Amazing Arizona

So it’s that time of the year again in Seattle when it is cold and rainy, so we decided to go to warmer parts of the country. This time we chose to do LA, the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. We first started off on a very cold morning in Seattle, it was snowing that morning but we got to the airport early and as you can see the planes were all covered in snow. After waiting for a bit for the plane to be de-iced we took off to LA. The skies turned from grey to blue and it was warm and sunny when we touched down in LA.

Los Angeles

LA is a fun place to go and has many things to do apart from the usual touristy things including having some great food places. We first went to the Santa Monica beach. We really like walking by the Santa Monica pier and looking at the beach and the people doing stunts by the play bars. A short walk from the beach there is a really cute little Thai Vegan restaurant where we stopped for lunch and headed to  Venice Beach. We spent a bit if time by the water and decided to check out this meditation temple called the Lake Shrine temple at the Pacific Palisades, recommended by one of our friends.
[Note: Some of the gifs in this post might take a few to load. Thanks for your patience.]

Santa Monica Pier

We visited the Lake shrine Temple around the evening, the temple had a nice garden were we took a short walk and headed up about 100 steps to the temple which is on a hill. The temple had a serene environment and a very big meditation hall where we meditated for some time and enjoyed the calmness in the midst of busy LA. After that we decided to head back to our hotel in the Cerritos area but the LA traffic caught up with us and it was slow moving until the hotel. Along the way we stopped back at LAX to exchange our rental car as the Chevy Captiva we rented had a very stiff ride and I couldnt imagine driving around Arizona in that thing. We got a brand new Kia Sorrento which was a nice upgrade. Once in Cerritos we decided to go for dinner at favorite place – a south Indian restaurant called the Bhimas in Artesia where we had tasty food.

Lake Shrine Temple garden

Grand Canyon

We had a very good sleep in a hotel in LA and woke up the next morning feeling very fresh but we decided to wait until lunch time because we wanted to go to our favorite north Indian restaurant again in the Artesia area called Rajdhani. If you haven’t caught the trail already – we are vegetarians and all our food recommendations are at vegan or vegetarian friendly places.

food at Rajdhani

We had a tasty lunch and then set out for our long drive towards Grand Canyon.  The drive from LA to Grand Canyon is about 6 to 8 hours depending on how fast or slow your drive and also how many times you break along the way. We decided to do it as fast as we can taking a few stops along the way for fuel. The  drive is actually quite beautiful in some places but it also gets quite boring in areas that have stretches of nothingness.  After about 6 hours we reached Williams, which is a town about an hour from the Grand Canyon’s Southern rim. We decided that this was a good place to stop for the night because the road from Williams to Grand Canyon could be icy during winter and there could be animals on the road during nighttime  making it dangerous to drive. We drove around Williams in the night – a nice little town with Christmas decorations.  There is also a train that goes from Wiiliams to Grand Canyon but we decided to do the drive. We stayed at the Ramada Williams which proved to be adequate for the night’s stay.

Grand Canyon

at the overlook by the canyon

Next day started with a small breakfast and drive to the Grand Canyon South Rim entrance. We bought the park pass valid for 7 days for $25 and went to the south rim visitor center. There we parked our car and went on the a trial that goes along the Canyon to  the Grand Canyon Village. The trial was little over 2.5 miles and had the best views of the Canyon. Since this was our first visit, we were amazed at the views and also the depths of the canyon. With clear skies and no fog we had great views of the canyon from all directions, some areas of the canyon had snow on the ground, adding to the beauty.

After lunch, we drove to the many vista points beyond the Grand Canyon Village along the southern rim. The views during sunset were beautiful.  We came back to our hotel and slept through the night. Since we didn’t make our reservations early we didn’t stay at one of the many park hotels and cabins but at Tusayan (Best Western Canyon Squire) which is about 7 miles from the south entrance to the park.

Phoenix and Scottsdale

The next it was time to head towards Phoenix and Scottsdale. We had reservations for luxury accommodations in Scottsdale at the Montelucia Resort and Spa (that I would highly recommend.) The drive to Phoenix is about  3 1/2 hrs from Grand Canyon South Rim but we decided to drive through Sedona to see the natural red rock formations. We got off I17 and took 89A to Sedona and 179 back on to the highway towards Phoenix.

Red Rocks, Sedona

at Sedona

After lunch we reached the resort in Scottsdale. The resort amenities and the room accommodations were A+ and we really enjoyed our stay.  We relaxed by the pool and got dinner at a vegan restaurant in Scottsdale (green restaurant, Tempe. ) The resort is set against the Camelback Mountain in the backdrop so the next day we decided to take a hike up Camelback Mountain. Camelback Mountain is is really nice, we took an intermediate hike which involved a bit of rock scrambling but the views were breathtaking.

Tall cactus on the trail at Camelback mountain

View from Camelback Mountain

dinner at Green Restaurant

We were back at the resort in by the pool and in the jacuzzi and during the night we cozied by one of the many open fireplaces in the resort. All in all a great time.  The next day we took advantage of the Spa, got a massage and had lunch by the pool side with a view of the camel back mountain.  In the evening the entire grounds were decked up with Christmas lights so it was very festive.

relaxing by the pool

by the fireplace at the Resort

view of the mountain

view by another pool

nice lunch

The next day was the day to get back to Seattle.We had an evening flight out of Phoenix so we had the entire morning to ourselves. We decided to look for hikes around Phoenix and found the Sun Mountain Park which has great hikes and views of Phoenix from the summit. We drove to the summit and took in the views and did a hike along the face of the mountain until we were tired. Once we were done we headed out for lunch and then to the airport in Phoenix from where we took the flight back to Seattle.

view from Sun Mountain Summit

biker Santa at Sun Mountain Park

We have never been to the Phoenix area before so it was really nice to visit Phoenix and Scottsdale this was our first time to the Grand Canyon too. We visited the canyon during winter time as there were fewer crowds and we could drive around the park in our own vehicle. Overall it was a great vacation and we  hope to do it again.

Breathtaking vistas in the Northern Cascades

Being a travel junkie is a good thing. You get to experience different scenes, cultures, meet new people and taste new food. Travel within the Seattle area is a whole new thing. Even the most lethargic couch potato can be seen hitting the mountains, trails and parks with urgency. During summer. Because summer here is only 2 months really. Really.

With us being  travel junkies + having travel junkie friends + having a sense of summer urgency in Seattle, we started on one of our visits to the Northern Cascades. In this post, I will touch upon an itinerary that covers most of the scenic views in the area. Since this is our second visit to this place we have become quite faimilar with the area. However, there is new stuff to do every visit and the place only gets more scenic with each visit!

So from I-5 take Sauk Valley Road that connects to Hwy 20. All the sights are along Hwy 20. Hwy 20 is partially closed for most of winter due to snow on the road and only opens up around May based on snow conditions. Along the way there are about 6 main places where there are definitely great sights to be had. Ofcourse, I am leaving out countless trail heads and awesome trails that take you to lakes, falls, peaks with views etc. that lie in between these places.

These are as marked on the map:

1) Ladder Creek Falls in Newhalem

2) Diablo Lake

3) Thunder knob

4) Rainy Lake

5) Mazama

6) Winthrop

Lets look at each of these places in detail.

1) Ladder Creek Falls:

About an hr and 15 mins from burlington along hwy 20 is a nice little town called Newhalem. Just before entering Newhalem you have the North Cascades visitor center where you can get information on area trails etc. Just past the town of Newhalem is Ladder Creek Falls. This is a really beautiful falls where the water flows with such intensity that it looks milky white. There is a suspension bridge that you have to cross (which is fun in itself) to get to the falls. The suspension bridge is built over the river from which hydro electric power is generated by the Gorge powerhouse.

Ladder Creek Falls

Gorge powerhouse

2) Diablo Lake:

The next stop on Hwy 20 was the Diablo Lake overlook. The overlook is past the lake so you will be able to see the emrald green lake on the way there. Watch out for signs for the overlook right after the bend in the road. The lake here is truly mesmerizing. The minerals suspended in the water give it a unique green shade and the views from the overlook are spectacular.

Panoramic view of Diablo lake

Another view of the lake

3) Thunder Knob:

Further past Diablo lake is the colonial creek campground which has the thunder knob trail. This trail is again very picturesque, it starts off with walking on wooden logs over streams and then meanders around among vegetation. It is sort of an easy hike and you can go as far as you wish (total distance 3.6 miles). You also get good views of Diablo lake from here. At the camp ground there is a launch area for boats. At the time when we went there was heavy fog settling over the waters which gave it a really cool eerie feel. The campground is also a good place for your lunch picnic.

fog settled over the lake, the picture does not do justice

4) Rainy Lake:

Rainy lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the area. It is fed by glacial waters and you can see the pristine lake surrounded by high mountains with waterfalls in them. The scene is absolutely gorgeous and it is an experience that should not be missed. Look out for signs for Rainy Pass on Hwy 20. Once there you park your car and head out onto a very flat paved trail for about 0.9 mile to the lake. There is an indication that you need either the NW forest pass or pay $5 at the trailhead but the pay boxes seem to have been removed.

Since the trail is very flat and paved it is a very easy hike and a must do. There was snow on the trail in patches when we went but in the later months it is snow free.

Look for this sign

The awesome Rainy Lake

5) Mazama:

Mazama is probably the first town you will encounter after you start from Newhalem. There are a number of cabins and inns in this place and also a gas station and a store. Last time when we visited this area we stayed at the Lost River Resort. This place is 5 miles down lost river road and is pretty secluded. There were a bunch of us so we had fun staying in the cabins that are tucked away from civilization, so if you want to get away from everything this is the place. There is a also a RV park here.

6) Winthrop:

Withrop is probably the biggest town so far from going down hwy 20 east. Again this is a great place to get accommodation with numerous cabins and inns. The town itself is modeled as an old cowboy town and is cool to go around.

On our recent visit we stayed at the River Run Inn and highly recommend it. We stayed in one of the inn rooms since the cabins were all booked but we had a lot of fun staying here. There were free bike rentals here and we took the bikes to explore the town. There are also hammocks and fire pits at the inn so you can just relax outdoors. All this by a fast flowing river which is again beautiful to look at.

Kitchenette

view from the room

queen bed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7) Misc:

This is a very high level overview of the kind of things you can do in the cascades. It would take many trips to cover a sizable amount of the kind of things that are there to do here. A couple more sights that you get to see along your drive on Hwy 20:

 

 

Northern Cascades is one of the many strikingly awesome places in WA where you can experience nature at its best. Take a deep breath, feel the fresh air, walk the trails and gasp at the natural wonders of this region. Hope this serves as a good guide to your cascadic excursions!

The beautiful Pacific-Northwest

So its now my 12 month anniversary of moving to the pacific-northwest. Over the course of the year, I have  had some truly memorable days, some not so great days and some days that I truly detested. Let me explain. The greater Seattle region is a wonderful place for all kinds of outdoor activities. The natural beauty of this region is breath taking. If you venture out in any direction for about an hour from Seattle you will be in the midst of rainforests, waterfalls, ski slopes, parks and just tons and tons of greenery. There are places that I visited in the course of this one year that were so beautiful; I can truly say  I have not seen anything like this ever before.

Now if everything is so great then why are there down days you might ask? Well it has to do with the bright shiny object in the sky that we take for granted to rise everyday. You see, in Seattle there is no guarantee that you will get to see this bright disc everyday sometimes for as long as a week. Yes, folks sometimes I wonder if the Sun has suddenly condensed into a red dwarf and gone missing. It doesn’t even help if you have two Suns like in Asimov’s stories or in Star Wars, it really has to do with clouds. As much as I thought that people here were joking about the rain, what they say about the Pacific-Northwest is true. It rains heck a lot here and when it doesn’t it is cloudy and when it isn’t it is rainy and when it doesn’t it is cloudy and when it isn’t it is rainy ….

Summer is really the best time of the year to be here. But having said that summer is only 3 months – July, August and September. I kind of took last summer for granted but I am planning to make the most out of those three months this year. But even in darkness there is hope and in cloudiness there is hope of sunshine. Occasionally, we are blessed with a nice day or two where we get bountiful sunshine to replenish our highly depleted Vitamin D counts. Here are some of the places that we visited when it was nice outside:

1) Snowtubing in Snoqualmie pass: We went snowtubing in snoqualmine pass and it was a lot of fun! Snoqualmie pass is a great winter destination for all kinds of snow activities like skiing, snow tubing, snow shoeing etc. We managed to find a nice day to go snow tubing and there were 12 lanes that extended as long as a football field. Great fun.

2) Wallace Falls: An hour’s drive from Redmond on Rt 2 gets you to Wallace Falls. Wallace falls has really nice trails that have a bunch of small waterfalls along the way leading to some big falls. The trails are all densely populated with trees and have a really nice rain-forest feel to it. Most of the hikes in this area are really easy and this makes a great weekend trip.

3) Leavenworth: Leavenworth is a small town, with a street lined with a number of small unique shops that sell lot of gifts and other memorabilia. In the backdrop are beautiful snow covered mountains. Right by Leavenworth is Lake Wenatchee which offers plentiful opportunities for boating, as well as numerous trails and hiking opportunities.

4) Lake Chelan: Lake chelan is a beautiful little town about 3.5 hours from Redmond. The lake again offers plentiful opportunities for boating activities and the drive through Rt 2 is quite picturesque as borders the columbia river. We spent a night in the Campbell’s Resort over looking the lake. A beautiful lake view from the room, a nice relaxing time in the hot tub and a wonderful dinner is all it takes to unwind over the weekend at this place. Highly recommended for a quick getaway.

Beautiful view of the lake and mountains

Cozy fireplace

Well appointed room

All this is just a small sampling of the breathtaking scenery in this region. Apart from the above there is Mt. Rainer, Cascades, Mt. St.Helens, Widbey Island, the San Juan islands, Olympics etc etc which offer plentiful opportunities to hike, ski, camp, relax and take in all the wonders that nature has to offer.

Relaxing in Maui, Hawaii

A couple of months ago I was asking a few of my colleagues for vacation ideas for thanskgiving holidays. A unanimous response was to go visit the Hawaiiain islands. One of them said “Hawaii is the best place to visit from the west coast for a perfect beach vacation, with the comfort of being in the same country”. And I could not agree more.
One big question that comes up while planning a vacation to Hawaii is which island do I visit? And the answer I think is: it does not matter, you will have fun wherever. Ofcourse, it also depends on what you want to do: if you are the partying kind then you should visit Honolulu, if you are looking for complete tranquility then it is probably Kauai, if you like volcanoes you should visit the Big Island and if you want a little bit of everything you should visit Maui. And thats why we chose to visit Maui.

Imagine your best beach vacation and Maui will be 10 times as better. The exaggeration aside, my first reaction on visiting Maui was that “this is so much better than I thought it would be”.  My wife and I put a lot of thought into planning and I feel that this post should give you a good idea of how to arrange for travel, accommodations and places to visit for planning your visit to this beautiful island.

View of Kapalua Beach from the boarwalk

At "Dig Me" Beach

Air Travel:

The best advice for air travel is, book in advance. You are highly unlikely to find last minute deals especially during holiday season and flights to the islands are usually fully booked during any time of the year. So it is best to plan in advance.

Tip: Some people have suggested booking a complete package including airtravel, car rental and lodging. While this might turn out to be cheaper in some instances, it is hard to customize your trip this way. We ended up booking everything separately ourselves. We flew Hawaiian Airlines and the service was not that great.

Car Rental:

Doesn’t matter if anyone tells you otherwise, you really need a car to commute in Maui. Bus service is intermittent and I have seen people waiting for long for buses. Some resorts do provide bus service to some hot spots but to explore the island at your own will you need to book a rental car.

Tip: Try to book a rental through costco or at one of the local places (websites) which seem to give better rates. As with any rental car booking, you should always compare and contrast rates from all providers. We found alamo gave good rates for our trip but your mileage may vary.

We rented a Sonata

Lodging:

It is important to get a good place to stay because invariably you are going to spend some time in the room lazing around. In particular, we wanted a hotel/condo that was oceanfront so that we could look out of our lanai (balcony) and watch people snorkeling/swimming and listen to the waves as we sleep. Hotels or condos? It depends. If you want to have an expensive resort experience with nice swimming pools, spas, shows etc. then you should probably book yourself in one of the resorts in Kaanapali or Wailea regions (we really liked Kaanapali region the most in Maui, but I will get to that a bit later). On the other hand, if you really want a kitchen to cook and a bigger place to stay and the best bang for your buck then you should try to book a condo. The best place to start would be at vrbo.com where you can get good rates directly from the owners or also check with a travel agent (see tip below).

Tip: We stayed at a condo called Maui Kai in Kaanapali and absolutely loved it. I do not think it can get more oceanfront than Maui Kai because if I jumped out of my balcony I would be in the water!  We booked through a travel agent called Donna Bender and she was really good in helping us getting settled in at a nice condo. She also promptly answered a lot of questions that we had before the trip. I would recommend getting in touch with her for your accommodation needs. Her email is dgbender@aol.com and she also has a website: http://www.mauicalls.com.

Our Studio at Maui Kai

Kitchen

View from our Lanai!

Beaches:

Maui, of course, has a number of really nice beaches. There are specific spots that you should choose depending on whether you want to go swimming, snorkeling, surfing or just relaxing by the beach. Here are a few reccommendations:

1) Kaanapali Beach: Of all the beaches that we visited during our trip we really liked the Kaanapali beach the best. Kaanapali beach has all the ingredients that you want: the beach itself is a long stretch, great for a long walk by the beach. Also the beach is lined with a number of big resorts (sheraton, westin etc) so it is really nice to walk along the beach. Also by the beach is Whalers Village (highly recommended) which is a great place to grab food, shop and watch free hula shows. At the end of the beach, in front of the Sheraton resort is “Black rock” which is great place for snorkeling. Some ppl also dive into the water from the cliff nearby so watch out! This beach is great for swimming, snorkeling or a nice easy stroll by the beach.

Kaanapali Beach

Kaanapali Beach

2) Kapalua Beach: Heading further up north you will find the Kapalua bay and Kapalua beach. Kapalua bay is an ideal place for snorkeling with kids since the waves are low and the views underwater are beautiful. We spent a lot of time in this bay snorkeling and would highly recommend this for seeing lots of fishes. A little bit further from the bay is the beach. The Kapalua beach is also really nice but it also has a boardwalk that goes among the cliffs and the views from the boardwalk of beach are really terrific. I would definitely recommend talking a stroll there.

Kapalua Bay

3) Kamaole Beaches (Kihei): The Kamaole beaches in Kihei are also really good beaches. Depending on the time of the day the waves can pick up but the beach does have lifeguards on duty. If you are staying in Kihei, you would be frequenting these beaches

4) Wailea and Makena Beaches. Wailea is an upscale neighborhood, home to really expensive resorts. If you want to really splurge on your hotel room this is the place. It also has a number of nice beaches. The big beach in Makena is also a popular beach spot for people in the south.

Overall we really liked the Kaanapalli beaches and would recommend getting a place to stay in this region as there is so much to do and the place really has a good vibrant feel as opposed to Kihei which seemed like any southern california beach town.

Lahaina:

Lahaina is a nice little town close to Kaanapali and can be a great place to shop and hang out. There are a number of shops that you can visit by the big Banyan Tree that is there on front st. There are plenty of dining options here too but parking can be expensive if you cannot find street parking.

Lahaina Banyan Tree

Lahaina Shopping

Hula Shows:

If you stay in one of the beach resorts in Maui, chances are that you will sign up for a luau, which is a huge hawaiian feast. Usually the feast is accompanied by a Hula show, which is a traditional Hawaiian dance performance. If you do not want to go for the luau but would like to experience the hula there are a few places where you can go for a free hula show. First one is at the Whalers Village in Kaanapali, they have free hula shows everyday starting at 7pm (check local listings). These shows feature children of all ages and it is really cute to see some of the really small kids sway to the music! Another place you can catch a free hula show is at the Lahaina Cannery Mall. Again I would check the local listings for exact timing and dates.

Hula Show

Whaler's Village

Whaler's Village

Whale Watching:

The Pacific Whale Foundation provides great whale watching tours in Maui and Iwould recommend them for your whale watching trips. We went in november which is still early for the whale watching season (December-May) but were able to spot some whales from a distance. Depending on your mileage this can be fun.

Dhiviya and I ready for whale watching trip

Farmer’s Market:

Try making your breakfast one day by shopping at the local farmer’s market. They have delicious pineapples as well as muffins, spreads, bread etc. It is a lot of good food and a great way to start your day!

In front of the Farmer's Market

What about Road to Hana and Haleakala sunrise?

The road to Hana is touted as one of the most picturesque drives in Maui. If you are on a vacation that spans more than 7 days then you should definitely have this on your itinerary. Since we were there for under 6 days we just relaxed by the beaches and took it easy. Also if you are up for it (waking up at 3am) then you should definitely go catch the sunrise at Haleakala. Obviously I was too lazy (and on a vacation!) to wake up that early.

Summary:

Maui is a great place to be. The vacation can be expensive so make sure you plan ahead. Take lots of sunscreen (try getting water proof ones). Spend lot of time at the beaches. Do not try to cover all the touristy things and definitely do not combine two islands if you are looking at a trip less than 10 days. I would recommend getting an oceanfront room if you spend some time in your room cooking, relaxing. Have a great vacation!!

View from the front of our condo building

View from our lanai

rainbows everywhere

In true hawaiian spirits!

Olympic National Forest

If you are a nature lover, Washington state is the place to be. Some of the places here receive the highest annual rainfall in the country so there is so much greenery everywhere and pretty much all kinds of hiking, trekking, biking activities that you can imagine in the lush outdoors WA. I recently had a chance to visit the Olympic National Forest. My wife and I had a three day trip and had an extensive visit of all the mountains, rain forests, beaches and other water bodies that are in and around the Olympic National Forest. Since I get a lot of queries from people regarding places to go and stay I thought I could make a blog entry for the trip.

Itinerary:

We pretty much covered everything in and around the olympics. We started off from Seattle and headed towards the north to being with and made a big circle around the forest visiting the pacific coast and the southern parts of the national forest on the way back. The picture below shows the route that we took through the trip:

The most interesting places are numbered on the map and these are the places that we covered during our visit. They are:
1. Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge
2. City of Forks, WA
3. Hoh Rain Forest
4. Ruby Beach
5. Quinault Lake and Rainforest
6. Ocean Shores

Here is a more detailed account of each location listed above:

1. Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge:
Port Angeles is the nearest town to the mountaineous regions of the Olympic National Forest called the Hurricane Ridge. Port Angeles is about a 2.5 hr drive from Seattle depending on the frequency of the ferry that you would need to take from edmonds to kingston. The ferry ride in itself is quite interesting if you have not done it before.

Hurricane Ridge is about an hour drive from Port Angeles and it boasts spectacular views of snow covered mountains and offers lots of hiking options. There are lots of trails that still have snow on them during summer so you would need to traverse patches of snow to get through some of the hikes. Here are some of the views from the Hurriance Ridge visitor center.

2. City of Forks, WA
The city of Forks is a small town and provides some options for overnight stay as it is close to attractions such as the hoh rainforest or the beaches along the pacific coast. We stayed in a motel called Dew Drop Inn and found the accommodations to be clean and they also provided a small breakfast the next day which was nice. Also the Twilight books are based on this town (although the movie was not taken here) so you might find a few references to that as you move around the town.

Hoh Rainforest
The Hoh Rainforest is easily accessible from the town of Forks and is one of the most beautiful sights for those who have never been to a rainforest before. It is a temperate rainforest so all the trails through the rainforest you feel the cool fresh air and the towering tall spruce trees. There are plenty of hikes depending on your liking. The ranger station also provides guided tours if you want to learn more about the trees and other vegetation that grows in the rainforest.

3. Ruby Beach
As you move further south-west towards the pacfic coast there are a number of beaches that you can visit. There aren’t the Florida style beaches with white sand and temperate water, these beaches are often rocky and filled with logs washed ashore by the water. One such beach that is interesting is Ruby beach. The huge expanse of the beach filled with logs of different types provides a different experience and is a good place for a picnic on a sunny day.

4. Quinault

Driving further south-east from the pacfici coast along highway 101 will get you to the town of Quinault. Again this a quiant old town that has attractions like the Quinault lake and rainforest. Once again the Quinault rain forest provides ample scope for hiking among numerous trails that go around the rainforest. In Quinault we found accommodations at the Quinault River Inn which provided beautiful rooms facing the Quinault lake. Again a must stop place for people interested in exploring the natural rainforests.

View of Quinault Lake from the Inn

On the way to Quinault

5. Ocean Shores

Ocean Shores is a really fun place and a tourist destination by itself. You head further down on 101 from Quinault and then take the road to Ocean Shores. Ocean shores is a wonderful beach location. On being here I was reminded of the Daytona beach in Florida, where you can drive your vehicle on the beach and then relax or picnic by the water. The water is generally cold so it is not as exciting as the Florida beaches but we were excited to see that there is sand, surf, beach etc. in the northwest. Once we visited Ocean shores a return drive to Seattle takes about three hours. That would complete your circle around the Olympic National Forest!

Relaxing on the beach

I hope this helps and serves as a rough guide for a visit to the Olympics. Enjoy and feel free to share your comments!

My Bday and My First day @ Microsoft

So yesterday was my birthday and also my first day at Microsoft Research, so it was easily one of the most exciting days of my life. Me and my wife just moved in to Seattle over the weekend and obviously we were both excited about my new job. On the first day at Microsoft we have what is called “New Employee Orientation” or NEO. On my NEO there were about 300 people (full time and interns) joining Microsoft! That is a huge number of people joining on a single day!

The NEO started with a nice presentation by the HR head, and it served as a good introduction to what it would be to work at MS. I found that everyone who was joining MS was equally excited about their new positions as I was. We were briefed on the company mission, goals and directions and also got to the exciting parts such as benefits and other perks of working at MS. We also had some employees share their experiences with us; it was nice to hear a first hand account of what a typical day at MS would look like. Overall, I was pretty excited and motivated to start my career at MS.

So when I came back home after the day long orientation, my wife had planned a surprise dinner cruise trip on the Puget Sound!! I was so excited and thrilled at the fact that she was able to find something exciting for the both of us to do on my bday even though it had just been a couple of days since we arrived in Seattle! We had a wonderful 2.5 hr cruise with 5 course meal served and we had a blast. Overall it was a very memorable end to a very exciting day!

Enhancing the living room media experience

Being a bit of a gadget freak myself, I have always wanted to convert my living room TV into a one stop shop for all my media needs – whether it is watching a DVD with a home theater experience, streaming youtube videos or being able to view all my photos on TV. Previously I accomplished this by connected the S-Video port of my laptop to the video-in of my HDTV. While this was reasonably good for me to occasionally show things to my friends or family; it soon got frustrating – I could not control the play functions of a movie playing on the laptop, vary the slideshow speed while viewing photos or be able to choose what content to view, without clicking away on the laptop. In other words, I had to be the operator working on my laptop while others enjoyed the experience on the couch. Well not any more.

Past weekend I hung out with my friend Brandyn White, who is currently on his way to a PhD in computer vision. A couple of years ago, I bought my HDTV and Brandyn got a great deal on a home theater system. It was the Samsung ht-q70 home theater system complete with all the bells and whistles – 5 disc DVD changer, HDMI, 1000 watts of 5.1 sound, USB interface for mp3s, jpgs, divx, XM enabled radio etc. Since Brandyn is busy with his studies he loaned me his home theater system for a while. Needless to say, I was thrilled with the prospect of hooking it to my TV. The next day I had a neat little setup in my living room, I popped in a DVD into the system and was thoroughly enjoying my experience. The best part was where I could plug in a USB stick with my pictures and movies and it would automatically play them! Oh, the joy of not having to hook your computer up to the TV!

For those who have read my previous posts, you know I have been eying the Western Digital TV Live HD player for a while now. Again, I needed a box that could stream all the content that I have on my computer to my TV. The WD TV Live does precisely that – it can play movies in a wide variety of formats in full HD on your HDTV through HDMI interface. Another cool device that also does this is the Apple TV. Although I think that the apple TV is a bit pricey for what it does, I recently got a sweet deal on one and ended up adding it to my living room experience!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Apple TV – it is a device that hooks up to your HDTV through either HDMI or component interface and can play HD content either from the internet/LAN or the movies that can be saved on the 160 GB internal hard drive. Streaming from the internet is restricted to buying or renting movies from the app store or streaming for free from youtube. You can also sync all the media that you have on your mac or PC to the apple TV through iTunes. This is especially useful for me because I can now view my photos and stream my movies directly on my TV from any of my home PCs.

Since its an Apple device the usage is pretty much restricted to what you can get from the app store or through itunes. As a result, all your movies need to be in mp4 format for them to play on the apple TV. Although, all your music on your iTunes can be synced to the Apple TV so I can now enjoy all my favorite music in my living room. This is especially good when you have a get together and want to play some music in the background. Oh, and did I mention that I hooked up the apple tv to the home theater system? This is a winning combination! I was viewing the trailer of Avatar through the app store on the apple TV and the experience was amazing on my home theater and my HDTV.

So there you have it, I now have all the devices that one could possibly need to view any kind of media on their HDTV with the full home theater experience thanks to these neat little gadgets! I am still discovering new things on my Apple TV so I would love to hear comments/suggestions from those who have used it before. A lot of people have suggested Boxee on apple TV that can possibly unlock a lot of hidden potential that apple has restricted through its interface, but that is a blog story for another time.

Liking Las Vegas

With huge towering casinos on either side, a high flinging water fountain, a volcano, big screen TVs and neon lights that light up the night, I knew I had landed. Yeah, this is Vegas, baby! Our first time visit (me and the missus) to this sin city has been a complete sensory overload. We dunked money in the slots, saw some of the best shows, shopped at name brands, ate great food and danced all through the night. I wanted to pen down our experience not only because I would love to recount the excellent time we had (we can’t wait to get back!), but it would also be useful for anyone who still hasn’t made it to Vegas yet.

Stay:

While you are in Vegas, you mostly need a room just so that you can sleep and shower, cause you are going to be in the casinos for most of the time. After staying at a couple of places on and off the strip I would very highly recommend staying on the Strip, because of the ease of conveyance to other casinos and back. We stayed for the initial days on the Strip at Polo Towers. This is right in between MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood. We had a very comfortable one bedroom suite which was the bomb. When we woke up on the first day and made eggs for breakfast in the kitchen and had a good munch before we headed out for the day! I would highly recommend this hotel if you do not want to stay at the casinos (the casinos however, could be cheaper during non-peak times). The roof top pool and hot tub were an added plus for us.

Casinos:

So why are you in Vegas? Gambling duh! Not being ardent gamblers ourselves we spent most of our time walking around the casinos, visiting the shopping arcades or downing some money in the slots. The casinos are so huge and have lots of stuff going on so even if you are not hardcore gamblers, you can still find plenty of stuff to do in and around the casinos. Oh, and if I haven’t mentioned it before, if you want to cover a lot of ground, be prepared to walk a lot! As far as recommendations just for the sheer fun of being in the casinos I would rank The Venetian, Bellagio, Caesar’s (The Forum) and Encore(/Wynn) as the ones we had the most fun in.

The Venetian: We absolutely loved the Venetian and its a lovers paradise. Its great architectural design combined with the Venice style canals and shops surrounding the canals made this casino one of the must see on our list. Also, just based on sheer luck, we seemed to have more luck at the slots at the Venetian! I would highly recommend the boat ride through the canals, the shopping around it and the casino just by itself is a great place to hang out. Oh, ofcourse, there is lots of gambling and drinks.

Bellagio: Who hasn’t heard of the Bellagio fountains? As celebrated as it was, it definitely lived up to its name. The water fountains are one of a kind and re beautiful in the evening light. They shoot water high up in the air and are a lot of fun to watch. They keep going every half hr in the mornings and then every 15 mins in the evenings. However, whats great about Bellagio is not just the outside, but also the inside. Very ornate and cozy, this casino is definitely up there among the high ups. The beautiful part was the conservatory, with holiday decorations, talking trees (!) and other interesting items. Overall very nicely done and a must see.

Caesars: Caesar’s Palace is also a very nice casino. The interesting part is the forum shops which has all the name brand shops that you can think of. Whether you just want to window shop, or want to get some of the latest in fashion (for a big price), this is the place to be. Again the architectural design, the outdoor walking area and the overall aesthetics of the casino appealed to us a lot.

As you know there are a lot of casinos in Vegas and you need to do a lot of footwork to get from one to another. A bus service called the deuce runs up and down the Strip and the pass is $7 for 24 hrs which we found to be useful to get to some of the farther casinos.. If you want to get a birds eye view of the strip I would recommend either going on top of the Stratosphere or The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Casino. MGM Grand, New York, Flamingos, Ballys, Bills etc were all nice but nothing awe inspiring to write home about. I have included a few pictures below of some of the other casinos that we had visited.

Shows:

Vegas is also very famous for hosting one of the best shows in the country. The Cirque Du Soleil shows are all supposed to be really amazing, and I would say that we definitely agree after watching Mystere Cirque Du Soleil at Treasure Island. Since this is our first CDS show, we were throughly amazed with the acrobatics, stage settings, lighting, and sounds. It is a show definitely worth watching and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is visiting Vegas. We had a choice between “O” and Mystere but decided eventually to go for Mystere. I heard that “O” is also an excellent show and we hope to catch it the next time we are there. A recommendation is that, even though the cheaper tickets have you all the way up the gallery, I would say that those are the best seats for watching the show since there is a lot of stuff happening high above the stage which would be hard to watch from the lower portions of the gallery. Overall there is no bad seat really and the show was fantastic.

Dancing:
Vegas has a good collections of night clubs that are open until the wee hours of the morning where you can dance to all kinds of music. On everyone’s recommendation we went to the XS nightclub at Encore and we were not let down. The dance floor is huge and is surrounded by a nice swimming pool. There was a hefty cover charge to get in, but that kept the riff-raff out and had upscale clientele. I know each casino has its own dance floor, but we thoroughly enjoyed the time at encore.

Other Thoughts:
Vegas is really a fun place to be. If you stay on the strip, you will be safe and will have plenty to do. As far as food was concerned, we found many places that served great food, either at the casinos or at restaurants on the strip. If you wish to save money in Vegas, look for coupons and discount books. Print out coupons from the internet before you leave. Once in Vegas, check out the TIX for Tonight stores for discounts on show tickets. Also you can find booklets in taxi cabs that can give you discounts on shows and other items. Have fun and be safe. We surely did.

Finally, I don’t know if you watch this show or if you care, but at Planet Hollywood, we had our pictures taken with the winners of the show “America’s Got Talent”. This is the closest we have gotten to being with a celebrity so we will take it!

Advances in Face Detection

Ever since the seminal works of Schneidermann and Kanade, and the famous Viola Jones Detector, face detection has come a long way. In some aspects nowadays we take face detection for a given: every popular point and shoot camera now comes with face detection, image hosting websites and software can quickly find faces in your home album collection.

This makes it seem that face detection is a solved problem and is an art perfected by many. However, it is important to note that most of these applications are carefully chosen: it is not critical in any of these applications for the face detection to be highly accurate. If your point and shoot finds three out of five faces in the frame, it is not a show stopper. If the software that you use for tagging faces in your pictures fails on a hundred out of the thousands in your collection you don’t punish it. Face detection (and further face recognition) are both highly difficult tasks for the computer to solve. Changes in illumination, pose, skin color, facial deformations can all throw out even the best of computer vision algorithms out of the window. An interesting account of this argument can be found at:
Florida
Boston

That is not to say that we have not advanced as a community in face detection. Recently I was in Japan for a computer vision conference and was fascinated with some of the advancements that have brought face detection to the masses. One company in particular: Omron Corporation has spearheaded this mission in Japan and have produced a state-of-the-art face analytics software, OKAO Vision, that can not only detect or recognize faces but can also do gender and age estimation and also calculate the percentage of smile on the face! An interesting summary of their work can be viewed at:

Another nice product that Sony has come up with is pan/tilt head called PartyShot. Host a party, place the sony camera on the PT head and party hard. The camera will detect faces and click candid pictures for you to have a good recollection of what went on and who all were present. Take a look at: Sony PartyShot

Although mostly unsuitable even in its current form for the most critical surveillance applications, face detection/recognition software has found its way on to a variety of fun applications. It is a hard problem and the solutions, though many, work very well only in controlled environments. We as humans perform this task very easily, it takes a little bit of effort to replicate that to perfection on the computer.

 

Saving on Car Rentals

So it’s the holidays and you have plans: whether it is a drive to your nearest holiday or a visit to your family in the country.  Rather than clocking more miles on your BMW or on your beat up honda these might be the few times that you think of renting a car. As a veteran (?) auto renter (I rent most of the time to save up driving my Sentra cross country) I have gathered a few tips along the way which might come in handy for your holiday rentals:

1) Never pay retail: If you are paying the quoted price at the rental counter or on the online site, you are almost always getting a bad deal. This is because at any point during the year, there are always deals to be had on car rentals. Weekends are the best: since there are not many corporate rentals on the weekend, rental agencies are willing to give good discounts to get their fleet on the road.

If you like booking online check out: http://www.carrentalsavers.com. They have the latest discounts posted by the different rental companies for your city. Look for coupon codes and weekend deals. For example, during winter Enterprise almost always has a 50% off weekend deal which might save you  a lot of money on those weekend rentals.

For more coupons check out: http://www.rentalcarmomma.com and http://www.retailmenot.com. I have found some coupons on retailmenot.com that usually gives me 10-15% off on your total rental.

If you like to get your rentals at the counter you can check out printable coupons on the above websites that you can take to your favorite rental car company for discounts.

2) Always ask! The  person at the rental counter sometimes can pull off good discounts (esp if it is the manager)  or give you  complimentary upgrades depending on the demand and size of the fleet. So always ask politely if it is possible to get you a discount or a complimentary upgrade on your rental. 80% of the time, I have got upgrades on my rentals, just by being nice to the person at the counter and politely asking for an upgrade!

3) If you had a bad rental experience speak up! If you had a bad rental, whether it was a rattling window or an unclean car, you can bring it to the attention of the sales person while returning the car. Usually they are more than willing to give a 10% discount or give you a free tank of gas, just so that they can have your business again. So if you rental sucked, speak up!

4) Car insurance: This is the iffy part and frequently me and my friends debate to no end as to what is the best thing to do. If you have every rented a car with the full insurance (Collision Damager Waiver, Personal Damage Waiver, Liability Waiver etc) you will see that the rental fees has almonst doubled or tripled your base rental charges. There is no right answer to this and frequently the rental car companies will try to push all the insurance on you stating that you could be a part of a multi car pile up and hence could end up paying huge amounts. While this may be true, with a quick analysis you can figure out whether you already have the insurance to cover your rental.

1. Check with your auto insurance company: If you own or lease a car, you have auto insurance. Most of the time the insurance companies cover any car you drive, including most (except some luxury cars, trucks etc) cars minus the deductible so you might already be covered. Check with your insurance company as to what class of rental cars are covered to avoid unexpected surprises.

2. Check with your credit card company: Most credit card companies provide CDW (collision damage waiver) for your rental if the rental has been paid in full with the credit card. The requirement for this is that you decline the coverage that the rental company offers to provide. This can also be useful and most major credit card companies ex. mastercard, amex provide this coverage. Check with your credit card company for the extent of coverage.