Wednesday 17 October 2007

10th Oct: Canada invite's us again!!!


Madhu warn’s us of bad weather, & ask’s us to take spare clothes, coz we might just be stranded. The weather prediction is bad & is raining when we leave the house!!!However, we have full faith in our weather God, & know , we have nothing to fear!!!
 
Take the Victoria Clipper Catamaran from downtown Seattle, which takes us on a relaxed pace to Victoria. Once again, immigration is no problem!! And, the Sun is Shinning in Victoria. What a magnificent weather it is!!!
 
We walk along the harbour crossing the Parliament & the Fairmont Empress Hotel, the street’s of Victoria. It’s amazing the number of restaurants which serve such variety of food, but mostly to go with sea food!!! The shopping here would be fun too, there are some real interesting shops that we cross…. One need’s to stay, for atleast a week, where you can do all this & also go to the islands of Vancouver!!! 
 
We hire a car (apni Maruti zen ka bhai!!) & take off to Butchard Gardens. At this time of the year, the flowers are not in bloom, however the leave’s are in their various stages of metamorphosis. The colours here are the best we have seen so far & all we can do is capture nature at it’s visual best!!! And I, go photograph crazy ……
 
While I go taking pictures & be a model in a few of them, I have a group asking me if … which part of the world I come from … when I tell them India .. they have a look of wonder & ask … if everyone there is as happy & strong as I am!!!! I still haven’t understood what they meant by Strong … but Happy , I understand!!!
 
It’s back home late evening to Madhu’s perfect ghar ka dal chawal & sabzi !!!!
 
Highlight…. Spot a family of 4 Orca Whales on our way back…. Amazing watching them at play …..  & also a Seal comes towards us to say Hello!!!
 
Highlight… at the US immigration, the officer keeps looking at me & the passport photograph’s. He can’t imagine , he is seeing the same person as in the passport since all photo’s in my passport look different!!
 
Highlight … Joydeep forget’s to give back the car key’s to the rental chap’s!!!! Hope they have ample of spare key’s to go around… there must be a lot of bhuladkar’s around!!;-)
 
Next time around…Have to see, the Undersea garden, Thunderbird park which has Totem display & the Helmcken house,the oldest house here still stands on the original site…. Apart from other stuff I might have missed!!!
 
Fact: Due to the loads of Japanese settlers in Victoria after the War , the shushi here is one of the best!!!

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