It was saturday morning feb 18th, I got up early morning .. can you believe i got up at 5:30 n got ready .. That morning was so refreshing, the sunrise, the horses grazing, the fog.. after driving half way , I realised that I forgot my jacket.
Drove back to home. We were supposed to start by 6:30, guess what? there was traffic at 7:00 and that too on a saturday morning. Where are all these people going?? May be they too were heading towards Reno. The 580 route was busy, I was the navigator and I forgot to tell uday that we had to take the 680 route to Sacramento and that we missed the exit. This time I could see the anger on his face.

As we were driving.. the density of the fog increased. The drive on 680 route was awesome and it was new. Questions were rising .. ‘ are we on the right track? ‘I answered back confidently ‘yes this is the route.. havta drive 20 miles on this route n then we’ll see boards for sacramento/reno. ‘

Thank God I was right ~phew~ . We reached Sacramento & had to make a quick stop to eat something. Since we were running out of time, i had to pump up the accelarator, thought we’d reach reno in an hour so that we can be at the ski resort for the 10′o clock class. But that went all in vain when we entered Nevada .. we were stuck in the traffic for 4 hrs.. The traffic finally got cleared &

What is the worlds deadliest job? Is it fire fighting those deadly forest fires and homes ? Is it highway patrol? Is it hunting in Africa? Is it cleaning the mosaic of a sky scraper or radio towers on top? Is it owning a fortune making business in latin america with the potential to get kidnapped and killed? It is drug dealing? or is it preaching gospel in the third world ?

If you saw the stream of discovery episodes on Thanksgiving atleast for a few minutes, you know the answer by now! Apparently, it is Alaskan crab fishing !!

More than once, I found myself sitting at work and wondering what could be more demanding than this while I knew I could not be more wrong!

Alaskan crab legs are a delicacy known throughout the world. Few people know, however, that an year’s worth of Alaskan crab supply for the world is caught in a week’s span. The location is the freezing deep sea waters of bering sea (between Alaskan islands and russian peninsula). Its winter time. Temperatures are below freezing. Its time to catch the King crab and rake in $5 per pound!! crab fishing teams are getting ready to sail into the fishing grounds some 100 miles east of King cove, AK!!

They know that if the 19-40 foot rogue waves of the sea did not sweep them off the boats and hypothermia did not kill them in less than 2 minutes, they are 100% likely to suffer injuries while handling one of the 800-pound steel cages called crab pots that they use to trap crab! Oh, and medication is not far away…they will get medical help once they get back to the shores which is not before the hunt ends!!

Still, the bounty is big enough to entice a hand few fishermen every year to try their luck in this risky proposition! Nearly one man (out of the hand-few on those boats) dies every week but those 5-days of work at sea could be worth upto 10-20 grand per deck hand!

Its kind of disheartening for these adventure lovers that the ration system will kick in from next season. So, every boat gets a pre-fixed piece of the pie, thereby reducing the risk that these people tend to take to grab as much as they could.

Next time I get my work jitters, I can take respite in the fact I am not an Alaskan crab fisherman who spends that week of deadly winter in Alaska on one of those boats that rake in 2 million pounds of Alaskan crab in a week’s span.

Rise and shine campers!
Day’s weather forecast.. cloudy and scattered showeres !?! but we were lucky though.. it was a very bright sunny day.

We all got up around 8 a.m and made a plan to go to St.Helen’s mountain which is near the border of Washington and Oregon . It was a 4 hr journey from Bothell to Mount St. Helen’s. We were all set and then our car gave a problem.. the battery was down. We later realised that the previous night we forgot to switch-off the headlights, so we had to give a jump start to the car.
Phew !
Finally we hit the road.. had some snacks.. played anthakshari..
The game rules:
1.if you dont sing a song in 2 mins ;you are out of the game
2. no teaming; which bhabhi and me wanted to pair up, but then bro and uday didn’t want to do that, they said ‘its no fun’.
They finally made us agree ! Frist, it was Uday, he started off with a telugu song.. and then it was my turn.. lol! my mind was blank.. well thats not true.. i didn’t wanna sing thought i would escape slowly.. but they were too clever.. made me sing some song. We were singing and singing.. after few rounds..it was my turn again.. i’ve been getting the same letter and this time too i got the same letter .. seriously I was out of songs ( was not escaping this time)! 2 mins were over and i was out of the game
They continued singing while I was busy taking pictures .. The drive was just amazing with valley’s, lakes and lush green trees. The valleys were astonishing !
Here are a sample snaps which I took on the way to Mount St. Helens :

After a 4 hrs of driving we reached Mount St.helen’s visitor center.

Wow! amazing, astonishing.. these were the words i started using.. You must be wondering what’s all about St. Helen’s… well its a volcanic mountain ‘an active volcanic mountain’ to be more precise. I was thrilled to see an active volcano never ever I saw a vlocanic mountain that close.. I could even see the smoke coming out. We took a couple of pictures of the mountain..the national volcanic monument center had a 30 min show describing the events of 1980 volcanic erruption of Mount St. Helen’s ..here are some picture :

So, we stayed there for an hr . and drove back to home.. we were all tired.. and dropped the idea of shopping in portland.. I slept for a while and .. was I snoring ? yea I was . lol! None of us had the energy to go home and cook something and decided to go to the Udipi restaurent… but later we ditched that for the Mexican restaurent which is know for its salsa and chips. At the end we all were full, couldn’t stuff more.. we decided to pack it and take home.

We reached home and all of us were sitting and chatting… Uday was the first person to crash.. ‘coz he was the one who has been driving all day and needed a good night sleep… me , bhabhi n bro were still tallking … talking about meditation and reiki ..some seriuos stuff .Then i started explaining them what is Reiki.. how it is useful in life.. and was giving reiki healing to my bhabhi n bro.. was telling my experiences about reiki… never knew time would fly fast.. it was 2:00 a.m ! No wonder they say ” Sleepless In Seattle .” Some how you dont sleep early when you are in seattle.

And finally we hit the bed, but my bro had to go to the office as he had some work to finish… and I slept like a log.

A beautiful state with lush green trees and during the fall season the Washington State looks all the more beatuiful and colourful ! no wonder they call as ;The Evergreen state’

The next morning was an early morning..a bright sun-shiny morning! the only sun-shiny morning that we saw in seattle !!

We had to rush to the Canadian embassy and beat the rush-hour traffic from Bothell to the city. So, we started with my brother early in the morning. On the way, we ran into a few weary Friday morning commuters on the 156th avenue in Redmond, the home of Microsoft.

We reached the embassy sharp at 9 am. To our surprise, there was already a truck load of people waiting for their turn and none of them had appointments! So, we waited our turn. It was refreshingly different in the sense that people were allowed to bring in their electronic equipment, cell phones and even laptops into the embassy! We went in their with a small folder of paperwork and had just each other to pass time with.

Three hours and a couple of visits to the nearby starbucks & an ATM (embassy wanted exact cash) later, we were finally granted the canadian visa!! By the time we got out, the only thing we could think of was a good noon-time nap! So, after a quick trip around the downtown we started heading back to Bothell .

It was around 1:00 p.m in the afternoon, people around me started starring at me.. I didn’t understand for a while and then I said to Uday ‘ I don’t know why but people are starring at me.’ So I asked him, ‘ do my eyes look red?? sleepy??’ He then replied ‘ Yes, they are !’ .. and I really was feeling sleepy.. infact we both were feeling sleepy.. We had some more coffee on th way.. thought i might feel refreshed and wont feel sleepy. But it proved wrong, I was feeling even more sleepy, as if I took a sleeping pill. I was totally confused, coffee makes you refresh.. not sleepy ! While we were driving back to home , we had a debate about ‘coffee making you refresh and not sleepy.’ Anyways, we were near home and made 2 quick stops, one at Quzinoz sandwich store and other at the chinese reataurent.. I ordered a sandwich and he ordered a spicy chicken, both to-go. Went home.. had our lunch and off to sleep.

We woke up to a call from my brother inquiring about our visa. To our big surprise, we found it was evening already! Could not believe our plans to go visit a few places around that noon got swept over by our siesta time!

Evening came, we picked up our brother and finally had some good evening chit chat. A few hours later we landed in Tulalip, an Indian casino close to a reservation area and had some fun time there. A few hours and a few lost rounds later, we came home and crashed. we were determined to make the most of Sunday, the next day.

Thats the Tulalips Casino

20th October :

I was so excited to visit Seattle and so, I started packing our luggage bags 4 days ahead ( yea that sounds silly ).. counting every day … when would 20th arrive. And at last! the day arrived.

We decided to drive down to the san jose airport and park our car in the long term parking. It was thursday evening, we started early so that we could reach the airport within time(cannot trust the trafic jams in california)… but we were quite early. Our flight was at 8:06 p.m .. n we checked in at 6:00… 2 solid hrs.. n didn’t know what to do… went around.. n luckly there was a restaurant and while we were having our dinner , the flight attendant announced that the our flight was delayed for 45 mins .. we just looked at each other faces..Great! now what do we do? How about a game of tic-tac-toe! .. finally our flight arrived at 8 : 50(glad it finally arrived!).. we called our cousin to let him know that we were starting.. we checked in.. grabbed our respective seats.. ah! what a relief .. It was a 2 hr journey and we had lotssa fun solving a crossword puzzle from the in-flight magazines through out.

Finally! we reached the Seattle airport.. picked up our bags and we came out waiting for our cousin and his wife to pick us up. It was great to meet my brother and bhabhi after a gap of 3 years!! we kept them awake till 2 in the night with our banter !! felt like good ol’ times !

I was browsing the TV today afternoon and saw this serial called “Laguna Beach” on VH1( i think).. I was wondering what’s so much hype about this Beach. And so I started surfing the net to understand what the speciality of Laguna Beach is!

It is located in Orange County, one of the rich counties in Los Angeles,California.
Questions arose .. ..and I found the answers!!
Here you go..

# why did they name it Laguna?
During the early times, the Indians (the red indians or native americans as they call now) thrived on rich coastal lands and used to call lagonas , for lake
By 1980, the Laguna Beach was a major attraction spot.. people started coming to Laguna for their summer vacations.

# So why is it so popular??
The city of Laguna beach has almost 20 parks..that includes tennis courts, basketball and volleyball courts, vista points(natural scenic beauty), laguna museum, the first hotel built (”Hotel Laguna”) and many more.

The Laguna coastline is over 6 miles and has 30 public beaches .

There are many major attractions at laguna beach… that includes Tidepools, Museums, Marine Parks, then you have the Wilderness Parks…

What I have mentioned here is just the preview of the attractions at Laguna Beach. I suggest you visit the Laguna Beach during the long weekend or during the holidays because there are a lots n lots of attractions which you really dont want to miss at any cost.

Oh! here are the most exciting attractions.. which you wont regret :
>Dolphin n Whale Safari
> Trail Hiking/ Trail Running / Mountain Biking .. .. my all time fav.
>Kayak Tours
> .. for all those who like surfing and want to learn.. then soul surfing school is the best.. they teach you right from the basics. Soul surfing..
> Whale Watching ..The best time for whale watching is during Dec-Apr.. .. its ideal to make reservations.. ..there is a trip for every 2 hrs daily.
> For all those who love to taste different types of wine Wine lovers!!
> Ladies!! want to pamper yourself get ready then!
.. ..totally for skin n body care
.. .. surf n sand.. this Spa features nourishing therapies inspired by the unique natural essences of its oceanfront location.
> then there is aLaguna Beach tour .. .. you can visit the spectacular parks, Balboa Island, New Port Beach.. and many other
>hmm .. .. Surface Jet tours they have special events. so make reservations.
> If you are fond of Art, then they have the Art festival.. which includes
* Fine Art exhibition which is open from July through September
* Garden of Eden It is voted as one of the top three art festivals in the nation by readers of American Style Magazine.

For all the History lovers [ I like to some extent ] there are a couple of Museums which you can visit.

WOW!! that’s a BIG list of attractions at Laguna Beach.. .. I bet you cannot finish all these attractions in just one day!!!

To visit all these attractions, you need to have a accomodation…right? thats so important.

Alright, the Laguna Beach has a lot of guest cottages, which is located 2 blocks away from the beach. If you are willing to spend some more money thenCarriage house is considered as the No.1 Cottage with Breakfast served, which is quite expensive.

I made a quick search on the net for other hotels at reasonable price.. .. but to my surprise, the price of one night stay ranges from $50 to all over $200 n above.

I found out one Hotel, Vacation Village, a 3.5 star hotel and the average price for one night stay is from $66- $246, not bad!

The day dosent feel good without a good dinner!
Forest avenue is talked about as one of the best restaurants in the area! The dishes look Yummy.. .. !!

Oh! thats shrimp scampi..at forest avenue

I’m now thinking, this would be my next vacation spot Uday are you ready?!

Cant miss it, its got a lot of attractions.

One fine weekend, me and my husband decided to go to Los Angeles( a sudden thought) ,pamper ourselves and have some fun. We thought we’d leave on friday evening..but you know… we were jus lazy n tired and thought we’d cancel the trip.While going to bed we thought ..alyite lets just go[we didn’t even plan, just decided to go..lol :)]The next day morning we got up @ 8:00 am and we were surfing on the net where to rent a car..
Finally!! we found that the Enterprise rent a car was close by to our place.. we both rushed to the store[ started @ 11:30 to pick up the car..lol!! we were damn tensed..what if the store is closed since it was sat..and the timings were 9:00 am to 12 noon ].. but we were lucky enough*phew*.. filled all the papers took the car n drove back to our home.. Ah! now starts the fun part .. we packed our stuff , got the directions to LA Universal Studio and…that’s it!! we were out on the road.

Initially the journey was boring.. i was feeling damn sleepy *yawns* , but i started taking some pictures on the way. here are a few:

ye ye ..all the mountains n stuff.

umm..so where was I.. oh yea .. i remember.. we drove n drove n*phew* …so we stayed @ a motel for the night ..few miles away from LA.. had some nice food ..*yummy!?!* the next morning we got ready n we reached LA!!! *vooohooooo* lolz there was a small problem…well.. we took the right exit.. after taking the exit, we had to turn left ..but we turned right… we drove n drove n finally we ckecked the map n realised that we were going in the wrong direction. Made a U-turn ..n we finally made it to the Universal Studio.

And the fun begins!! ..took the tickets.. entered inside( damn! I forgot to take a picture with Mr. Charlie Chaplin) n the first thing we did was—— looking @ the map :D.. we were confused which one to see first.. I wanted to check the ‘Shrek 3D’ n Uday ( mah hubby) wanted to see somethin else. hmmm..then we decided to check the Van Helsing thing ‘coz it was right in front of us… it was damn COOL!! n scary too ..

we went in .. I was looking at the structure, how they designed the whole theme.. and all of a sudden i screamed( well not too loud)——-Y?——- there was this guy with all the scary costumes put on was standing right beside me.. I didn’t even notice until i turned towards him …My heartbeat stopped of a sec… n later I started laughing @ myself as to how stupid I was.

I was speaking to mahself.. when the hell would I get out from here :D. Oh!! n there was this small tunnel.. where u have to pass through it.. we u might be thinking Big Deal!! well it was rotating… lolz!! the side wall keeps rotatin n u feel as if u r gonna fall…
Finally!! we were @ the end.. there was a couple in front of us..they had to go…but *augh* they started shoutin —-Y?—— there was a bear to the right.. it keeps coming on U( well not a real bear..lol!!) …Uff they litterally took 5-8 mins to pass that… then was our turn..we were kewl.. just passed it(how??… we bent down n left;) kewl isn’t it)

Ah!! Mah fav movie stars!! Shrek n Fiona

Next was the Shrek 4D film… was super COOL!!! we had to put on the 4D glasses..n sit in a chair which moves back n forth.. was riding with shrek n donkey..Ah!! how can i forget Donkey(Are we there Yet!!! :)) @ one scene there were all spiders.. :)) I felt as if i those spiders were all over me ..n suddenly i felt that spider crawled near my foot.. :o.. but at the end of the show i figured it out that there was a small wire…. on the whole the show was awesome( a 30 min show)..

Our next stop was at the ‘Jurrasic Park’.. we waited for a full 1 hr to get into the rides n see whats in there??? thoughts started pourin in * is this gonna be same like the Van Helsing or is it gonna be a scary ride with all the ups n downs!?!*.. as I was thinkin it was our turn to get into the small boat!?! (total of 10-15 ppl in one boat) but to my surpirse it wasn’t ..pleasant.. enjoyed the whole thing until the end of the ride came.. I have no words to put…check @ the pic… I;m sure ur gonna burst out laughing

did u find where I am??? if not take a second look

lolz :D.. I thought i was gonna fall down..n closed mah eyes..the fun part was when we got down the man gave uday a small receipt where we can collect our pictures….i was just seeing @ the pictures…and i see myself there…i couldn’t control laughing at mah own picture.. (was laughin all the way) i didnt knew that there was a camera there.

Well that was the jurrasic park ride :Dlol! “what I thought it would be ..n how it tunred out to be”

we took abreak..had mexican food… salsa chips n burrito. Right across was the fear factor thing..i was very excited..whats it gonna be like… but i didn’t want to go..’coz that reminded me of the fear factor series on TV. *tsk tsk*.. we really wanted to see the major ones like waterworld and the universal studio tour n other stuff.

So we chose to go for the Tour.. the guide was showing few sets …the old mexico city set, the jaws movie set etc etc., It was very nice.. well I’m not gonna post all the pictures here..but you can sure check them out in the ‘pics n video’ channels

uff… we thought that we would finish all the rides in just 3 hrs!!!! n go to the disney land ..lolz..that was so stupid to think

I was so tired …i just wanted to go n sleep.. but one more was left to our list : Waterworld
*ahem* what to say ..too good!?! ye it was awesome.. a 30 min show.. all the actors (who once acted in some movies) i wanted to sit in the wet zone.. but uday didn’t wanted to .. i just wanted to walk out ..coz it was damn sunny) … not doubts ..The show was just too good! omg!!

after that i rushed and had ice-cream.. ah! i felt much much betta .. I said to uday..now lets just go home ..I’m done.. I’m tired.. lol! even he was tired!! but we decided to atleast see where the disney land is and the UCLA… we ditched that for another a sudden thought..how about malibu?? ….. just kept on driving.. and suddenly another sudden & stupid thought..”how about we go to San Diego… the place is good…even the beaches…shall we go” , asks my sweet Uday… ‘ I was questioning myself- is he not tired…San Diego!?! ‘ lol

then I looked into the Map n then said well Its too Far!! You have to go to the office tomorrow!!

“Yea” - he said
“then lets go home” -me

so we decided to go back home after visiting malibu on the route 10 and go back on the Pacific Highway 1 (thats where we made a stop @ the Malibu beach). Had a good time there..lovely beach and a nice scenic drive!

Then we took the highway 27(principal highway> jus looked it up in tha map ;)) n then merged onto 101 n( i was sleeping*zzzzzzzz*..) again take the route 405 ..*phew* …. and then merge onto route 5 ….*phew*

grrrr…. finally we were on 5 north driving back home.. and then I drove the car for a couple of hrs … had dinner@ ihop… I did not like the food at all… i mean its good…but the prices..nah! ..too high for my pan cake and cheese omelette :)).

And we reached home safely @ around 1:00 in the night

hmmm…thats the whole story..’our trip to LA. …
no doubt you must be Yawning like me *yawns* *tsk tsk* ..if you did not, please leave some comments on what we missed