The Irresistible Isle Royale

 Since I moved to Chicago, I have always wanted to visit Isle Royale National Park, the only national park in Michigan. Finally this summer I managed to go there. 

There are two ferry services from MI side to this island, One from Houghton (6 hr one way) and another from Copper harbor (3.5 hr one way). I chose the second one because it is of a shorter duration. Now, remember to book at least 2/3 weeks prior to your journey. This ferry service (runs only Mid May to End of September) fills up pretty fast.

So only July 3rd early morning I left my place with a hope that I would be at Copper harbor by 4pm. But you know, sometimes you search for some most common thing and you can't find it.  Soon after I left I realized that I don't have my camping stove fuel with me. Well, for a quick solution, I ran to the Walmart near us. Alas ! no camping fuel for my particular stove. There were other kinds. Sometimes I wonder who are the people who decides to make all standards ? Even camping fuel container's needs to have various sizes? really? Well, we live in a land of choices and these are all (in some crazy way) to give us more freedom. Although I feel existence of more choices in products make your daily life less efficient and sometimes crazy! Anyway, after trying my luck in Illinois, I thought Wisconsin would provide some luck. After visiting two stores and not being able to find it, I decided to head towards my destination and figure out something there. As a last chance, I think I would just try REI as they are the ultimate land for choices when it comes to the campong gears. It is the very store where after entering you get a feeling that "man !! was I under a rock or what? So many gears can exist with so many different option?." Anyway after finding a right sized container for my fuel I asked one of the attendants if that would fit my stove nozzle. She said my stove has some proprietary design and may not work with their brand (note our extraordinary freedom of choices here again). Anyway, I strongly somehow felt that it should fit my stove and I bought it and it did! A success, finally! 

After all these camping fuel drama, I realized that I was so hungry. I felt very strongly a crazy urge to eat from Taco Bell as I miss their crunchwraps very much (I used to eat California Crunchwrap, not sure how that name came). Anyway, found a nearby one and went there. So they have discontinued California crunchwrap!! What ?? I tried so many then made my choice and then that choice got removed ? now again I have to try and choose a new one? What complicated decision making processes will I be taking through every time ? Well, what can I do? Finally I ate something that look interesting and it was not bad! Okay, finally ready to drive to copper harbor. At that point I was almost 6 hrs away and it was almost 1:30pm. Enough Subho!! let's drive!!

Okay, nothing very interesting happened on my way to Copper harbor apart from the feeling that I should have bought the fuel a couple of days before. Well, it's a common theme of my life and in my native language Bengali we have a proverb (Oh yes, we use proverbs all the time!) - "Chor palale buddhi bare" which has a literal meaning - you become intelligent once the thief steals everything from your house.

I finally arrived at Copper harbor around 8:20pm. 

I went towards the beginning of the US highway 41. 

As I did not reserve any campground I was trying to find a small camping spot to finish cooking and sleep after doing a short hike. I met Bob (Picture below) who told me that if I go little more in that road I would find some spots on my left where I can easily stay for one night. That was exactly what I was looking for [Bob came came later to check on me to make sure I was okay, Thanks Bob, very nice of him]. 

I drove a little further and found a short hike. There was a trail of 0.5 mile round loop that goes to the lake. I did the hike and then came back to the spot I found earlier and pitched my tent. Then I boiled some water to have some pre-packaged Indian dinner pouch. It was great and went to sleep as I had to catch the ferry at 8am on Sunday.

I woke up early and packed my backpack and reached the dock at Copper harbor where I had to catch the boat "Isle Royale Queen IV". We all had to park our car at a nearby parking lot where overnight parking fee was 10$. Finally wish masks, we all boarded the boat around 7:50am.  

It took almost 3.5 hrs. to reach the other side which is known as Rock harbor. The journey was uneventful. I went to the back side of the boat a few times and enjoyed the cool breeze there. Once we landed, the ranger Lauren greeted us with warm welcome and told us about the rules and regulations for the park. After that, we all got in line to get the permit from them. Jeff, an old man, actually gave me the permit and took a picture in front of the park sign.

After that, I went directly to the closest campsite in Rock harbor and found an empty spot #11. I put up my tent immediately and was ready to start my hike. It was around 1pm by then. 

 

The goal was to do a loop from the campsite to go to the Mt. Franklin and comeback from three mile campground direction. Om the way to Mt. Franklin, I visited Suzy's cove and took the greenstone ridge trail to reach Mt. Franklin.

On the top of Mt. Franklin, the view was gorgeous and I had my lunch there with spicy tuna, bun and avocado, yummm! The hike was really refreshing. Sometime, it was next to the lake Superior and other time it was inside the forest. The entire trail was very less crowded so as a solo hiker, one can enjoy the quietness of that place fully.

As I mentioned, the part of the hike was next to the lake so it was very refreshing to get the cool breeze from the lake time to time.

After reaching the three mile campground, I sat down by the lake and enjoyed the activities of a Canada goose family.

Next, around 8:30pm I reached my campground. I quickly boiled water and had my dinner and soon went to the dreamland as I was very tired.

I woke up pretty early and started hiking around 7:30 am the other part of the island. I wanted to go to the Scoville point. The round trip was less than 5 miles. So I had enough time to complete it before 2pm when I need to come back for my return boat back to copper harbor.

Most of the part of this hike was next to the lake. The flowers, the structure of the rocks were gorgeous. I sat down multiple times on the way. Once time I wanted to sing a song and here is the link if you want to listen :) [Link to Tomar Khola Haowa]

 I also saw a huge next by an eagle family where a baby eagle was waiting for her mom to come back. Even the baby looked so huge. Actually I did not noticed it at all as I was trying to find some birds on the shore side. So one of my co-hikers brought the attention to it.

Finally I reached the Scoville point. It was very nice spot and I went down to check the larger rocks and did find some astonishing colors in those.

As there were copper mines, so probably those colors could come from some minerals and copper and other metals.

I started to head back around 11 am and reached the harbor around 12:30. I had my lunch at the greenstone grill with fish sandwich, which was tasty. After that, I went to my campground and packed everything and collect some souvenirs and magnet [a must] from the park store. Then I sat down by the harbor before we assemble at the dock for our return ferry.

Coincidentally, I met a Bengali person, Bikram there. He and his girlfriend were from Madison and came to hike this park since July 2nd. Bikram and I were from the same part of India and we speak the same language. So we started chit-chatting and that actually ended in Copper harbor when we had to drive back to home.

Anyway, it was a great rejuvenating trip for me and an official post-covid crisis trip. Hiking and camping were great and I made a good friend in this trip! 

I am very glad that finally I was able to do this national park which I planned to go for a long time since I moved to Chicago.

 

Acadia Autumn

Coming soon ...

Colorado Calling ...

To me, Colorado is one of the most beautiful states in The United States. I went there three years ago but could not give enough time to fully appreciate its beauty. So this summer I decided to visit Colorado again to do a camping/hiking trip.

Following map shows our itinerary. We covered few major parks in CO.

Part - I (RMNP)

=============

Two friends of mine (Abhishek and his wife Bidisha) and I flew to Denver. After we picked up our car (big drama with agent Nate !) we did some grocery. Then we went directly to our campground at Moraine Park which is one of the really cool campgrounds at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Moraine Park area is also a very spectacular destination to witness the evolution of Colorado’s mountains. This huge national park offers varieties of activities to do there. As we were primarily interested in hiking, we decided to do few different types of trails - mountain peak trail (where we could see panoramic view from the top), Lake trail and waterfall trail.

We got there pretty late (~2am) and immediately we pitched our tent and slept. Next morning, we woke up seeing the majestic scenery of the snow in the distant mountains. Campground location was very unique, located at 8160 feet (2487 meters) in a ponderosa pine forest above the meadows of Moraine Park on Bear Lake Road, approximately two and a half miles south of the Beaver Meadows Entrance Station. First day, we wanted to hike Mount Ida. Later, we realized that it was not a very wise decision. Initially, we stopped at few places on our way with the intention to get familiarized with the roads inside the park. We drove along the trail ridge road - the main scenic drive inside the park. Parking in summertime at RMNP is a big hustle. We could not find the parking at mount Ida trailhead, so we had to park at the lake Irene trailhead. Typically, in the summertime for a peak trail it's always better to start the trail early enough so that one can be back by 3pm. On our first day we learnt that 2-5pm is the main thunderstorm's schedule. I could not go to the top because everyone was telling me not to go to the top as a storm was building up.  After few rounds of hesitation finally I abandon my hike and camp back to the starting point and I was very upset but at the same time I was determined to do a peak hike during our stay at RMNP. We then again took the trail ride road and stopped at several scenic overlooks. There was a storm and gust of cold wind forced me to pull out my jacket. After that we came back to our campsite (A93) and one of my friends from Denver (Lynne) was waiting there to join us for this part of the trip at RMNP. It was drizzling a bit that evening, so temperature was little bit lower. After our dinner [a semi-curry with black beans, scrambled eggs] we went to sleep early.

Next morning, getting out from my tent I saw a mom deer and two of her babies (spotted) just beside our tent. They don't look too afraid. We drove to the Estates park side of the park and started hiking for the Gem lake.  It was a great hike. Lake was not particularly impressive but the surrounding rocks were waited to be climbed. That was fun. We hiked down back after spending an hour or so there. Next destination was Ouzel Falls. We decided to take a lunch break in between and stopped at Lily lake picnic area. It was very pretty. Oh, did you even know that chipmunks really like chips? see this one - [picture]

From Lily lake area, the Longs peak is clearly visible. It is the tallest peak in the park. Trailhead for that is in between Lily lake and Wild Basin area. We had to drive to Wild Basin area where the Ouzel falls' trail begins. It was a nice hike and we saw few gorgeous birds there. [photo]

On our way back (somewhere at the mid-point) we wanted to give our feet a rest by putting them inside the cold water coming from top. It felt so refreshing! We came back to tent after that and its time to have dinner with egg-curry and rice.

We also finalized where to go for a panoramic view next day morning. It was Flattop mountain (12324 ft) [http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails.com/flattop-mountain.htm]. Total RT distance was about 9 miles. Elevation gain of 2850 ft made this hiking little tiring. Anyway it was too good. Gorgeous panoramic views, wildflowers, marmot's activities, snowfields, top views of many lakes made this hike particularly memorable and unique.

We hiked little more here and there after going to the top. So after 0.3 miles you could get some nice views from north Inlet trail and at the back of the trail the view of the mountain range was gorgeous too. It took us around 7hrs I think to complete the hiking. In the morning we took a shuttle from a parking lot to the Bear lake trailhead area. This is a prime spot of the park because thousands of trails start from here. So parking is always a problem. We spent some time sitting by the lake and in order to give ourselves little treats we went to a Nepalese restaurant at Estate park [Himalayan Curry and Kabobs]. Food was delicious [although we weren't sure if tandoori style chicken is served with curry in Nepal]. We reached our tent around 10pm [after going into a wrong direction]. Lynne had to go home that night and we went to bed soon after she left. I went to bed thinking about what to do at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP (BCGNP) -  our next destination :-)

[ We had a little drama with our credit cards, but I'll tell that story later:P] 

Part -II (BCGNP)

==============

This park is situated little bit west of the RMNP. The canyon is created by river Gunnison which is the fifth largest tributary of the great Colorado river. Another friend of mine (Amy) joined us in this part of the trip from Glenwood Springs. On our way to BCGNP campground we wanted to visit Colorado National Monument. It was a gorgeous place and red rocks reminded me of Utah rocks.

The main feature of the park is that you can take a canyon rim walk almost immediately outside of the visitor center. We saw the window rock [picture].

We drive along the rim of the canyon and saw the most famous structure - independent monument.

We also caught the sunset at the Ute canyon overlook. We entered the park from the west (Fruita) side and we came out from the east (Grand junction) side.

Next we headed out for camping in BCGNP. As usual, we arrived late in the campground but it was not difficult to find out our designated campsite. But after many rounds of pushes and pulls, the bear container did not open. What a bummer!! So everything had to go in the back of the car.  We were so tired that we went to sleep almost immediately.

Next day I wanted to let the camp-host person (A33) know about our bear-container problem. He promised me to contact maintenance to get that done as soon as possible. I took a walk towards the visitor center (via original driving road). The early morning view of canyon from Tomichi point was wonderful. Little bit ahead was visitor center. I inquired about different routes to go down to the river (bottom of the canyon) and realized that easier access would be through Gunnison route. For any inner canyon route, you need a wilderness permit. I walked back to campsite through the rim trail and view was astonishing. I also saw few birds and one of them was probably Peregrine Falcon. 

We chose to do the scenic drive and short trails on that day. We stopped at all the viewpoints. The park has two parts - south rim part and north rim part. Our campground was on the south part. On the north side there was a campground too but to me it seemed more of a remote part with thick vegetation. We drove to north side via road towards Gunnison town. On our way we saw 

Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado and Curecanti National Recreation Area. The closest city where we hoped to get some food was Sapinero. It was 25 miles west of Gunnison. Although we did not get any real food here but we got our ice-cream treats!! I got myself a green apple flavored Pepsi (Indian style) after many years. We drove to Gunnison for real food and ate at a Mexican restaurant - La Palamas. We came back home after doing little grocery (at Safeway) for next few days. 

On our way back we decided to visit the north rim side. It was a long drive and finally we were there before the sunset. Two coyotes welcomed us as they were looking for their dinner too. We drove and stopped at the designated viewpoints and caught the last rays of sun from Island peaks view. It was gorgeous. It was getting dark and we headed out for our campsite and realized we could have taken a shorter route while coming to this place. We reached to our campsite around11pm that night.

Next day, the main hiking was to get down to the bottom of the canyon and touch the water of Gunnison river. We were thinking about swimming but got disheartened by the ranger's warning. Actually it was not possible. the flow was 1000 cfs. (1000 basketballs / sec - a good way to think about it). After getting our permit we started from the top around 10am. The trail initially goes through the woods, then rocks, more loose rocks, then chain, dart and loose rocks and then finally big rocks. While getting down, it was sometimes very steep, so I slipped at least 3/4 times. We got down at the bottom of the river in about 2 hours. River was beautiful but the current was too strong. So we splashed water around and just walked by the river a bit. After spending an hour or so we came back up with took another three hours and it was tiring. We met Tara on this hike and we had a really nice talk and discussion about music/Indonesia/hiking etc. We were very tired and hungry so we decided to go to campsite and eat dinner. I tried to cook egg curry and we ate that with rice. It was perfect timing to catch the sunset from the sunset view. This was probably the best sunset for the entire trip. 

Next day my friend had to go back to Aspen, so I drove her to the end of the park so that she could go to crested butte and hike to Aspen. Later I learned that it was an amazing hike too. We had to prepare for our next destination - Mesa Verde NP.

Black Canyon Pics - I (Thanks to Amy)

Part -III (MVNP and GSDNP)

=======================

This park is actually close to Moab and I wanted to go here last time when I was in UT. But timing was too tight that time and we could not make it. So this time, we had to see it. 

Most of the cliff dwelling house were created around 1200AD here and the structure was very interesting. For most of the houses you have to get tickets for guided tour. We purchased ticket for two tours - Balcony house (at 4pm) and Cliff house (largest one) (5:30pm). Each of the tour were for an hour duration. We first went to the other side of the park - Wetherhill mesa. First we saw the Step House there. I wanted to do the Long Houses but we had to go to the other side before 4pm and that was a longer hike than we thought, so we skipped it. We came back to the Chapin mesa side and ate our lunch and decided to cover the mesa top loop after our guided tours. 

Tour guide (NP rangers) for Balcony house was really nice and tried to explain some history behind this place. It took more than an hour, so we had to run to the Cliff house for the next tour.  Tour guide was funny and he picked up two kids whom he requested to act as if they were from the old times. After our tour ended, we went to mesa top loop and visited all the viewpoints including the sun temple.

It was getting dark, so we drove quickly to the Far view area and finally to the Park point overlook. The view from it was really amazing but we had to drive out from that place quickly because that road apparently gets closed after sunset. 

Our next campsite was 4-hrs away, so we drove to that place (Oasis) which is close to Great Sand Dunes NP through Durango. We stopped to have our dinner at Denny's. We finally reached at Oasis at 2am in the morning. Finding the actual location of tent-sites was little tricky. But we somehow found it and pitched our tent for that night.

Next day we hiked to the high dunes (699ft). It was beautiful. It was not too hot and I met two interesting guyz (Alex and Jordon) on top, who work in Philmont Scout Ranch in NM. After they went down I spent another 20 min or so sitting there by myself and watched the vast expanse of sands all around me. After that I slowly walked my way down. 

This was the last day of hiking and we were tired by last eight days of hiking. So we did not do much here and headed back for Denver area around 6:30pm. For the last night we booked a hotel so that we could be little decent-looking before boarding the plane.

Coming to Denver area, we wanted to see the city and also wanted to visit Denver Botanic Garden (DBG). It was one of the best gardens I have even seen. Lynne (she was the one who gave us the info about DBG) also joined us here. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed the water lily pond (reminded me of Monet's water lily). 

After dropping off Lynne, we headed back to airport and returned our car. We took the shuttle and came back to the airport. Our flight was at 10pm and we landed at O'hare around 1:30am.

It was a really awesome trip with tons of memorable events. Colorado is indeed amazing !!!

Londinium

Last week I went to London for the first time. In fact, it is my first trip to Europe as well.
London is the capital of England and the most populous city in the UK. It was founded by Romans actually.

Day 1:
My flight was from Chicago to Heathrow. I got down at the airport around 10 am. The entire city is beautifully connected by various modes of transportation.
I was staying close to British Library, which is close to King's Cross station. It is connected directly from Heathrow by Piccadilly [blue] line.
I got my UK Sim card [Lebara] and with 3GB of data, I was confident to visit all the places with Google's assistance :)
I tried Airbnb for the first time. I met my host Marco at the front of the Euston station and went to the place around 2:30/3pm.
I was tired, so after taking a nap for 2/3 hours I went out.
I caught a city-line [yellow] train from King's Cross station and ended up at Tower Hill. From here you can watch Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. I walked on the bridge and then suddenly a loud siren went off and I ran to the other side. Guards closed both sides of the bridge. I still did not know what's going on.
Then after 5 min, I realized bridge was opening and that was an interesting thing to watch.
I walked on the riverside road also known as "The Queen's walk". I passed the Shakespeare's globe [from which Kolkata's globe theater's name came I think], London bridge, Southwark bridge, Millennium bridge, Blackfriars bridge, Waterloo bridge, Golden Jubilee bridge [ in this order from east to west]. Finally, I ended up at Westminster bridge. I also saw London eye from there. There was a big rally going on -  a protest for "black lives matter". They were saying "hands down, don't shoot". Police were there. It was the just under the Big Ben and parliament house.
I came back home around 10:30.

Day2:
Started the day with 3.5 hrs at British museum [walked there through Russell square]. I ate lunch at La Roma Bella (little food). I walked to Russell square station and took the train to Green Park [Victoria line, light blue]. I took a walk through the green park to Buckingham Palace. After that, again I walked through the green park to reach the Hyde park corner. Then I took Kensington road to go to see the Royal Albert Hall. Next, I took bus #9 to green park and then Jubilee line [Gray] to Baker Street. I wanted to enter Lord's Cricket ground but they did not allow me to enter as there was a match scheduled next day (Pak-Eng). 221B Baker Street - Sherlock Holmes's house was my next destination.
Oh, I also saw Westminster Abby, Church next to it and British Parliament in between lunch and Buckingham Palace.

I came back to my place. Dinner was Chicken Jalfrezi at the Rocket with mango chatni and papad.


Day3:
The whole day went into the meeting with followed by an awesome dinner.

Day4:
I took a sightseeing tour (conducted by Evansevans) of Windsor castle, the city of Bath, Stonehenge with Reese and David [driver]. Initially, I was picked up by their shuttle service near Hotel Pullman [Emily and an Indian driver].

Day5:
Tried to do a whole day city tour by myself. I started with British library.  Musical archive collection was mind-blowing there. From there I went to the James park. and walked again towards Buckingham palace hoping to see Change of guards but it was too crowded to see anything. Next, I walked to the Marble Arch and witnessed a protest from two groups - EDL (English defensive league] and a group of anti-racism. After that, I went to Oxford street and saw all the big buildings. Next, I saw the BBC building. and walked to Piccadilly circus [ more like times square],  Trafalgar square. I went to Big Ben and Westminster pier to catch a boat to Greenwich. This town was really pretty. Walked through the tunnel to cross river Thames. I had a chance to listen to some blues singer on the street. Then I took a walk to the Royal Observatory and saw the Meridian line. I came back to Bank by DLR line [upper rail]. I walked to St. Pauls Cathedral and had dinner at Cafe Rouge.

At night 10:30 pm I left for Heathrow as I had my flight on Sunday 8:30 am.

dinner places:
Tue: Fish-n-Chips near Tower of London
Wed: The Rocket
Thr: Gilgamesh, Horse Stable Market, The Stables Market
Fri: The Rocket
Sat: Cafe Rouge

Here is the Flickr Album  

Strandbeest - Exhibition

This amazing exhibition is still going on at Chicago Cultural Center (Feb 6 - May 1).
Name of this exhibition is: Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen


Full info can be found here - Exhibition Link

I went there to see this awesome exhibition, took pictures (also videos).

Here are the pictures: Photo Album
Here are the videos:   Youtube Playlist

CBG - Orchid Show 2016

Annual Orchid Show at Chicago Botanic Garden
I went there on 12th March, 2016
Here is the album:  Orchid Album

Big Island and Maui

In January 2016 I went to Big Island and Maui in Hawaii.
I went to Big Islands before so I was particularly looking for Maui which was gorgeous :)

Album for Big Island
Album of Maui

My driving map in Maui:  Driving map

Texas and New Mexico

We went to Texas and New Mexico at the end of 2015.
We visited White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Cavern National Park in New Mexico and Guadalupe Mountain National Park and Big Bend National Park in Texas.
We flew to El Paso and drove to those park.

Here are the links to Flickr Albums:

Album for White Sands NM        

Album for Guadalupe Mountain NP        

Album for Carlsbad Cavern NP  

Album for Big Bend NP

A palette of vermilion

Pictures of "Boron" and "Sindoor-khela" from our neighborhood Durga Puja on Dashami :-)
Flickr Album

Shubho Bijoya from a troop of monkeys @ our terrace

BaNdor r baNdrami
Today morning a troop of monkeys came and greeted us "Shubho Bijoya" :-). There were six or seven of them - jumping, dancing, thinking, eating, playing, chasing each other -- so funny. They were sitting first on our neighbor's terrace, then they came to our terrace and jumped on to our mango tree.

I never looked up the name of these species before. Now browsing pictures on the Internet, I think they are black-footed gray langur. They are also known as Northern plains gray langur (Semnopithecus entellus) or Hanuman langur which are the species of primate in the Cercopithecidae family.

                                                            

So these gray lengurs are our distant cousin (Thanks to Pokai for pointing it out).

Here are the photos: Flickr Album

Traditional House Puja @ North Kolkata

Historical anecdotes always fascinates me and if it is about old Kolkata, then it's magical. I can listen to these old stories for hours. Surprisingly, on Maha-Ostomi I had an unique chance to visit some of those very traditional old pujas with WB tourism. The tour was fantastic. It was like going back to those old time and revisit our old Kolkata. There are few famous house-puja in North Kolkata (Uttor Kolkata) that are still carrying that old traditional style puja.  They are also known as "Bonedi barir sabeki puja" (traditional house puja). We started the tour around 8am and finished around 1pm.

First we visited Rani Rashmoni's house at Janbazar (central Kolkata). It was started around 1780. Padmamoni Dasi and her husband Rajchandra Das were the main organizers. This puja was sanctified by Ramakrishna.  He performed this puja in special "Sakhibesh" attire. Bhog is cooked with holy Ganga water.

After that we went to Chandra bari. Bharat Chandra, the head of this family, came to Kolkata from Nadia in 1781 to avoid "Borgi invasion". "Ganesh Chandra Avenue" was named after Ganesh Chandra who was one of this family members. Goddess Durga is decorated with "Daker Saaj" and it is an "Ekchala" thakur. The "Thakurdalan" was really gorgeous.

Chattubabu-Latubabu's house was next. This puja was started in 1780. Ramdulal Deb, ancestor of two famous Babus - Ashutosh Deb (Chattubabu) and Pramath Nath Deb (Latubabu) started this puja.
As a tradition, a "Neelkantha" bird (a model bird was kept inside) was set free on the day of immersion.

Next was Khelat Ghosh's house. It is one of the important "Bonedi bari"-r pujos. Many legendary musician came here and performed at this place including Ravishankar. This puja is 166 years old. The "Thakurdalan" is one of the largest of such structures in Kolkata.

Finally we arrived at "Shovabazar Rajbari". Raja Nabakrishna Deb started this puja in 1757 to commemorate the victory in the battle of Plassey by Lord Clive. This puja is performed according to the "Brihadnandikeshwar Puran". "Daker Saaj" was totally awesome. This "Rajbati" organizes two different puja at two different addresses, almost next to each other. We were given coupon for "Bhog" here. What a delicious lunch to end our trip :). The "Bhog" consists of - luchi, chholar daal, dhoka, pulao, paneer curry, chatni, papad, laddu and jilebi :) ... yessss a total yummy meal !!!

This was an amazing experience.  Especially during Durga Puja, visiting those old "bari"s in Kolkata undoubtedly added a special showcase in my memory.

Here is the album: Flickr Album

Kolkata pandal-hopping on maha-sasthi

Durga puja is like new year to us. We, the bongo-sontans*, plan everything for these five days. There is absolutely no comparison between Durga puja in Kolkata and anywhere else in the world. After 12 years finally I had the chance to do pandal-hopping on maha-sasthi day of Durga Puja. I got down at Kalighat by metro and started walking. It was a really awesome experience after so many years. It took me about five hours to cover my area of interest and finally ended up at Jadavpur thana. The entire walk made me so nostalgic. Weather was not so bad, little humid though. Mudiali, Seba sangha, Gorchha, Madox Square, Hindustan Park, Ballygunge cultural, Tridhara, Ekdalia, Singhi park, 95 Palli, Jodhpur park, Babubagan, Selimpur and others were among those. Theme based puja now a days is very popular. Decoration was gorgeous. I also tried to take a peek at the tallest Durga in Deshpriya park, but due to huge crowd the police closed it for public viewing. Smell of the street foods, road side merchandize stalls, sounds of dhaak, exciting faces of teenagers - everything was just so Kolkata-ish :) It was an one-of-a-kind experience that took me 12 years back in time, reminding me of those college days in Kolkata - our ever-special kollolini tilottoma.

*bongo-sontans = bengali-kids

Here is the map:

Here is the album: Flickr Album

Voyageurs NP and Porcupine Mountains SP

Day 0 and Day 1

Labor day long weekend is the last long holidays before Thanksgiving. This time I thought I would visit Minnesota. So I planned a trip to Voyageurs National Park. It is about 10hrs drive from my place. As the name suggested this park is primarily built for accessing through boats. As I could not do much of the water activities, I thought a visit to a very popular state park in Michigan - Porcupine Mountains State Park (a.k.a Porkies) would compensate that :)

I did few hiking trails in Voyageurs. Most craziest things were colorful mushrooms. They were everywhere. I was really fascinated by their gorgeous colors. Not many ppl actually were hiking in those trails, so I enjoyed the serene beauty of mother nature. It has been raining during that week, so the color of the leaves in the trees, color of the moss and of course the smell of the soil after the fresh rain were spectacular.

To my surprise, two of my old friends (who now live in Minnesota) agreed to join on a very short notice. They brought a bbq kit with them and after our hike we enjoyed bbqing in a picnic area. Oh! yes, it was lamb :)

I camped in the Echo lake area. As usual I got there when it was dark :P When I started to put my tent down, it started to drizzle. After an hour that drizzle became a thunderstorm. My poor tent somehow survived the whole night (I was surprised). I never realized that it could rain so hard !!  This national park has five pack of wolves. So sleeping inside my tent with thunderstorm outside and listening to wolves howling -- it was quite an experience !

Next day I met Tim, Bret and another friend of them. They were from northwest side of Minnesota.
Tim and Bret were actually taking preparation for their upcoming marathon. I also met with the only bar owner in the town, Dan. He was very nice and kind enough to let me use his telephone to make a call.
Here are the pictures from the park Flickr Album 

Day 2 and Day 3

Next day I drove another 5.5 hrs to reach Porcupine Mountains State Park in Upper peninsula, MI. This is a state park right next to lake superior, the largest of the great lakes in North America. It was five already, so I quickly put down my stuffs in the designated camping spot and started hiking so that I can see some waterfalls.
The campground was beautiful. It is in the west side of the park and called Presque Isle campground.
But again thunderstorm came to sing with me but this time with a larger musical band. Around 2am in the morning I discovered that I was floating with my sleeping pad inside my tent, water everywhere. I was cold too. So I had to abandon the plan to sleeping inside the tent for rest of the night. Instead I went and slept inside my car :)
Next morning I did few hikes. Among them, Lake of the clouds was really pretty. Around 3pm I got really hungry and was looking for food inside the park. But I was unable to find a place to eat. I planned to drive a bit outside (towards Silver city) and discovered an awesome roadside food stall "Curbside Kitchen". Foods were delicious. This was a homemade food joint that run by Nancy and Bob, who were super nice.
After that, I went to the beach along the superior lake and Iron river. The color of the water at the junction were really cool. Then I went inside the park again and did my final trail to the summit peak observation tower to take a look at the park from high above. It was very beautiful. I could sense that the fall has started and the color of the leaves will begin to change soon. Undoubtedly, this park will be a gorgeous place to witness the fall colors. I got back home around 12 am and with my leftover lunch I finished the day with a great dinner :)

Here are the pictures from the park Flickr Album

Air & Water Show, Chicago

I went to the 57th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show (August 15 & 16, 2015) [official link]. Amazing skills were shown by those brave pilots. It was really an awesome show.

Here is the Flickr Album. 

Seattle - Cityscape

Last week I was in Seattle. It is a beautiful city with an old touch.
The roads, markets, food reminded me of Kolkata. I roamed around the city and took some pictures.
There are so many interesting people all over the town. Musics and street foods were very cool !!
I really enjoyed my stay :-)

Here are the pictures: Flickr Album

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is located in the state of Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula.
The park has many regions: 
Pacific shorelines, Alpine/sub-alpine areas, Temperate rainforest and Valley.

Here are the pictures: Flickr Album

Square Roots Festival @OTS

Old Town School Of Folk Music organizes this Square Roots Festival every year over the weekend (This year 10th-12th July).
Lots of music, musical workshops, performance, kids activities, foods, shops !!
Flickr Album 

Taste of Chicago

Flickr Album for Taste of Chicago at Grant Park

Independence day celebration @ Chicago

4th of July Fireworks display at Navy Pier. We gathered at Adler Planetarium's ground to catch sight of it :-)
Here are few pictures:  Flickr Album

IL Beach State Park

It was more like a wild flower trail. Flowers were gorgeous :)
Here is the album  Flickr Album

Great Plains @ Western South Dakota

I was planning to go to Badlands since I moved here in Chicago area. But somehow it was not happening. But this time, I got company and we drove to South Dakota finally.

Our goal was to visit Custer State park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and of course Badlands NP.
We saw lots of wildlife both in the state park and in the national park as well.
We had to face rain and cloudy sky multiple times but due to crazy light and shadow setting some of the pictures turned out very interesting.

It was a long drive but paid off really really well :) Badlands is a beautiful gorgeous national park and perfectly justify its name :) [ I am giving it a nickname - "Bindaas Badlands"].

We camped for 2 days - one night at state park and another night at Badlands. Both campsites were very nice and well equipped. There was light/medium rain in the night while we were at our tent trying to sleep. In fact rain sound was rather relaxing and helped us to sleep well :) [or we were extremely tired, who knows ]

On the second night of our camping we had to eat outside of the park. There is a tiny city [population is only 67] called Interior. We went to a local bar [Horseshoe bar] and owner baked us a pizza :) and there were 7 people in that bar [ so ~10% of total population :P]. We met two other persons there - Martina and one of her friends [Carmelita ?]. They informed us about a good breakfast service in the park and we had that in the next morning and that was pretty good.

We reached home at 3:30 am after a 12-hour drive :) Altogether we had to drive 2000+ miles in this trip :) 

Here are the picture albums:

Custer State Park: Flickr Album

Badlands National Park: Flickr Album

Also check out Abhishek's album on Flickr : Album

Mount Mitchell State Park @NC

Blue Ridge parkway is one of the beautiful driveways in the East coast. We went to Mount Mitchell State Park/Black mountain area last week. We camped one night at the state park and another night at Curtis Creek (in Pisgah National Forest). Weather was wonderful.

We met two very interesting persons - David and Dennis.
David is an adventurer, photographer, blogger and nomad (according to his card). He is traveling with his motorcycle.
Dennis volunteers to host in Curtis Creek campsite. He practically lives there with his family.

Here are some pictures:

Flickr Album

Macy's Flower Show @ Chicago

Macy's annual flower show at Chicago was a very interesting flower show - an art-style theme based. They named it - "ART in BLOOM". Below are the artistic styles that they displayed with map.

It was a indoor show with really really bright lights. So the color/contrast adjustment in camera was a nightmare for me. But anyway here are some pictures. I really liked the concept of this show.

Flickr Album

Orchid Show at CBG

Chicago Botanic Garden had an Orchid show. Here are some pictures Photos - Flickr

The Big Island of Hawaii

I had a chance to go to big island of Hawaii earlier this year (4-12th Jan).
It is an amazing place with the active volcanos, green landscape, shoreline, colored beaches (black/green/white/yellow) and of course fascinating people. To me it is like a compact form of our Earth :) in miniature version.
It was a very nice trip and my first time to any island.
My friend Emily was my travel buddy with whom I did multiple cool trips before. Check out her travel blog for details on this trip. We had lot of fun there.
http://vegandtravel.blogspot.com/2015/02/happiness-in-hawaii.html

We camped at four different places to explore various unique parts/features of this island.
Some of the unique experience that I had -  volcano hiking, swimming with sea turtle, swimming with dolphin, spotting whales. There were so much to do in a single trip.
Weather was super good !!! [specially when u compare the same time in Chicago :P]
I really enjoyed the beautiful green landscapes, tropical fruits, tropical flowers, colorful birds. All of the campsites were next to the pacific shoreline so we caught beautiful sunrise on few days :)

I tried to capture whatever I could but honestly it was too much for a machine.
You have to be there in order to appreciate the true beauty of the mother nature.

We met many interesting people on island -

Debra - She was in charge of the parking lot of the hotel I was staying at Kona. On the first night, I got there late at night and could not find any place to grab food. She was the person who gave me the address of the place that was open at that late hour and told me to try Katsu chicken. Although I ate pizza that time but I tried it later and found that it's a very nice dish and very similar to small Chicken Cutlet [friends from my state will know this :) ].

Our first Coconut man [forgot to ask his name] - who was in Chicago many years ago [what a coincidence !] and he still has a poster from Chicago Blues festival !!!

Ethan - our second coconut man [this time we asked his name]. He and his girlfriend (who is from Vermont) were volunteering in a local farm. He truly understood the type of the young coconut we were looking for. It was very refreshing.

Von - She runs a local restaurant where we had local fish curry, Indian style. She was very nice to give us some advice on sightseeing but I think she was too worried about safety on campsites in general.

Travis - I named him "The rocking ranger" of Volcanoes National Park. He was an awesome storyteller. We stood there and listened to his talk which was mostly about geographic/geologic/historical information on Hawaii volcanoes. His father was a surfer in the island and his childhood was spent on this island, so he had lot of stories to share and I was really mesmerized by all of his short stories.

Dan - On the last day of camping we met this person. He was in charge of the camping ground. On all other campsites, we could not find any body to show our permit. So I was excited to find one person to show the permit at last :) He showed us a good place near camp to watch dolphins and in the morning I saw there a flock of them swimming. He also suggested to go to Two-steps for snorkeling.

Well now the pictures. I arranged them in 3 parts.
First set is from my dslr.

First set - Flickr

Second set consists of photos from my underwater camera while I snorkeled. 

There are many great places to snorkel but we found two-steps (Honaunau Bay at South Kona, near city of refuge) is one of the best places to go for. Many locals have suggested that one too.

Second Set - Flickr

Finally in the third set, I have few underwater videos. Here is the youtube playlist link -

Short video - Youtube