sometimes covered with deep snow and in between I could hear the sounds of water splashing across the rocks. It was quite exciting to experience the different forms of nature so closely. We went on walking with little breaks in between to reagain our energy and filling our stomachs. We then finally reached the carbon glacier, the place that we were looking for which made me walk for 3.5 miles. I was quite surprised that I did not make any complaint having walked for so much distance. We took some photographs and then we headed back to our cars. Though we were very near to Mount Rainier but still I did not manage to get a view of the mountain as the waether was quite bad. It was a nice trek and by now my legs had already started paining like anything as I had almost walked 7 miles which was a big achievement in itself for me.

By the time, we completed our trek, the day was coming to an end and we all wanted to have real good food. We all headed for Seattle and then again after a lot of confusions in choosing a proper place to eat, we landed in a Malay restaurant. The food was good.. especially the one that looked like Indian paratha and aloo ki sabzi. By this time, we all were quite tired and then we went to Srijan's house. We then watched Monsters Inc, the movie that everyone had seen many times except me...The movie was quite good though Tulika had been sleeping most of the time during the movie. Day 1 was exciting and tiring but it was good fun.

Day 2:
This morning, Rahul had prepared sabudana ki khichdi and it was again very good. It looked to me that Rahul had already become an expert in cooking. We started in the morning for Seattle Centre and went to the Space needle , the other icon of Seattle. On reaching the top of the space needle, the sight was quite impressive with almost the entire Seattle was in front of me. However, I could not have a look at the Mount Rainier once again , credit goes to the cloudy weather. Then we went to Thai Tom for lunch. It was a very small place with big crowd and too noisy but very tasty thai food. The place where we had food was right in front where they were cooking so many dishes in parallel. It was quite amazing to see the hands cooking so fast and so accurate. It was a new experience in itself.
We then headed for the public market place. It is a very big market with lots of things that you can buy. Srijan proving himself to be a true starbucks cofee fan bought a startbucks coffee T-shirt. It had started raining by this time and then we decided to go I-max for watching the St.Helens volcano eruption movie. The theatre was dome shaped and by the time movie ended, I and Rahul started to feel very dizzy and finally ended up vomiting in the restaurant. However, I started feeling better and then we headed for our homes. The weekend was over and it was time for me to leave Seattle next morning.

These two days in Seattle were really very exciting. Had the weather been sunny, it would have been equal to reaching heaven. Meeting so many old friends was in itself a very nice feeling and adding to the beauty of Seattle, it was a trip that I would probably never forget. However, the only thing that I still regret and feel strongly about is that I could not get a real glimpse of the Mount Rainier.

Rainy Weekend - 20/03/05

Sunday, another day of my first rainy weekend in Seattle. Today was
the seattle exploration day. There was no getting up early, everyone
woke up comfortably around 9:00. We had a wonderful breakfast of
sabudana khichdi, of course made by Rahul. We started for seattle
around 11. First stop the Space Needle.
pic1
It was cold and windy, but
your seattle visit cannot really complete without going on top the the
Space Needle. Srijan and Himanshu took that trip while Rahul, I and
Swati hung around at the store. After that was the lunch stop at Thai
Tom. Food was as good as always, with the added advantage of less
rush. We finished lunch with some ice-cream. Then it was over to the
Pike Place Market. After roaming around there for some time in rain,
we went back to Seattle Center and took a trip in the Sci-Fi Museum.
It really turned out to be a Museum, with lot of old static things
hanging around, lot of knowledge enclosed in the show cases, weaponry
from old and new Sci-Fi movies, almost anything that was ever made.
And guess what most of it was from "Paul Allen Family Collection",
talk about collecting things. The museum could have been a real
delight had we gone in with the expectation of learning Sci-Fi history
and stuff. But we all wanted rides, adventure and things to do. So for
that day it was a definate flop, especially as our chief guest
(Himanshu in case u r wondering) was totally unimpressed. To make
things up, we went to the I-Max Dome theatre at the aquarium to watch
our famous St. Helens eruption movie. The movie was great as ever,
and I just loved it once again. I was also contemplating about buying
the DVD. But the movie did not suit some people. So that was also not
a big hit. Now comes the food time, and this time Ethiopian food won.
After few phone calls to 411, and then some local 411s, we got to the
restaurant 'Queen of Sheba' (I hope I remember the name right) in hunt
for some authentic Ethiopian food. I liked the food, the eating style
was good, all in a single plate, shared, there were lot of veggie
options. But I am not sure what was the Ethiopian specific component
there was. Everything was so close to the Indian food, yellow daal,
black daal, aalu sabji, bhindi sabji and dosa. But anyway, that kind
of saved the day and then we came back home all very exhausted and
sleepy. The day ended with a episode from Dilbert :)

Rainy weekend - 19/03/05

This was our first real trek in a long time, not anyone's fault given
that we are just out of winter, and lot of credit goes to Himanshu for
coming here and providing motivation for the trip. (Not sure how
motivated he was, or if he had ever imagined going on 7 mile trek in
rain and snow!!). But we were in full enthu. Surprisingly we set out
on time, to mount rainier in 2 cars with no yahoo maps!! But then
reaching rainier is no brainier. Just follow the highest peak in
south, if you can see it that is. Rain started when we were just out
of seattle. We reached our base camp by 11:00 , with almost no goofing
up on the route and a few coffee breaks. The trail is called Carbon
River Glacier trail, parts of which some of us renamed to Tulika
Trail, I am still confused about the reason. It started out well, rain
had almost stopped and it was not very steep. Then we hit the almost
dried carbon river. The soil was black, maybe that's where it got its
name from.
Carbon River
Further down the trail, most parts of the trail were washed
away by some recent floods. There was of course some confusion if this
was the right trail, but as it appeared we were the first few trekkers
on that trail after the floods. So we had to start a new route (that
was the part which was renamed). We carried on, trampling the
vegetation and making a new trail. This was the first time I had seen
real flood damage. At some point in between, the rain started and rain
jackets were out. Then we hit some traces of snow. Nothing dangerous,
but enough to start some snow ball throwing. We reached a wood log
bridge over a waterfall. Rahul as usual wanted to touch some water at
some specific place far away, I was not with him in this adventure,
not really loving the rain and the cold. After the bridge, the main
highlight of the trail was a swinging bridge over a really deep
gorge/river/rivulet. One person at a time on the bridge and the bridge
would swing up and down trying to scare you. But the view of the
glacier from the middle of this bridge was awesome. An unobstricted
view of the mighty glacier (and Mt Rainier beyond on a clear day).
Another .3 miles and we were close to the glacier, spotting soem cave,
few crows and water trikkling down the glacier. It was all wet and
cold now and there were 3.5miles of trek back to the cars. As most
treks, the back trek was uneventful. By the end everyone just wanted
to get back in the warm and cozy cars and head home.