Exploring Georgia - The Georgia Guidestones

The Georgia Guidestones was commissioned by Robert C.Christian, and was completed by the Elberton Granite Finishing Company on March 22, 1980.  Situated at a two hour drive from Atlanta, this modern day attraction in Elbert County is sometimes referred to as the "America Stonehenge". It is a structure made of six granite slabs - a center slab and  four other slabs that are astronomically arranged, with a smaller slab on top of them. The structure has ten guidelines or commandments inscribed on it in eight different languages - English, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian. The top slab, also referred to as the capstone, has inscriptions in Babylonian Cuneiform, Classical Greek, Sanskrit and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. There is also a granite slab laid near the guidestones, which talks about a time machine buried below the slab, but the date on which the machine is the be unearthed is left blank. There are plenty of conspiracy theories about the Georgia Guidestones.

I love this site and the structure itself too, because it feels so mysterious. The place is very calm and quiet, with the occasional car passing by. But there is a chance that you may get to hear soft "Hrrmpphh" from beyond the hedge. Don't panic! It is just a friendly horse who wants to say a hi, and let you know that he is grazing only a few feet away, and that he appreciates your company!

P.S: I picked some of the details off Wikipedia, and some off the information board at the Georgia Guidestones site. Here is a partially legible photo taken at an unearthly hour, just before we ran to the car! Just kidding...

Tulip Festival - A Dutch Experience in USA!

An interesting weekend is the least that I can describe this experience as. I had heard of the Tulip Festivals that take place in Washington and Michigan. A desire to see the tulip gardens drove me to plan a weekend trip to the closest location hosting a tulip festival - Holland, Michigan.

A flight to Chicago and a two-and-half hour drive to Holland, Michigan brought us to our first destination, Windmill Island Gardens. The parking lot was a mile or so away from the gardens. We elected to take the free trailer service to the gardens. It was a fun ride, with just a few lazy people shying away from walking the mile to garden. It turned out to be a lovely day for roaming around in the gardens and chatting up with friends. The garden was lit up with vibrantly colored flowers, tulips being the main attraction of the day. The tulip garden was completely packed with tourists, posing and clicking photos. It was lovely seeing the flowers and relaxing in the warm afternoon sun. But I have got to admit that it was a real challenge trying to capture any pictures of just the tulips without a host of tourists giving an appearance.

The colors & the crowd

After a simple lunch at a local eatery, we headed to our next destination, Nelis' Dutch Village. Although this place was meant for kids, we had some time and decided to check it out. The place lived up to its fame with everything from colorful tulip bulbs to cheerful Klompen dancers, wooden shoe carving demonstrations to a lovely petting zoo. This small place was buzzing with life, and yet was somehow most welcoming and relaxing. The folk dance by the Dutch dancers was one of the best that I have ever seen, and the energy levels were infectious. Any viewer who was interested in dancing along was welcomed. The performance also boasted an antique De Gouden Engel (Amsterdam Street Organ), which is used to entertain people to this day. The village provides some unique learning opportunities in the form of wooden shoe carving and cheese making demonstrations. The quaint little Dutch village does give off an old time feel and the friendly staff made the visit a memorable one.

A Hond Wagen (Dog Cart)

Strange Love

Love is beautiful they told me
Love is blind they said
Love is foolish I told them
Love is for movies I said

Books were my friends
The shiny full moon my guide
Meadows and mountains filled my dreams
The scary ocean made me scream

A nice warm day, with a book in hand
A cup of coffee, and only me
My thoughts and my dreams, and only me
This was my definition of a happy me

A message, a call, and a week later
A cup of coffee, and only me
You in my thoughts, and you in my dreams
I wait for you, with my phone in hand

Books are my friends
The shiny moon is my guide
Of vast oceans and ships I dream
For my heart is lost at sea it would seem

Love is beautiful I tell thee
Love is strange I say
Love is what fills my soul

My soul is what I give thee 

A Dream, A Wish, A Hope....

When the night is dark, and the moon hides behind the dull gray clouds, I wish for a bright cheerful night. I wish for a gentle breeze, strong enough to blow the clouds away. I wish for a pearly full moon to smile down on me. I wish for cool drops of rain to drench the earth. I wish for the heat from the land to create a misty glow. I wish for the trees to gently nod in their sleep, and for the pretty birds to rustle their feathers in their cozy nests. I wish for the fire flies to dazzle among the shrubs. I wish the fairies would sing their soothing songs in the woods. I wish for the company of a wise and friendly owl. I wish he would tell me beautiful stories from days forgotten. I wish I could forget the present for a little while, and enter into the land of dreams.

I would dream of a peaceful land, where everybody knows only happiness and love. A place where people do not grow old, though they advance in age. A land where people do not die, but simply go from one jolly land to a jollier one. A land where all beings live in harmony. A land where education is to learn the ways of God's creations. Where manners are not taught, but naturally exist. Where words are always gently spoken, and never harsh. A land where the Creator has not forsaken his creation, or rather, a land where the Creation has not forgotten the Creator.

I dream of land where nature is as fresh as new. A land where the gentle giants still stand tall, with only the silent mountains to rise taller than them. A land where the trees out number people. A land where the bunnies jump around happily, and the dogs run around with no masters to control them. A land where the animals are friends of humans, and where there are leaders and no masters.

I dream of a land where the days are bright and sunny, and the nights are misty and pleasant. A land where the air is fresh and smells of honeysuckle. A land which is painted in a blast of colors so lovely that no artist can capture it. I dream of this and much much more, because dreams bring happiness and dreams bring hope.

Night

The evening sun slips down, so down

Up comes the moon, so bright and round,
You guessed it right;It's a full moon day,
Or may be , night I should say !!

The sky looks lovely in her pretty black dress,
The world seems to settle down for a rest,
Lonely souls and weary feet,
All lie down, and their dreams do greet.

The moon smiles and enchants,
As the stars do their twinkling dance,
The wind sighs through the forest as it sleeps,
While the lovely night spins up the dreams.

All worries laid aside,
No rules does the mind have to abide.
Through time and space I wander,
To magical cities and places of wonder.

A sleep so sound,
A sense of calm and peace so profound,
Time slips gently by, but life seems to stand still,
As Lady Night warms the heart and soothes the soul.

Arizona - Fun In The Sun

A trip that I would describe as both fun-filled and tiring! An entirely unique experience in the midst of nature and the natives.

March 13th, 2016

The morning of the 13th was pleasant, and our first visit was to the famous Antelope Canyon. We had spent the night at a motel in Page, Arizona, which was a stone's throw from the Antelope Canyon.

We had booked ourselves a tour with the Navajo Antelope Canyon Tours for 11 a.m. True to our nature, we were punctual and reached the tour counter well ahead of the 10 a.m. check-in time. After strolling around for a while, we finally got to start our tour. Our tour guide was friendly and the tour group was a fun-loving lot, who kept the tour lively with their comments and antics.

The Antelope Canyon was quite different from what I had imagined it would look like. Unlike the pictures on the internet, the canyon was the color and texture (as should be!) of sandstone. We had plenty of fun exploring the canyon, listening to interesting facts shared by the guide, and clicking away pictures from vantage points that the guide was kind enough to point out. The climate was hot and humid. The ride into the canyon on our open jeeps had been thrilling, and quite dusty as the guides seemed to love racing each other across the dust plains! The ride out was slightly less noisy, but no less dusty. It was a great experience on the whole.

Useful tips:

• Use chrome mode on iPhone for good pictures.
• Carry water on the hike.
• Listen to the guide, or you may miss out instructions on how to angle the camera, and where to stand to get the right shots.
• Do not move anything. They leave untouched even branches washed in by flash floods to preserve the natural environment.
• Summer affords the most spectacular photos, as that is when the light penetrates the canyons at the right angles to make it vibrant.

An attempt to capture the heart shape formed by Sun rays playing on the canyons walls

                           

Right after our satisfying tour of the Antelope Canyon, we proceeded to the Horseshoe Bend. I was told "Prepare to be amazed". Well, I was truly amazed at the beauty of the famous Horseshoe Bend. It was more than a mile hike from the parking to the bend (or may be it felt so to me!). And no hike would have been more worth it. The beautiful green of the snaking Colorado was a sight to behold. It wove around the canyon like a jewel against the brown cliffs. Close to the edge of the cliff, life felt beautiful. For the first time in my life, I found a dry desert-like land worth admiring.

Horseshoe Bend

We spent a good few minutes admiring the bend and clicking mandatory touristy photos. Our next destination was none other than the famed Monument Valley. As we neared the Navajo County, we could experience the beauty of the red-sand desert. The drive along the seemingly endless road was exhilarating. The towering sandstone buttes were visible right from the roads. We reached the visitor center for the Navajo Monument Valley Tours and hoped that the daylight saving, timezone difference and thereby our late arrival would not lead to us losing out on an opportunity to tour this raw beauty of nature.

The tour guides were very accommodating and friendly. The guide arranged a jeep for our party and took us on a drive of a lifetime along the Monument Valley. The park consists of mesas, buttes and spire rock structures which have been given very descriptive names. Relating the names to the structures is left to our imagination. The park was so vast and the sandstone structures were so majestic that it made us feel the power of nature. Standing there amid nature's beautiful art made us feel humble, I, for one, felt as though we were the only humans left on Earth. But somehow that thought was not scary at that time. It instead brought peace and calm.

We met a couple of native Americans who were selling hand-crafted jewelry. We spent some time talking to them and then made our way back to the visitor center. The drive back to the center was memorable in itself as we got to witness the beautiful sunset, which made our imagination go haywire. I am sure I spotted a giant sitting near a butte, with his back to us!

What do you see?

An extremely satisfying day did come to an end and off we went to get a much needed rest at the lovely lodge - The Cameron Trading Post in Flagstaff, Arizona.

March 14th, 2016

We started the day fresh and bright after a good sleep. We were able to make out the beauty of he lodge's surroundings only in the morning light. Our spirits rose seeing the surrounding canyons and we immediately set off towards out first scenic location of the day - Desert View Watchtower.

The tower was probably the first time I was exposed to the Indian paintings and art in their natural setting. The view from the tower was breathtaking, and the art work inside the tower was interesting to say the least. The murals and petroglyph-style decorations look almost authentic and give the rustic tower a very ancient feel. The tower also housed the original furniture used by the caretakers who used the tower as their living space.

Original furniture in the Watchtower

The view of the Grand Canyon afforded from the watchtower was more or less similar to those that we got to view as we drove towards the Grand Canyon Village in the South Rim. The village had an abundance of tourists, all jostling to get a better click of the mesmerizing canyons. After few more stops, both en-route and at the village, we drove on to the world famous Hoover Dam.

One view of the Grand Canyons

We reached the dam just before its closing hours and got to enjoy the silence and peace at one of America's most beautiful and immensely useful man-made structures. The stars were beginning to peep out and the weather was perfect, After spending some time discussing the virtues of the Hoover, and listening to a father-son pair trying to get the loudest echo, we wrapped up our tour of the desert state and headed towards Las Vegas.

I have known and loved the beauty of rolling green meadows, mountains covered with fall foliage and shimmering lakes and oceans. But, this trip exposed to me the earthen beauty of the sand structures, canyons and the bare-faced desert!

Fall in New Hampshire

I had heard quite a lot about New Hampshire's beautiful fall colors. But I had never planned to visit the place during the Fall of 2015. It was sheer chance that led my friends to decide that we might as well drive from Boston to New Hampshire, and onward to Maine, which was our actual destination. It was a good call and we absolutely loved the detour!

Since the flight tickets to Portland, Maine were pretty expensive, we had decided to fly down to Boston and stay the night there. We reached Boston late in the night and checked into Clarion Inn (now Lakeside Inn) at Wakefield, Massachusetts.The room had been recently renovated and was very comfortable. It faced  a lake, but the dark night did not afford much to view from the window.

This changed when morning arrived. I woke up pretty early by my normal standard, and was greeted by the sun rays filtering in through the lace curtains. The view from the window was extremely beautiful. It was enough for us to rush and get ready for a wonderful day of exploring. The restaurant adjoining the hotel had indoor and outdoor seating. The kind waitress allowed us to place our orders and stroll by the lake while the food was being readied. It was a fresh morning and there was a cold wind blowing across the lake. The beauty was not lost on us. After a quick discussion, we decided that we would head out for New Hampshire instead of driving through the main cities of Massachusetts and Maine.

Early morning view from the hotel room

The drive from Boston to New Hampshire was exactly how we had hoped it would be. It started off with a few trees having colored leaves. The drive was thoroughly enjoyable as scenery after scenery enthralled us. We passed through many picturesque towns with very English names, and cozy looking cottages dotting the landscapes on either side. Little churches, libraries and inns clustered together formed the towns. The trees began to change from sprinkles of yellow and red to blazing forests of yellow, red, shades or pink and tinges of green. These are sights which would probably stay etched in my mind forever.

Conway Public Library

Storybook Resort Inn, Glen, NH

Dana Place Inn, Jackson, NH

We did make multiple stops to take in the scenic views all along the national highway. This only got better as we entered the White Mountain National Forest. The weather became chilly and the flurries got us excited. But once the flakes started coming down fast, we ran for shelter. By this time we had already reached the entrance to the spectacular Mount Washington, and had been informed that the road was closed as the mountain was receiving a heavy snowfall (so unfortunate!). But we were already spell bound by the view, from where we sat in the car. The majestic mountain was crowned by snow and the snow fall near the peak gave it a mystic look. It was cloaked in shimmering colors of fall foliage! Beautiful nature at its very best! Since it had started snowing, we stepped into a quaint little souvenir shop which also sold pretty good soup. We sat next to the big french windows and silently wondered at the marvel called Nature while a couple of old ladies tried to capture the scenery on their canvas.

Mount Washington, Sargent's Purchase, NH

As the snow intensified, we decided to try our luck and drive on. To our surprise, a couple of miles down the road the weather was back to being perfect. We took a detour and went through the national forest along lonely roads (disregarding signboards which claimed that the roads had not been prepared for winter!). All alone, we parked where we liked and took pictures to our hearts' content. Feeling completely refreshed and satisfied, we continued our drive to our final pit stop for the night. Quite a lovely start to a relaxed weekend!