One Fleeting Moment

Sunday morning...we leave at 11”o” clock again. I decide to drive. The level of enthusiasm folks have shown for driving, has finally piqued my curiosity. After a few minutes I can see why? We drive through the northern most parts of the park. This is definitely the more scenic and remote area. The snow banks are higher and the elevation gains spectacular.
And then there is that holy grail of park sightings - a bear!

Followed soon after by a moose.

We drive on to the Artist's Point to take in the iconic image of the Yellowstone as it cascades down hundreds of feet of rock.

The plan is to drive around the loop and head south into Grand Teton National Park and then take the scenic back roads all the way to Salt Lake City. The road gets bumpy soon after we leave Yellowstone. The weather turns a few shades grayer. And then right there…out of the clouds appears a vision. The Tetons…

We stop at every bend in the road. We grow silent and wonder. Yellowstone feels like a Disneyland in comparison.

Labels: Travel

A tummy full o' scrambled eggs, French toast, sausage, coffee and juice makes for some rather happy hikers.

Labels: Travel

A few hurried phone calls, some internet deal hunting and a bit of finagling for leave later, we are all set for our Memorial Day weekend trip. The Boy and I fly into Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday evening and are joined by our friend Ishan and his colleague from California. We pick up our rental vehicle (a Chrysler Apsen), spend the night at the little sister's apartment and on Friday morning head out for Yellowstone National Park.

The Aspen purrs along I-15 and Utah, Idaho, Montana go by in a six hour blur of mix CD’s and satellite radio pop. A quick stop for lunch at Bountiful, Utah and for coffee at Idaho Falls. We enter Yellowstone through the West entrance.

Three more hours of daylight remain. Stop, gawk, click pictures, stretch... and then some more before heading for the Old Faithful. Ishan the trip organiser has a very clear idea of what he needs to photograph on this trip and Old Faithful just happens to top that list.



She does not dissapoint. A gazillion pictures later we are still not satisfied. So we grab dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge, walk through what seems like a field full of geothermal oddities...all just to see her erupt once more*.

A landscape of fantastical shapes and twisted colors, the magic of Yellowstone is just about beginning to work when...

Labels: Travel

An early start with visions of toast, sunny side up eggs, coffee and the newspaper were dashed to smithereens... quite early on. No bread on the premises. Confound it. Coffee and cookies later, the day started looking up once again.  So off we went, speeding down the Beltway and up I-270 to Sugarloaf Mountain. A pleasant hike up the lonely mountain, a few moments spent listening to the wind in the treetops and a fun hike (getting lost is half the fun!!) down. And on the way back, stopping by the wayside vineyard to sample the wares (yay! MD wines) and pet the most friendly Siberian husky ever.

Labels: Travel

I am currently in the process of turning a whole bunch of drafts from 2008 into legitimate posts, so nothing much will be happening on this page for a while. Once I am done, I intend to put up a link to all the new/old posts here...for folks who don't use Google Reader.

...you can walk fearlessly into Home Depot, accost a bored sales rep and confidently enquire as to the whereabouts of a certain rubber-y washer, come back home and install said rubber-y washer into the fill valve of your disobedient toilet cistern, thereby browbeating it into submission and re-establishing your territorial supremacy - Roar!Grrrrrrr!

The plan was to watch football and eat our way through the day. And that's how, thanks to our friend Y, I watched a real football match yesterday after ages. We caught the last 60 minutes of the Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona match. Y's teenage daughter was rather heartbroken that Real Madrid lost.

That was the football bit, now onto the food. We munched on crispy flatbreads, yogurt dips and baba ghanoush during the match and gorged on couscous and fish later. And to top it all, there were Algerian pastries to be washed down with copious amounts of mint tea. Hmmm...if only all Saturday's were like this.

Labels: General Update

For the past two weeks, we have been celebrating graduations, new jobs and new beginnings.

Over in NYC, Nandan welcomed a new brother and closer home our little Ms. Rai did the same. SD is officially done with grad school and come summer Dr. SD will be headed to New England to start the next phase of his life. R will follow later. The Papaya genome guy - Dr. NN and his tree hugging wife - I are also done with Maryland. Singapore beckons them to her shores. And just like that, the Boy and I will be left with a ginormous black hole in our social calendar. No more impromptu thursday night outs... at last it is time to grow up.

And in the middle of all this, no one noticed when the front yard went bonkers and sprouted dandelions all over...ugh!!!

Labels: General Update

or not that is the question.

For starters we are just not that cool and interesting and on an average day, there aren't many tweetable thoughts that go through our mind. Besides we fear that the extra neuronal activity needed to tweet smart and witty tweets might just further tax our miniscule supply of grey matter.

On the other hand, we have to admit that we are intrigued by the prospect of tweeting. But that is not enough to convince us...yet!!

2009 looks rather promising. The Boy joined a new band.

And then he got himself a new board.