New York City - Come what may Rain or Shine

New York city is quite a lovely tourist destination. It is extremely well organized (as you would expect being a large city), well marketed. There are numerous organized tours by companies such as Grayline Tours, City Sights etc. The double decker Hop On Hop off buses are really interesting. Sitting in the top deck of a Hop On Hop Off bus, you are literally a few feet away from the traffic signals when they cross the traffic Lights. That makes it even more Interesting!

(A view of the Famous Bull near Wall Street)

There are several routes in these Hop on Hop Off buses. The Down town loop takes you around all the down town areas- Wall street, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Empire State Building, Soho, Chinatown, Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center site. The Uptown loop circles around the Central Park. The Brooklyn loop is especially intersting as Brooklyn resembles me a bit more of suburbia USA.

(A view of the Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park)

New York is very very different from a regular mainstream US city/ Town. It reminds me a lot more of Singapore or Mumbai rather than the US.

(An Interesting Shot at the Wall Street Subway Station. I am hoping this becomes some kind of a class shot. Although I would imagine, it would be very easy to relicate. -:)

During our visit, it continually rained. However we continued on top of the Bus with light rain coats provided by the Tour company (Gray Line). It gets quite chilly because of the rain, dampness and wind effect. It was thrilling to get close to the traffic lights.


A visit to the WTC site was a difficult but important visit. One can imagine the scare and horror as must have been felt around September 11, 2001.

(A View of Times Square. Is it time to cut down on excess Lights to save the Environment)

Central Park is one of the best places to visit in New York. It is a comfortable, manageable size and has lots of Interesting places strewn all around it. There are castles, lakes, parks all within a small park. It is extremely clean, well kept and maintained, thanks to the spirit of Volunteerism.

(A welcoming view of the Statue of Liberty from the Ferry with Monsoon

Clouds in the background. What a welcoming sight it must be from the early

Immigrants after a Long trip across the Pond from Europe)

No trip to New York is complete without a Play. We caught a Off Broadway play for around $40. It was very Interesting and Interesting to see the Cast be able to live their roles -live without the benefit of a support crew.

New York rocks!

Top Travel Ideas for New York:

- Spend at least 3 days for a meaningful tour

- Use the Hop On Hop off tours if the weather is reasonable. If timing is tight you can just go on the complete Hop on Hop Off tour without getting out of the Bus

- To save costs use the free Staten island ferry. This gets quite close to Statue of Liberty

- Spend lots of time in Central Park. Its quite a lovely Park

Mount Rainier - from Seattle

Northwestern US is a lovely Tourist destination. Evergreen forests, fast growing and robust economy courtesy of Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc., plenty of hiking and biking trails and friendly people. It is considered the Biking Capital of the world for the right reasons.

Seattle is really lucky to be a Metro with a Major National Park less than 100 Miles away. Yahoo! maps direction to Mount Rainier from Kirkland/Redmond areas marks the total distance at no more than 80 miles.

While there are multiple Park entrances to the Mount Rainier National Park the only one Open year around is the Nisqually Entrance. As a rough guidance, the best times to visit Mount Rainier (excluding skiiers) is end of May to Late September/Early October). All other times the park is Open only from the Nisqually entrance to Paradise.

Mount Rainier's tallest peak is around14,000 feet. The videos/stories in the park museum bring out the difficultly in climbing this peak. But at 14,000 feet it is still only 1/3rd Mount Everest. Imagine How hard Mount Everest must be?

National Parks in the US are treasure, they are superbly maintained and manned by high quality men and women - the Park rangers. I Spoke to one during my Park Visit; apparently its quite hard becoming a Full Time Park Ranger. What amazing careers and lives these men and women must Have?

(A Shot taken from the Longmire National Park Inn)
(View of a Falls in Mount Rainier)




View from Paradise in Mount Rainier, True to its name it is Paradise



Mount Rainier is apparently an Active - yes I repeat an Active Volcano. There are Volcano escape routes all along Highway 7. While the exact number of Glaciers in Mount Rainier is probably a Quiz question, there are apparently more than 20. (Correct answer 26)
The National Park Inn right in the heart of the Park at Longmire is an amazing place to stay with no TV's and shared Baths. To get the best from a Mount Rainier Visit, I would recommend a stay in this Inn.

View of a Crow eating some food put by tourists at the Park. Feeding Wild Animals is the worst you can do to both the habitat and the animal.