All the right ingredients!

Preparing saaru can be very interesting..

esp. if you misread tamarind as turmeric!

Zaraa haTke...

....from the usual comments/compliments I have received!

"You look like a scientist!"

Kuch Rang aur bhi hain!

Didn't want to overload the previous post. So posting a "few" more pics here. Take a peek!!

Phool Bahar ka..

"fall"en leaves :-)


Saanj Dale...Gagan tale...



On way to Snoqualmie falls, you encounter this stretch of barren land, this is because of the volcanic trail. There are active volcanoes around Seattle. Not sure, but Mt.Rainier might be one of them. [Too lazy to check it up, so don't go by this :-)]



ruth aa rahi hain..ruth jaa rahi hain..


Ek aur ho jaaye!

Is rang badalte duniya mein!

Had the most wonderful weekend with my best-est friends :-) loved every moment of it!

The beautiful colors of fall at Redmond, Seattle. Also present snaps of Mt.Rainier and Snoqualmie falls.

Microsoft Campus

Meadows at the base of Mt.Rainier

Mt.Rainier

Close-up of Mt.Rainier

Simply put- Fall

At the entrance towards the falls

Snoqualmie Falls

Lal peela :-)

Aasman Se

There was a fleet show in San Francisco on Oct6-7 as part of the Fleet week. The navy's blue-angels were the highlight of the day and judging by the huge huge huge crowd gathered, I must say the most awaited too. And boy! Were they good!!

One of my friend remarked: "They risk their lives for our entertainment". How true. One split-second hesitation/miscalculation and..I don't even wanna get to what would happen. It is scary.

Well, on a lighter note, we walked past Ghirardelli again ;-) But couldn't stop by coz of the long long queue! Had some amazing cup-cakes though, from a shop famous exclusively for them.

We went to take the SFO tour ride but..yep..the queue again!

So we went to get pictures of the crooked street :-) and to reach the street, we walked 4 blocks uphill!!! gosh.. what roads..It was a miracle that I didn't faint out of exhaustion!!! [I am def going to start going to the gym regularly again :-D]

And oh..there were a few firsts-for-me that day! [Yep, that's right, revealing only a little, which does make people curious. 2 of my friends do that to me and god, do I get irritated!!!!!! Its pay-back time!!!]

Here are some pictures of the air show and the crooked street and some flowers again! :-) Enjoy!!!!!



Topsy-turvy! The red-bull in action



Love is in the air!



Whooosh!!


Split up


The blue-angels in action


All together


The crooked street from the top


Wonder how they drive out there!


Road-kill???? :-)


Sea-lions at Pier-39!!


Pleasant ain't it??

Kuch toh hain!!

Last weekend I had a chance to visit Mystery Spot and Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. It was on a Saturday and the plan was to leave early [at around 8], which only meant my weekend sleep had to be cut short! I realized it was worth it! :-)

First things first, Mystery Spot is a place in Santa Cruz, where a strange phenomenon is noticed. Magnetic poles are reversed, and uphill seems downhill and vice-versa. For example: A water-bottle kept on a plank of wood kept at 45 degrees to the ground, rolls towards the higher end [against gravity] and rolls off the board! Neat isn't it!!

We did experience a little dizziness when we neared the mystery spot centre. And an absolute loss of balance. I, for one, could not even move one step without a firm grip on the side-rail. It was totally disorienting. Add to that, the optical illusion that comes with the leaning wooden cabin [which is built surrounding the mystery spot] and people leaning against it! Not able to picture it, then check this out.

Here are some pictures, where our guide, explained the phenomenon. First one's the rolling bottle one and the next the heavy pendulum which can be pushed easily on one side and difficult the other side.

There is also an apparent increase/decrease in height as one progress from one side of the mystery spot to another.

In this pic below, if the height difference b/w two people standing on opposite ends of the horizontal of T will be, say 1.5 ft, and then the two people exchange their positions, then the difference is, say 1 ft. And that's different right? :-)

This is some of the info I gathered from the tour. No one’s been able to exactly figure out why this happens and there are a few theories.

To get a better idea, try Google. :-) Or better still http://mysteryspot.com/.

Excerpt from the above Official Mystery spot site:

“Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself burried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.”

After a scrumptious lunch of lemon rice and curd rice, which Jayanthi had packed for us, we headed to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

This place is colorful. It has an amusement park next to the beach, complete with a Merry-go-round! :-D

The rides looked pretty scary. I totally detest roller-coasters and the sole ride I took here, reinforced it.

Some snaps of the lively boardwalk and some of the rides.

This place doesn't boast of good vegetarian food [not considering the loads of ice-cream and other junk food shops], so best option would be to pack food and go.

The ride to Santa Cruz from San Jose is very nice, reminds one of the Western Ghats. But definitely not more beautiful!

Some more snaps and post ka THE END!