Calamus

First off we had very little time at Salt Lake City(SLC). After feasting our eyes on red landscapes for all the 9 days we found SLC to be its stark opposite. The city was looking extremely bright & beautiful covered in snow all over in preparation for X'mas. In the backdrop were the beautiful snow-clad mountain ranges.  Although we had left our hearts at the interior villages in the state, the lure of more Indian food was undeniably a major attraction at SLC. And we did find a good place some where in the downtown. SLC is famous for its many varieties of winter sport activities. It was also the host of Winter Olympics in 2002. Salt Lake Temple - Landmark of SLC One of the major attractions was the Salt Lake Temple. We did not know what kind of temple it was until we went it in. It was a beautiful Mormon church, the biggest in the world. Built in the mid 1800s it has a very intriguing history. The Mormons are a major factor of the city, which was founded by Brigham Young an

"......I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." --- Robert Frost. Temple Rocks Indeed it had! The Scenic by-way U.S.12 in Utah is the road less travelled by tourists perhaps owing to the fact that its the longer of the two routes to get from Capitol Reef National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park. In colder weather the narrow-winding mountainous roads and steep hair-pin bends are treacherous. But we were glad that a little adventure and the ever-insatiable human urge to see beauty led us to take 'the road not taken'. My husband holds a general belief the journey is a far more pleasurable experience than the destination itself. Even though so far in the trip we had enjoyed both, this time my husband's belief was actually about to come true. Capitol Reef National Park The greener more fertile face of Utah is a hidden

Before going back to Salt Lake City, Utah, there was one more attraction in Arizona that we went to see. It was the Meteor Crater 35 miles east of Flagstaff off I-40. It snowed all night at Flagstaff and in the morning. So we expected to see a Meteor Crater filled with snow. But just a few miles down on the freeway and there was no sign of snow in sight(little did we know then that it would take a lot more than just a few hours of snow to fill the Meteor Crater). It was still chilly outside but very clear and bright. Except for the driving part, we really didn't mind the snow since we don't get much of it in Washington. So its always a pleasure to experience it. As expected, the Meteor Crater Discovery Center was at a location in the middle of no where in the Arizonian desert. I think the Grand Canyon in Arizona kind of hogs all the limelight, which is probably why there were not many tourists at this place, or I wonder if it was off-season this time of the year. Nevertheless

A lesser known local attraction in the city of Moab in Utah is the "Hole in the Rock", since most people visit Moab for the famous Arches National Park. While looking for local attractions in the Internet, I came across this small but wonderful place worth-mentioning. I hope that it gets more & more visitors in the future. Utah is filled with rocks of all shapes, sizes & textures. In the small caves and crevices that form in these rocks, animals, insects & birds make their home. After caveman days & the stone age, man gradually moved out of caves to build his own home. Today everyone wants to build or live in beautiful & sophisticated homes in tune with the times. So under these circumstances its very interesting to find a couple that called a rock their home. Albert & Gladys Christensen lived inside a massive rock, a most unique & unlikely place to call home. What is even more amazing is the fact the Christensens built, rather carved their own

Four Corners, in Utah  is a unique one a kind place in the US. Its the only place in the entire country where four states - Utah, Colorado, Arizona & New Mexico - meet at a single point. I had never heard of it before. I came across this place while doing the research on places to visit in Utah. The day after visiting the Arches National Park in Moab, we decided to go to the Four Corners. The lonely stretch of never ending state highway There it is!  It was a hassle free but long drive through the desolate arid desserts of Utah. We loved it simply because it was nothing like Washington, which is lush green all year round. Though there is nothing wrong with that, it tends to get a little boring after a while, a change of scenery is always welcome. The stark contrast was probably why we were able to not only absolutely enjoy but also appreciate the scenery of scattered dry grass and bald red rock structures in the deserted highways of Utah & Arizona. The lonely state highw

So much has already been said and written about the Grand Canyon that there really is nothing more or new that I could add to.  The very purpose of our entire 11-day trip was to visit THE GRAND CANYON(even though I would very much love to refer to The Canyon in block letters every time, I am going to resist the temptation - with great effort - in the rest of the write up). The plan was to end the trip with a visit to The Grand Canyon - a perfectly befitting grand finale(although it was not planned so on purpose). After some research we had concluded that we wanted to visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon since it had all the world famous and most spectacular views points and also North Rim was closed towards the end of Fall & through Winter(:p). Most people that visit The Grand Canyon National Park stay at Williams, Flagstaff or at the resort with in the National Park. We stayed at Flagstaff - a 90 mile drive from the park. To our amazement, on the way to the Canyon was the Be

Today I was giving my daughter her lunch while watching TV. Martha Speaks  was on and we saw a dinosaur chasing a caveman. I was just about to explain to her that the fierce looking creature is a dinosaur when she turned to me all excited shouting T-Rex, T-Rex , pointing to the TV!! I was taken by surprised to see that my daughter, who by the way just turned 2 last month, not only knows that its a dinosaur, but also knows its species!! I remember very vividly that I was first introduced to dinosaurs in 7th or 8th standard in English class in India. We had a chapter on these pre-historic cold blooded animals, and back then it all sounded just like an story from long long time ago. But here in US dinosaurs sound more real to me. Even though Man and dinosaurs are many millions of years apart, now a days there is more awareness about dinosaurs, there is so much more information and we have identified more number of species than ever. We have more knowledge on how they might have lived,