Cincinatti International Airport , Ohio

I had a transit thru this aiport while traveling from Seattle to Grand Rapids. Lot many Delta fights from west coast to east coast have this airport as a transit point. Airport looked almost same with other airports and without any distinctive features.

Denver International Airport, Colorado

My transit thru Denver Airport was when I was traveling from Grand Rapids , Michigan to Seattle , Washington. The airport was slightly different. It looked like the airport was built near an open space, may be a farmland. I could hardly see any big building near this airport. I could see some mountain ranges very far away from the airport, but it was scenic to see the outside nature withing the airport. The building dome was unique with a structure like lot many white tents placed close to each other.

Chicago O'Hare International Airport

My transit thru Chicago O'Hare International airport was when I was traveling from Seattle to Grand Rapids, MI. Compared to many other airports this is sligtly bigger. I didnt get much time to explore more here since my transit time was less than one hour. I could hardly find time for exploring after I had taken dinner from here.
Its modern and with all amenities which we expect. But it was crowded and it seems like the whole airport carries a good volume of passengers every year.

Space Needle , Seattle , WA

This is a must watch if you are at Seattle. This is in downtown Seattle and there are lot many parking lots nearby which come in different prices. Very nearby is Pacific Science center and Childrens museum is also nearby. Children under 3 are free and adults pay around 18 dollars.

The obeservation deck is almost 520 feet above sealevel. There is SkyCity Restaurant which is revolving deck. When the Space Needle was built in 1962 it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

some funfacts given here: http://www.spaceneedle.com/discover/funfacts.html



Visit here for more info http://www.spaceneedle.com/

Snoqualmie water falls, WA

The park and free viewing area are open from dawn until dusk. Pets are NOT allowed. The distance between the free parking lot and the viewing platform is approximately 200 feet and is wheelchair accessible. Snoqualmie Falls is one of Washington state's most popular scenic attractions. More than 1.5 million visitors come to the Falls every year.

Parking is free here.The hiking trail down to the falls is closed until 2013

Closest Address: 6501 Railroad Ave SE
GPS: 47.542932,-121.836834


more information here : http://www.snoqualmiefalls.com/

Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle , WA

This is my secong visit to Woodland Park zoo. The zoo is similar to other zoo's but one striking difference is about the greenary. The greenary is more natural and gives a soothing effect to eyes. Lucky we had a chance to see the elephants feeding since we reached there aroung the feeding time. There are some on the spot shows where an Raptors trying to catch its prey. Raptors are some of the fastest animals on the planet, with species such as peregrine falcons reaching dives approaching 140 mph!

There is a Historic carousal for children to play and we spent some time there. Then there is Humboldt penquin exihibit and an incredible underwater viewing of those penquins. There is an Australasia section where several creatures from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the thousands of islands of the South Pacific are displayed. Prominent among them are kangaroos and you can feed some parrot species.

Zoomazium is Woodland Park Zoo's nature-themed playspace especially for ages toddler through 8 years.African Savanna Exhibit consists of species from African continent like giraffes, Hippos etc.Northern Trail. Mimicking the habitat of Alaska's tundra and taiga region, the Northern Trail features the animals that make this area their home including brown bears, Roosevelt elk, river otters, arctic foxes, snowy owls, mountain goats, and northern bald eagles. Northern Trail includes the Taiga Viewing Shelter, an indoor viewing area where you see river otters swim playfully underwater and bears hunt for trout.

Whether they creep, crawl, fly (or all three!) Bug World contains a fascinating array of the often overlooked life that teems around us.The dense tropical forests of Asia hold some of the world's most endangered species including Asian elephants, orangutans, Malayan tapirs and more.There are exibhits which feature reptiles and amphibians including Komodo dragon.

Visit for more info www.zoo.org

Olympic National Park, Port Angeles , Washington

Olympic National Park is at the north-western tip of US. The whole area is scenic with its blue lakes and snow covered mountains. We approched the Olymbic mountain ranges traveling from the eastern side of mountain ranges to reach Port Angeles thru
Sequim by taking US-101.


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We approched the visitor center and gathered information about all the locations of interest. Our plan was to visit all the places possible on a single day. The whole area is so wide that some of the beaches are far away and you may end up loosing time traveling.

We started journey towards Hurricane Ridge. As we started our ascend towards the Ridge , clouds engulfed our route and the visiblity was almost zero. It was turning out to be a dangerous car drive thru the hair pin turns and twists. Both sides of road where full of tall , green , wet trees. Once we crossed the mist we could see snow covered mountains and the seen was awesome and I dont know the apt words to describe !



We came back to Port Angeles and then took the route towards to Crescent lake. The lake water was so cold and we spent time on the shores spenting time in some photography. We returned back towards Bellevue by late night and it was US Independece day and we could see fireworks all thru our route. And I started my account by opening the first traffic ticket after coming to US !

Mount Rainier National Park , Washington

We planned a journey to the Mount Rainier Scenic rail road which starts from Elbe during the morning time. The jounery is by a old steam engine which takes you towards a nearby lake. From Seattle , Tacoma , Olympia and other areas to the north, you have to follow Interstate Hwy 5 to Hwy 512 toward Puyallup. Exit 1 mile to State Highway 7 to Elbe . Approximately 40 miles directly located on Hwy 7, which is also known as Moutnain Highway. Although we reached a little early some delay was caused due to the repair work being carried on one of the rail engines.


The journey is scenic and mostly thru Forest. We could see lot many campgrounds on both sides of the route where people where enjoying their camping. One way journey is around 45 minutes and then 15 minutes stay at the lake. The whole journey is thru the foothills of Mount Rainier. After return we moved ahead to visit the Mount Rainier National Park.




It almost 30-45 minutes from Elbe and as we reach the Entrance to Mount Rainier National Park we have to pay a 15 dollar for entering the park. Once we enter the park the route is green and vivid. Dense forest surronds both sides of the route. We took our lunch from Copper creek hotel and then started our upward journey towards the Paradise point. As we travel ahead we could see lot many snow covered moutains in and around. At one point we just stopped our car and went out to stand above massive snow body we saw near the road but as we tried to stand on the edge of the snow it got crushed and we all got wet as there was stream underneath the snow.



We further went ahead to reach Paradise point by noon time. It was one of the spendid seens in a long time. There was trail one could climb covered with snow. We tried hiking the snow covered trail and eventhough it was easy climb intially as we gained the altitude things were becoming hard. So we spent time playing in the snow and then took some snaps near a snowman made by someone before we started our return journey to Seattle.

Journey across the Pacific Coast

This was one of the most exciting thrilling and tiresome journey ever I had taken. But it was worth many ways. The journey was planned from San Diego to Seattle. San Diego California is at the South-West tip of US near to the Mexico border city of Tijuana and Seattle is on the North-West tip of US, near to the Canadian city of Vancouver in British Colombia. Most of the route is straight forward without twists and turns, straight from San Diego to Seattle and one has to to catch the Interstate -5 all through the journey. But still we went into some trouble due to the GPS system errors and sometimes due to our bad decisions. But still overall it was a pleasant journey without much troubles.


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The total journey is of almost 20 hrs by car. A total distance of 1256.2 miles (2021 kms approximately)was covered in three days taking two breaks , one at Coalinga in California and another one in Portland, Oregon. This is almost like cutting US into two across the pacific coast.



We started by evening around 4 PM from San Diego and reached Los Angeles in around 2.5 hrs. As we cruised thru the I-5 on the right hand side we could see the Camp Pendalton which is a US Marine Base. On the left side you will be having the Pacific ocean shores. Across Los Angeles we had to go thru traffic rush so had to slow down. Cutting across the Los Angeles city thru the Interstate - 5 route was a hardship but we could compensate it during the journey from Los Angeles to Coalinga.
After Los Angeles its a journey thru less populated areas and some portion is thru forest area. It was dark around by the time we crossed this section but still figured out that we are surrounded by mountains. About 11 PM we reached Coalinga and stayed overnight at the hotel. We started early the next day (5.00 AM) from Coalinga.

The route from Coalinga towards Portland is scenic and beautiful. We were lucky that weather was also sunny throughout our journey. The places from Coalinga to Sacremento was having lot of herd farms. We could see many horses and Cows grazing in the meadows surrounding hilly regions. Lot of cultivations are done in this region and its very scenic to see this part of the countryside.


Most of the places are of hilly terrain and was covered with sparkling white snow. The routes were thru the snowy mountains and we saw numerous water bodies surrounding all through the region. Our GPS made wrong calculation of the route and we had to circle around the Shasta Lake region. But it was like a boon than a suffering since this gave us chance to see the beautiful mountainous region surrounding Shasta Lake We took a break just near to Portland , Oregon at Willonville.

Next day we started the journey from Portland and downtown Portland was full of cris-cross over-bridges and even God will get confused which way to take to the destination. Once we crossed the Portland part it was again scenic journey but there were no snow covered mountains. We reached Renton in 2 hrs time and we reached Redmond near the Microsoft HeadQuarters in another one hour and we stopped the journey for the day there.