Tulip Town

Hope you had a fun time reading parts one, two and three about my trip to San Juan. I now present to you the fourth part. May I also add that it is the final part? Tsk, tsk, I thought you folks would have kept the volume of the sighs of relief a little less audible *sniff*! Anyways, based on my prior experience, I expect this post to be the longest of the lot. So, if you are planning to read it (and I really hope you do), please do sit comfortably and have snacks and drinks handy ;-).

That night, the allocation of sleeping spots was done. A and S got the spots on the bed near the heater. The rest of us plopped on mattresses on the floor. It was pretty warm and comfy when I went to sleep. How I had underestimated the chilly San Juan weather became apparent when I woke up shivering in the middle of the night. The heater for me, for all practical purposes, was non-existent. The thin blanket I had covered myself with was also almost non-existent along with the heater. I groped in the dark for my jacket and couldn't find it. Now what?

Well, misery loves company. So I shook C (who was sleeping next to me) awake and told her that I was feeling cold. C made some empathizing noises. Then she said, "You know what, you could ...." and paused. It is a sign of how tired I was that I actually hoped that C wouldn't finish her statement - so I could go back to sleep pronto. And it was a sign of how tired C was, that she never finished that statement and went back to sleep instead!

After that, other than C getting up sometime past midnight to don her gloves, socks, muffler and sweater before going back to sleep, nothing more of interest happened that night!

The next morning, all of us were ready in record time again (boy, we were getting good at this). Breakfast was provided by the hotel. The guys in our gang were already seated at the home-style dining room and were digging into the delicious home-made fare by the time we girls arrived. We stuffed ourselves very well with the coffee/tea/orange juice, cereals, fritatta/pancakes, fruit salad and rice pudding. Then it was time to park our car at the ferry dock.

Once that was done, we had free time till the ferry actually left. J and A went to church while the rest of us roamed around the San Juan downtown. Unfortunately, San Juan being a lazy, recreational spot and all, not too many stores were open that early. So we just wandered around browsing in the few shops that were open (we finally got to smell lavender at a store which specialized entirely in lavender-based products - including lavender cookies!). Then the group again split with R and C heading off to another church. The rest of us girls, with P in tow, went to many, many stores trying out accesories - poor P must have been bored out of his wits. But we girls had a very nice time :-)!

After some two hours, we had to get back to board the ferry. The one and half hour journey back to Anacortes was uneventful. Most of us slept well, charging up batteries for the rest of the day. After arriving at Anacortes, it was time for lunch (food, again? Oh well, now you know where our priorites lay ;-)). We had decent food, well, at least decent-portion-sized food at a Chinese restaurant and went onto Deception pass.

Deception pass, which J for some reason insisted on referring to as Desolation point (!?!), had extremely scenic views (but by now I had come to expect nothing less from this place!). We stopped at a couple of vista points and admired the spectacular scenery. The day was very fine - the sun shining merrily, the winds carrying a gentle breeze and the temperature just right. We also stopped over at the North Beach and did a small hike around the place. Some of the more adventurous folks among us climbed down the rocks there.

It was a lovely spot for simply hanging around!

But then we had to hurry on if we wanted to spend some time at the Tulip fields before I had to get back to Seattle to get my flight back home. Some of people in the group had already seen the tulip farms in the previous years and were not too keen on seeing it again. But of course, me, who has never seen it, did not so easily give up and threw a tantrum and nagged till everyone agreed to see it again ;-).

After a couple of phone calls for directions, we managed to find our way to Skagit where Tulip Town was located. Even as we parked our car, I could see a wonderful carpet of color in the distance. As we walked closer, I could make out the rows of tulips. It looked extremely beautiful. Remember the Anniyan song "kumari"? It was like being in the song! I went crazy and clicked picture after picture!




We also took plenty of pics of us with the flowers too :-D! After an hour of admiration, it was getting late and we started walking back to the car. The sun shone strongly behind us. That's when all of us tried our hand at making shadow animals on the ground! J had the brilliant idea of taking a pic of the shadows which you can see below. Can you guess what animals we were trying to depict?

All of us girls stopped in between to buy freshly cut tulips from the exhibhition there. It was around 5.15p then - I had to be in the airport ideally by 7.10p to make it for my 8.10p flight. S, A and C were coming to the airport to see me off. So I waved goodbye to P, J, R and D and then we were off.

Of course, in an ideal world with ideal traffic conditions, it would have taken us two hours to get to Seattle. But being in the real world, as soon as we exited the tulip farm, we got stuck in an enormous traffic jam and our car was simply crawling along. After 45 minutes, we had not even reached the major freeway which was supposed to take us to Seattle.

It looked as though we were going to be cutting it real close. C was hyperventilating on behalf of all of us and I was mentally running over all the options I had if I missed the flight. Mercifully, thanks to S's skillful driving, we manged to make up for the lost time once we hit the highway. And by 7.20p I was deposited outside the airport. After quick farewells, I checked in and managed to make it to my gate by 7.50p (darn, Seattle airport is kinda big - but for all its size I could only find an extremely leafy salad for dinner :-().

And then it was back home. And then back to mundane worklife on Monday. And all I had as tangible memories was the pretty bunch of tulips and the pile of dirty laundry that I had brought back!

I had an awesome time on the trip and enjoyed myself a lot. It was a wonderful change from the normal routine. I was charged up for the whole week after that (of course, the euphoric effects have begun wearing off now). And once again, I reiterate: Going on a fun-trip with friends is one of the pleasantest experiences ever! This trip too receives a five star rating from me :-)!

Finis.

Photo credits: The first pic on this post, the group snap of all of us on the beach and the photo of the shadow-animals were taken by J. The picture of Mt. Rainier as seen from the freeway is by A. The rest are by yours truly!

Dusk at San Juan

After parts one and two, it is time for part three of the San Juan story. I thought I should put it all down before my memory starts to fade. As I pointed out earlier, memory-fading seems to be happening faster these days than before. Sigh, old age! But I will save that rant for another day.

So we all came back from the kayaking trip, somewhat tired but still going very strong. The next stop was the bed and breakfast place where P had booked us all for the night. We had rented two cottages - a bigger one for the girls and a smaller one (but it DID have what A called a princess bed) for the guys. The hotel was very quaint and pretty and was run by a family who lent a very home-like atmosphere to the place. There were lots of lovely flowers surrounding the cottages - tulips, in particular, abounded. Ah, I love the tulip season!

We all freshened up a bit before the next round of sightseeing. Even as we were getting ready to step out, the hotel landlady delivered a plateful of home-baked cookies - yummm :-)! To get our batteries recharged, stop one was at a coffeehouse. Most of us got some version of coffee or hot chocolate. J and A opted for scoops of icecream instead. All spruced up, were were ready to begin leg two.

This time round, S, M, C and P went in one car and A, J, R and me went in the other. Now, whenever A and me (it usually includes S too but in this case, unfortunately, she was driving the other car and hence couldn't contribue) are put in the backseat of any car, it generally implies lots of fun for us and lots of trouble for the other occupants. So both of us happily sat in the backseat pulling R's leg, offering lots of valuable suggestions, demanding that the songs be changed, chattering non-stop etc. etc. In short, we were having a gala time. I am not so sure about J and R though ;-)!

First stop on the sightseeing itinerary was at the Roche Harbor. I still haven't figured out what exactly we were supposed to have seen there. All the locals recommended it highly as a sightseeing place - we arrived there and did find a lovely view of the harbor but nothing much else. So after taking the mandatory snaps, we were proceeding to the next stop when we saw directions to a "sculpture museum". We got mighty excited - this we had to see! As we drove down down the slopes towards the museum, we saw some twisted pieces of metal in what seemed to a fenced wasteland. Our worst fears were confirmed when we saw the notice that the wasteland was indeed the museum. We did not even slow down and proceeded directly to the next stop - English camp!

English camp was another of the pretty, thickly tree-filled places (of course, with local "history" to boot) that most American tourist spots seem to abound in. But the difference was that we could see one more spectacular view of the lake (or was it backwaters?). We went for a short hike around the kutti hill in that spot. And of course, took some more snaps.

Then it was off to the lavender fields. P was the one who had been campaigning real hard to visit it. "The lavender field smell so awesome dudes! You guys should not miss it." had been P's battle-cry from the beginning of our trip. So we followed the directions to the lavender fields and arrived at what seemed to be a garden filled with rows of green bushes. We thought it was the lavender garden. But according to P's description, the whole place should have been smelling of lavender. Or at least the bushes should have had violet colored flowers. We could spot nothing. Both A and me went one step further and actually smelt a few bushes. But nopes - no smell, zilch, nothing!

Then the other car with S, M, C and P arrived. We asked P where the lavender fields were. He sheepishly said that these were the lavender fields. You can imagine how big a competition the rest of us must have had to see who could kick P first! We found out only later that it was not the lavender season and that's why we could see nothing!

From the so called lavender fields, we had to hurry to the Lime Kiln point - apparently the sunset from there was spectacular. Here is where I should mention something about our car's navigator R. From the beginning, all of us had noticed that R's navigational skills, which, contrary to his protestations, were barely adequate. However, R bravely took on the mantle to chart our course back to Lime Kiln point and pored over the map on his lap. Then in a questioning voice asked, "Does the sun set in the west? So where is Lime Kiln point on this map?" This was followed by a series of equally profound questions. Needless to say A and me were rolling in the backseat with laughter and J had to make quite some effort to concentrate on his driving. Mercifully we had already passed Lime Kiln point on our way to the lavender fields. So all we had to do was retrace our path and not depend on the R's logical thinking!

When we arrived at the Lime Kiln point, the sun was just making its way downwards, casting a beautiful orange-red glow on the landscape. We had to hike a short distance to the cliffs near the ocean to get to a vantage point. The view of the sun setting behind the mountains, with the ocean in the front was simply spectacular. All of us watched, spellbound.

After that cool show from mother nature, it was time to head back to the town. It was around 8.30p when we reached - our hotel landlord had told warned us earlier that most restaurants closed early in San Juan. However, there was one restaurant called Steps which was open till later. Steps happened to be close to our hotel too. Ah, how convenient, we all thought.

However, once we got to the restaurant, the dinner menu posted outside put several of our predominantly vegetarian group-members off. But there was no other option and all of us were ravenous and at that point were willing to gobble up anything edible. So we ordered the food. After a not-so-short wait, (during which all of us mainly spoke of food), the food finally started arriving. A looked at the rather small plate placed in front of S and asked S if she didn't think the portion was rather too small. S confidently replied that it was the side-dish - when another plate, even smaller than the first one appeared. That was the side-dish.

You can imagine our sad plight. All the miniscule food portions were gone before anyone could blink their eyes. And we were all MORE hungry than we had been before dinner started. We were too hungry to even laugh too much at our fate. That was when somebody remembered the peanut butter and bread. Yeah, the same peanut butter and bread which all of us had disdainfully disregarded earlier that day.

The moment we reached the hotel, there was virtually a stampede (amongst most of the girls) for the peanut butter and the bread. We all had at least a slice each and complemented it with oranges and potato chips. After that, everybody was too tired to do anything much other than just go to bed. The guys retired to their cottage while the girls started deciding how to divide the available sleeping places on the futon, the bed and the folding cot amongst themselves.

Phew! This post is much longer than the other two. Looks like the post sizes are growing exponentially. And I am not even done yet :-O! Please to bear with me!

p.s. If there is popular demand, I will do another chart depicting the increase in the number of words per post ;-)!

Row, row, row your kayak

Many of my discerning readers seemed to be under the impression that the previous post was the only post about my San Juan trip. Ha! I don't let people get away quite so easily when I get into one of my rambles. And the San Juan story is definitely a ramble. So, not to worry - there are plenty more where the first one came from ;-)! Here goes part two!

Once we landed in San Juan, we quickly found places to park our cars. One of the things to do on our agenda was sea-kayaking. San Juan being an island and everything, sea-kayaking is very popular there. We went into the first place we spotted which advertised sea-kayaking. After a brief chat with the proprietor, we all decided to go for it - the total duration of the kayaking trip would be around three hours. We would be given the gear as well as the equipment. We were asked to eat lunch before we began though.

As we were not too hungry, the girls decided to eat the leftover parathas from breakfast (yup, thanks to C's idea, we had packed yummy parathas from a desi restaurant) while the guys bought lunch. Note, we also had bread and peanut butter in the car, ostensibly for breakfast. All of us refused to touch it with a barge pole even. R, who had bought the stuff, was glared at by everyone "Have you heard of jam? Why could you not have just got jam?". This piece of information is relevant in the context of future happenings. But for now, I will get back to the story. After lunch, we trooped back to the kayaking place.

We were taken to the kayaking start-point in a van. We yacked all the way - we also decided how to split into pairs for it was two people to a kayak. It was decided that the groups would be R & P, S & C, J & D and A & me. Once we landed, we were given the life-jackets and leather "skirt"s to wear. Most of us kept our original jackets on underneath the life-jackets as the wind was pretty cold. I decided to opt for the lighter jacket that the kayaking people had instead. A was perhaps the most over-dressed among us. She looked more like an eskimo than anything else (she even had her hood pulled up :-D).



Then we all sat on the kayaks on the shore and practised rowing with our paddles. I guess we must have looked pretty funny - four kayaks on solid land with eight souls sitting in them, diligently rowing! After a couple of tries, it was time to launch our kayaks into the water. I don't know how many of us knew good swimming. One thing was obvious though - in case the kayaks did capsize, the guide would have one heck of a time rescuing us all. So we all collectively prayed for a capsize-free trip (we had all ready signed what the kayak-proprietor called the "death certificate" stating that we absolved the kayak folks of all responsibility in case of injury or death :-0).



Then it was onto the water. We all started off pretty much at the same time. Then A and me noticed something - everyone else seemed to be growing tinier by the minute. We too were rowing pretty furiously - but for all intents and purposes, our kayak seemed to be standing still. What the @&#$! After a while, all the other folk (who, by now, were quite ahead of our kayak) seemed to stop. We finally caught up with them and stopped to rest, thinking that the other people were admiring some scenery. The moment we stopped, the rest of the them chorused "Don't stop, we were just waiting for you to catch up, lets go." Grrr! This happened multiple times - after which A and I decided that something was wrong with our kayak (hehehehe, convenient excuse ;-)) and besides we were there to enjoy nature and not to participate in a kayaking competition.

The kayaking was good fun though. The water was extremely clear in spots and we could see all the way upto the sea-floor. Some of the vistas we could spot around us were extremely pretty. We also spotted a bald eagle and lots of zoo-plankton. And due to the exercise and the constant presence of the sun, it was no longer chilly - it was very pleasant! That's A and me on our kayak in the pic. R and P are in the background.



After about an hour and a half or so, the two kayaks with R & P and S & C seemed to have gone off in some tangential direction. We spotted J & D's kayak somewhat near one of the shores (we were essentially kayaking around a big island). A & I pulled up beside them and we relaxed for a bit and ate energy bars while our guide went off scouting for the others. After a while, our guide returned with the other two kayaks in tow and asked us to follow him. Thus began our great U-turn saga. A & I would pull out backwards, try to turn completely, and wind up hitting the shore with a scrrruuunnnchh. And repeat the process all over again. And again. It was pretty good entertainment for J & D who were watching us - but we weren't going anywhere. Finally, we managed to pull out, by which time, of course, the other kayaks had long disappeared.

That was the last leg of our journey. A & I were again lagging behind. Our kayaking guide finally gave up on us both and towed our kayak (what an insult!) for some way after which we kayaked by ourselves to the shore. It was some 2.5 hours since we had started kayaking and we were at the end-point. We all pulled up to the shore and lined the kayaks by the beach.

All of us had got plenty of arm-exercise. Poor D was the only one who looked completely washed out though (only later, after seeing the number of movies J had made of the kayaking with his digi-cam, I kinda suspect that D did most of the kayaking on their kayak while J was busy shooting videos ;-) - and to think we girls had convinced D to go with J stating that she would then have an easy ride...!). You can see one of the views captured by J below (he, bless him, was the only one who had got his camera for the kayaking trip - all the pics on this post are from his camera).



While we waited for the pick up van, there was (what else) a lot more general chatter. Once the van came, we helped heft the kayaks onto the attached trailer. Then it was back to main area of the island and time to check into our hotel. Since I have rambled on long enough, what happened next will be the next post :-)! Adios amigos!

San Juan Ho!

My first travellogue on this blog was the one about my trip to San Diego. Now that I have tasted blood, er... tasted writing about trips, I have decided to put up further travellogues (or to put it more accurately, account of my travelling experiences with some tit-bits about the destination thrown in). This one is about my trip last weekend to Seattle. Given my tendency to ramble on and on, even though the trip lasted for exactly two days, I won't be surprised if the write-up about it spans more than one post. Here goes!

So, right after my trip to SD with A and S, they invited me over to Seattle to spend a weekend. The main attraction for me was the tulip festival which happens only once a year, in the month of April. Besides, I have a whole bunch of friends in Seattle whom I had not met in a very long time. It took very little convincing for me to book my tickets. As the days crept by, A came up with the idea that, when I visited Seattle, we could also go to San Juan (an island near Seattle) and spend sometime there.

Soon, a bunch of eight people, the guys, P, R and J and the girls, A, S, C, D and me were all set to go. The plan was to spend a night at San Juan and then visit the tulip festival and some other points of interest on the way back. Since I was the "guest", all I had to do in the trip-organizing was to arrive at the Seattle airport on the Friday night before the San Juan trip. The rest of them took care of booking the accomodation, planning the food, deciding the itinerary of places to visit, taking printout of the directions printout et al. - hehehehe!

So Friday at work was a breeze (doesn't time fly by when you are excitedly anticipating something?) and V dropped me off at the airport in the evening. The flight to Seattle with me (well-stuffed with the sandwich I ate at the airport - I always manage to over-eat before flights in the anxietly that I *might* die of starvation with just the measly pretzels they traditionally serve on the flight) on it was on time. S and A picked me up at the airport. We managed to visit some other friends and then crashed around 12.15am. We were supposed to be on the road by 6.15am the next morning, as J, who was in charge of finding details about the ferry to San Juan, reminded us in multiple emails.

The next day morning, miracle of miracles, eight people were actually good to go by 6.30am in the morning (yeah, my jaw dropped too). Two cars, four in each, and the fun had begun :-)! We had to drive up to Anacortes to board the ferry. From Anacortes, the San Juan ferries have a bunch of destinations - we were going to Friday Harbor. There was an option to take the cars on the ferry too - we chose it. We reached well before the ferry's departure time and hence had the luxury of coffee, breakfast and some souvenir-shopping before actually getting onto the boat. You can see the ferry to the left in the picture. In the background is the Olympic mountain range. The water itself is the Pacific Ocean backwaters.

The ferry journey took about an hour and a half. Oh yes, I forgot about the weather! It was bright and sunny - so much so that C decided that capris were the order of the day. C spent the rest of the morning (till she got the chance to change) cribbing about her cold shins and ankles. Darn - its so deceiving when you can see the sun and you step out in a t-shirt, only to be hit by a blast of cold wind! In Chennai, where I come from, when you see the sun, it's HOT. Guaranteed. Oh well, coming back to the story, so, in spite of the sun, it was *extremely* chilly and none of us could stand on the boat deck for more than a couple of minutes. So we all pretty much sat inside the huge, covered cabin and played games, chatted and did general timepass.

The ferry finally docked at San Juan - Friday Harbor and we rolled out in our cars. We had arrived!