A little cheer

Have not had this kind of allergies in the last ten years. Slept through the entire day. Came out feeling a lot better.

The kids came home and saw my screensaver, which had the Tulips.

Me : Do you guys like it?

Little One : Not really!

Jr. : Not really!

Me : Why? I thought it is a great shot!

Jr.: The storm clouds in the back are scary.

Me : It was taken near Seattle and it was raining when we went there. You can see the water drops on all the tulips, can't you?

LO : Now that you have photoshop, can't you make the sky brighter or something?


Me : LOL! Sure we can. Was using Photoshop to get the features in the clouds out. Now I will go remove the features and make it brighter for you..

So, the first thing after they went to bed..

Old Photo..

New Photo..

Think Seattle could use a perpetual Cloud brightening plugin on Photoshop, at least for kids who are born and raised here in Silicon Valley!


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Roosengarde Tulips

The perceptive lull in blog posts is due to three things

1. Lot of travel. In the last 21 days have visited Austin, Phoenix, Seattle. While the first two were business trips, the last one was personal. We attended the Ceremonial South Indian Baby Shower for my SIL. It was a fun event with family and friends.

2. The increased travel which translates indirectly to yoga attendance has left me with some vulnerability for hay fever and allergens. Also flights at this season must be notorious for picking up germs. No amount of Emergen-C packets prepared me for the allergy onslaught this week. Had to leave work thursday afternoon and slept through the entire evening. In a fit of determination, went and did Yoga first thing friday morning only to be sent back reeling friday night. Right now the body is on a delicate balance and have waved the white flag with the pollen around Cupertino.

3. There was a lot of photoshopping between sickness and work in the evenings over the last week. Finally got done with that.

While we were in Seattle got a chance to visit Roosengarde, a place for Tulips. We missed the fields of Tulips by 3 days. They did have a few gardens still left uncut and we were lucky enough to get some snaps. Now that my strategy for Photographing landscapes has changed with the Photoshop CS5, you can see the preliminary results ..

More to come, pollen permitting!


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Ho Rain Forest - Olympic National park

The only park where we have seen

a. snow covered forests
b. green rain forests
c. beaches
d. meadows
e. snow capped mountains
f. hurricane ridges
g. rivers
h. streams
i. Lakes
j. hot springs

etc. etc. (we have not fully gone on all roads within the park by van, so there is no talk of things not seen by foot)

is Olympic National park. Truly beautiful.

On our last trip the able adults who had any strength left (or were desperate to take photos) went on a trail into the Ho rain forest to see the Moses trees. The entire area of trees is covered in a thick green Moss and reminds you of Jurassic Park. The ferns growing everywhere give you the added effect of being in a primordial place. Truly scary and awe inspiring at the same time.

Here are five of my photographs from the Ho rainforest (taken about three weeks ago.. It feels like three months ago already!).

















Talking of going by foot vs. going by car/van or caravan, there will be a post tomorrow on the public transportation system in the US of A!


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Remlinger Farms - Day trip from Seattle

We had half a day to spend with the kids before the entire group showed up at Seattle two weeks ago and that meant a local visit to some form of amusement.

Remlinger farms was highly recommended by our friends in Seattle and off we went.










It was a really neat place with lots of rides for kids including a cute mini roller coaster... (trains, cars, mini boats)










carousels, ferris wheels, pumpkin rides...










Little displays of tribal Indian stuff (carvings, tepe's etc.), a haystack maze, a little sing along concert (which the kids really enjoyed) etc. etc.







and of course pigs, turkeys, sheep, etc. etc. The FARM ANIMALS!




That turkey was the safest for daddy (well enclosed!)

Daddy did blotch it by trying to feed the farm animals and got allergy symptoms for the last hour of the trip. On hind sight, should have just disappointed the kids when they asked me to feed the animals.

Note to family...

Superman : kryptonite :: Sundarman : pygmy goats

The grand finale for this farm trip was the pony rides. The little one went for back to back trips and even memorized the names of all the ponies there. Both kids had a really good time and the adults were happy to see them giggle with glee.




On the whole, this place is strongly recommended for a bright sunny day in Seattle!



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Remlinger Farms - Seattle

Happiness is going on a little boat with your sister and watching plastic fake duckies swim in front of you.

More on Remlinger Farms later. It was a fun place for a half day trip near Seattle. The kids and adults enjoyed it.

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Woodland Park Zoo - Photoblog

There comes a time in every mans life when he starts straying.. and gives in to temptation. You have been faithful and loyal to what you thought was a "vision to behold", the "apple of your eye" etc. etc. only to find by chance that sometimes you might just have missed out on a lot of fun.

Okay. We are not talking about my woman here, though god knows that Seattle women who come to the Woodland park zoo on a summer weekday can make you doubt your own resolve. That zoo can as well market itself as a pickup bar! As usual we digress, especially after a whole post has been dedicated to this topic already..

Now that you have guessed the names of all those animals from their butt shots, here are their portraits. But before going further, we have to clarify. The Canon digital rebel with the simple 28-80 (non image stabilized) lens is not exactly zoo material, except for low light shots.

The BIL has recently acquired a Nikon D40 with the works (body, wide angle, telephoto, tripod, etc. etc.). He had the 55-200 lens on his Nikon and in an impulsive move, I grabbed his camera to take a shot, simply because my camera couldn't zoom that nicely. Lo and behold, what a shot!

The rest of the zoo trip, would borrow his lens at every opportunity.

Love my Canon. This is not a camera limitation. If the old Tamron 18-200 lens was there, it would have done the job. There are no imminent zoo trips, so the wait for the lens will continue.


























































All shots taken with D40 except the snakes which were taken with the Canon.


Finally, our wild ones..







At the end of this trip when we were driving back, one thought kept crossing my mind. Human beings, inspite of all their flaws are the most fascinating of creatures.


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Mbuni's Mbuti's and Mbubi's all found in the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

After a tiring and exciting adventure at the Olympic National park in Washington, a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo seemed to be the best option for the kids.

We have heard a lot about this zoo but never visited in our previous trips to Seattle. This time we entered when they opened and exit when they closed the park and must have covered every alley way in the zoo map (including a visit to every restroom and snack stall!)

This was by far the best zoo trip with the kids. Seattle apparently does not get that many days with such gorgeous weather. So people flocked to the park, even on a weekday and the animals were also well behaved. Chances are they don't get to see such nice weather either!

Zoo animals usually just show their behinds to show people how they feel about being in the zoo (which they did in plenty this time also), but for once they also came close to the people, fence, glass wall etc. to give the photographers a chance!

For some reason, the many women who visited consistently reduced the % cloth cover by about 50% compared to women outside on the street. These women were more scantily clad than women in California beaches or Disneyland on Memorial day weekend. Now, that must set the bar pretty low. The shorts that some girls wore made my shorts look like pantaloons!

Needless to say, the desi family dynamic in any place where there are way too many scantily clad non-desi women who constantly feel the urge to come tell the group that the embroidered salwar kameez with mirrors and chamki's is gorgeous, gives rise to some funny moments... (most of which are blog worthy, but will not be posted because my kids read the blog).

The menfolk, who are seasoned veterans, when it came to looking at cleavage that reminds you of the grand canyon, straight on and ignoring it effortlessly were checking the other men to see if anyone flinched. I think we should start calling it a game, aptly titled "vishwamitra". The first one to stare, gets hit on the head by his wife and the entire family.

To summarize, we saw,

Mbuni's : Mbuti's : Mbubi's in the ratio of 2 : 200 : 2000

not to mention the other animals.

You can use these photos to quiz your kids. Name the animal or bird by looking at the buttshots!




















































Sorry for the couple of x-rated shots there.. Must have been one of those "love is in the air" days in Seattle, and in case you are wondering...

Mbuni = Ostrich in Swahili
Mbuti = Woman wearing a shorts/skirt where ass cheeks are visible in Sundari
Mbubi = Woman clearly displaying bra or a clear lack thereof, again in the ancient extinct language called Sundari (a close cousin of Swahili)


You get to see the faces of the animals and birds in the next post, so do check back tomorrow.



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