Celebrating 8th Anniversary

EIGHT. Now that is a very good number for a lot of reasons. But the reason for celebrating it this time is - Its been 8 years since I headed out to the US of A looking to make a name of my own, to finish higher education, get a Masters degree, find a job and get settled down in life.

Though the first few years were kind of rocky, dont even want to recollect those days, life's finally taken the high road to success. 8 years later on this day I do have a sense of accomplishment in whatever I talk about or do. I have a lovely wife, a good job, beautiful home, family members all settled and happy. Cant be asking for more in 8 years.

But before I close, thank you God for making sure this happened and thanks for all the good stuff you have in store for me. And now the closing note, thanks everyone and special thanks to the special people for standing by me through thick and thin and making sure I got to where I am today :).

Sequim Lavender Festival

Sequim, the town in the midst of the Olympic Peninsula with hardly any rain. Yeah. You heard that right. Sequim pronounced as Skwim is on the other side or the right side as some might say, of the Olympics and given its geographic positioning gets just a few leftover showers from the mighty clouds that soak the rest of the peninsula. Sequim's annual rainfall is about 16 inches, that is less than half the average of the nearby Puget Sound area. Sequim is the city with about 300 days of sunshine and a refuge for folks who want to escape the ever pouring rain.

Now all the above sounds very entincing, so we decided to check out the place and its lavender festival. Because of the uniqueness in its climate, Sequim has a lush growth of lavender and it is well known for its lavender farms.

Every year in the month of July, these farms open up for visitors. There are tours and fairs organized by the local farms with buses transporting folks between the farms. The festival runs the entire weekend and is a must see, must experience. The entry fee for this weekend is 15$ a person and is money well spent. Although any other weekend would be a free visit to the farm the experience is not the same.

Another Sequim surprise worth mentioning is one of the local chinese restaurants, The Fortune Star. We read reviews that its one of the best and the reviewer couldnt believe the best chinese would be in this tiny town far away from the Greater Seattle area. The place did hold its reputation and yes the food was awesome. So do check out the restaurant as well.

For more info on the Lavender festival visit the official Sequim Lavender Festival site at http://www.lavenderfestival.com/

Wallace Falls State Park, Gold Bar, WA

Wallace Falls Trail hike has got to be the best hike I have done to date. There are only a fewer better trails within such easy reach of the Puget Sound region. Wallace Falls is one of the best falls in the Cascades with about 9 drops of atleast 50 feet. The biggest of them all is about 250 ft and is visible from US highway 2.

The trailhead is in the city of Goldbar which is on US-2. There are clear directions from US-2 to access this trailhead. The trail head has enough parking but is always full given the amount of traffic this trail gets all round the year. There are two ways of reaching the falls via the trail. One is the woody trail which is of moderate difficulty and is about 1.5 miles while the other is of railroad grade and adds about a mile to the woody trail. Both are accessible from the trail head.


The trail head is directly under Puget Sound Energy (PSE) power lines. Once we get past the cackling noise of these lines, we reach the split for the two trails. These two meet again at the lower falls. The lower falls has a nice lunch spot for family hikers who usually bring a picnic basket upto the falls and spend time with their family. The middle falls is another half mile and the upper falls adds up another .4 miles. The hike from lower to middle falls is of moderate difficulty and not suitable for amateur hikers or beginners.
The trail is not accessible to bikers, although the railroad grade trail leads the bikers to a different spot altogether.
The falls and the trail are open all round the year and a must see/hike for all enthusiasts.

Twin falls trail, Snoqualmie, WA

Twin falls trail is the trail that leads to the Twin Fall waterfall on the South fork of the Snoqualmie River (Sno), in the Twin Falls/Olallie State Park. The fastest way to reach the trail head is to get off at exit 34 on I-90. Although the route I took and would recommend is via WA202 which leads through the beautiful Snoqualmie Falls if you are driving from Redmond, WA.

This tree was so huge, I could actually walk through that tree trunk

This was taken on the way to the Falls. The Trail head itself is very picturesque and mention worthy. Not all trail heads look this gorgeous. The trail is at a moderate level of difficulty with steep hikes and narrow paths leading up to the falls. The trail is quite a hike and not recommended for first timers. Rated as easy to moderate, the trail goes a total of 2.6 miles round trip with a nice family friendly walk.

Looking forward to Wallace Falls next week.