B&B Experience 2

The second B&B stay was unplanned . We were in an accident in one of our trips down south in middle of night, middle of nowhere and it was raining like crazy. Lets leave the details of the accident for another day.The cop came in, called in the tow guy and tried to see if there was a motel close by for us to spend the night.There was just a B&B a few miles away and NO hotel around that state highway.

We checked into our second B&B Faircroft at almost midnight and our host was gracious and considerate towards us after he knew what happened. That night, we tried to get some sleep, but both of us were freaked out.

Next morning, it was still raining and all we saw was scattered homes, each on a really big lot and the house just across the B&B we were staying had a barn and a few horses. Well, this place was the rural America. Not the one that we see in movies, really small town, struggling businesses, people trying hard to make ends meet and yet had huge homes and had horses for pets .Yeah, I know, I dont get it too.

Our host Bill was a retired teacher, and he told interesting things about changing education system in the US and the politics associated with it. Described how people were leaving the town to move to big cities.He drove us around the town, showed us other two homes he owned and was renting. And spoke about how he fixed those homes himself.He dropped us in the middle of the town to get some lunch. We got some lunch and after that went around window shopping, looking at our phones ever so often,to hear about the replacement vehicle. The rain still hadnt stopped. Dont have many pictures , but just one shot of the gazebo in the town

After lunch, Bill came by and picked us up.For rest of the afternoon his wife gave me company and had a lot of stories of her own to narrate and I enjoyed listening to them as well.

Finally the call came, and we were on our way back home.Ha, it was one heck of a trip, but the warmth of our hosts at B&B made us feel comfortable.True, they had never ending stories and the least we could do was lend a patient ear.We paid only for the room, but received kind words and warm regards for which we could only pay with gratitude.

If you were to ask me, if I recommend staying in a B&B, I would say yes, just for the experience of it and you would be meeting interesting strangers and also be supporting small businesses esp retired people.

And this quote for our hosts, who made our most uncomfortable day comfortable -God Bless them both

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~ Mark Twain

B&B Experience 1

Here is my first Bed and Breakfast experience.

Our first B&B experience was almost 4 years ago. I had come over to Canada to see my DH(then DB, Dear Boyfriend!!!). It was around his birthday and wanted to spend some time with him.We decided to get away for some quiet 'us' time.

As is always, I had to take the responsibility of finding a place, making reservations, getting the directions and all the secretarial job associated with travel, while his majesty (who else D ofcourse!!) would grace the location with his presence. I quickly got to my job and after hours of googling, decided, B&B would be ideal for us, not a typical hotel setup, much more intimate family home setting.And we had never stayed in a B&B before, so it was exciting.Decided on one that looked good in pictures and also checked the reviews given in their website and looked like everyone who stayed there had a great time!

Well now, it depends on the kind of person you are, if you'd like staying in a B&B. For a person like me, I prefer a hotel better, why here are my reasons. This is not to say that the B&B we stayed was bad or the hosts were not good, but its just not my thing.

Stay in B&B if you
- Like a home like setting, mind you its not yours, its some strangers home, you pay to stay!
- Like wallpaper as opposed to nice clean wall painted in neutral color
- Like talking in low voice not to disturb other guests and the hosts
- Like to watch TV with other guests or hosts and hold the urge not to change the chanel, lest you offend other fellow audience.
- Like company of senior citizens
- Like to pay more than the price of an average hotel in the area.
- Finally last but not the least, like to listen to people who talk forever

We stayed for 3 days. I had to work, so we had planned i'd work from 7-3 and then we'll go around. But guess what, after a day of staying there from 7-3, I said to D, 'screw work, I got to go out.'

Out of 3 days, we went to 2 days to Niagara Falls, saw the falls for a bit and spent lots of time in Casino. One of the casino night, we came back at around 9pm, we had assumed that we could get some dinner in the town we were staying. Well now, we werent used to rural Canada, here people eat at 5pm and sleep at 8pm. By the time we got to the town, everything was closed and we were starving. We somehow found the lounge open in a hotel and rushed in before it closed too. It had very few people and we were probably the last customers.We asked the waiter to get us anything vegetarian to eat. He got us both some sandwiches, and after that I did not eat sandwich for a looong time!!!!!

After that I made a firm decision, no more B&B's for us. We just arent made for them.

Though it wasnt what I was expecting, it was an experience that enriched my life. The people you meet, the tales you listen teach you something, you forget the tales but remember the lessons, you forget their names but remember their faces.
On that note
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living -Miriam Beard

How I do my part.

I am a believer of going green and recycling.And I try to do everything I can to not use plastic in my daily life and recycle as much as possible.

Things I do
- Try to take reusable grocery bags when I go gorcery shopping. Sometimes the trip is unplanned and end up using plastic bags, but most of the time I do take the reusable ones
- For smaller things, I dont take the plastic bags.I just pop them in my purse.Actually this can give you some weird looks. Like today, I was at a pharmacy and bought few small things, like my cuticle cream and shampoo.And the kid at the cash counter, put them into a plastic bag, I took them out and put in my purse and gave him the bag back and he gave me the "Are you crazy" look and I told "I am trying to save the planet".
- Buying organic as much as possible.I know this is heavier on the pocket, but if there is more demand for organic, then more people will grow organic and eventually the price will come down(hope!!!) . I am trying to shift to organic makeup too.
- Recyle at home. Its so easy to toss everything in one bag and dump it. But believe me, once you get used to it, it just becomes habit.
- I dont buy bottled water, bought a brita water filter at home.There are a few times when I am travelling and have to buy bottled water.And then too, try to put the used bottle in the recyle bin. I f I dont find any recyle bin, they stay in my car until they get home!
- Use natural cleaners, the chemical cleaners we use in bathroom , kitchen, will eventually end up in our water sources, so makes better sense to use the bio degradable ones.
- I live pretty much close to everything, so we walk to the movies, to the grocery(not for heavier stuff ofcourse!) , walk to the restaurants, walk to the dry cleaners, walk to my favorite craft store...that gives us our share of exercise and saves money for parking and gas.
- If we are going anywhere public transit goes, we take it.Especially downtown, saves you from stress of driving and parking in downtown and is green.
- I recycle the batteries and old bulbs and appliances instead of dumping them in regular garbage.

I am glad that our apartment building has started the organic waste collection program, so now I can separate my kitchen waste and this will be processed to create organic compost that will given back to the community(thats a full circle!!)

Please do your part, though inconvinient at times, it is worth it. If not for you, do it for the future generations who deserve a better planet.
This native american saying is so true
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children

Pics from Tulip Festival

As promised here are the pictures from my weekend day trip.It kept drizzling whole day, it was wet and soggy, but the water droplets on the tulips were beautiful.

I wanted to add a watermark on the pics, but thought, huh, how many people will visit my blog and out of them how many will copy the image and out of those who copied the image will use it as their own or earn money from it.The chances are slim, so will save the effort of adding watermark, when I become a better photographer and my blog becomes world famous. Until then no sweat!

I see purple is the new black in the fashion world, here is a shot of a purple tulip drenched in rain drops.



The yellow ones

These yellow and red tulips dint look so pretty in reality , but the pic turned out pretty good.

These looked prettier in reality than in the pic

The constant rain since morning, made the poor tulips to bend sideways.

Finally, the stop at the parliament building, it was this stop, that our poor guide Monica lost to that curious gentleman.

Signing off on this note
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
Chinese Proverb
Dug out this chinese proverb from www to make it apt for our trip

Tulip Festival - Ottawa

Tickets for 2 - $104
Lunch for 2 - $32
Cruise for 2 - $32
Not having to drive for 10 hours - Priceless

We finally did go to Ottawa for tulip festival. To be honest I was disappointed, I guess in my head I was expecting to see something like tulips in Holland. And my expectations were raised, when I read there would be 300,000 flowers, but believe me, that isnt a big enough number if the tulips are scattered in small patches.

We decided to take the tour bus instead of driving (that was a good decision, otherwise, I would have had to hear earful from D after what we saw). If you guys are in Toronto, you would know the Safeway tours. These are tour bus operated mainly for the chinese community, the tour guide was chinese, our fellow passengers were chinese.

Our tour guide, Monica, was cute little chinese girl and her whole purpose of being on that bus was to prevent people from using the washroom on the bus.Once we got in the bus at chinatown in downtown toronto, she came upto each person and was asking "Did you use the washroom at your home before leaving?" Me and D tried hard not to laugh at her question.

We stopped at Markham and Scarborough to pick up some more passengers. At Markham, she repeated the drill, came to our seats "You ok, can you wait for 2 hours to use washroom?".

All through the trip, she made sure nobody used the washroom, everytime we got down, she would remind us to use the washroom in that place. Even before getting on the boat for the cruise on Rideau Canal, she came to everyone and said "Use the washroom on the boat".Her point was use washroom anywhere but in the bus,but the bummer did not come towards the end of the trip. Bus was stopped for 10mins photo time at the Parliment building. Since we already were there and it was raining, we returned early and guess what, as we entered the bus, a gentleman was coming out of the washroom.



Poor Monica, she couldnt stop this unstoppable gentleman from using the washroom on the bus, he probably just wanted to know how it felt like using the washroom on the bus, could be plain case of curiosity.

Another intersting thing that Monica did was, everything she told us what time to come back, she had a clock made of cardboard with movable hands and she would always show the time on that cardboard clock.Even then people would be late and she somehow managed to spot them and bring them back to bus.

Watched a chinese movie on the way to ottawa, this was like a typical hindi movie, a guy has a modern girlfriend, then meets a simple girl, falls in love with her.Some of the scenes from the movie could very well be passed off as a hindi movie.

On the way back to Toronto, saw 'Marlee and Me'.Cried my heart out when the dog died. I am not a dog person, but still was caught in the emotion.In the movie, Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson go to Ireland and stay in a B&B.That reminded of our B&B experience, am going to post that one of these days.

All in all, it was a fun day out. Will I suggest this, well if you have nothing exciting to do on a spring day and have $80 to spare , then give it a try. If not anything, the tour guide and fellow passengers will keep you entertained.

Pics in the next post.

Every journey teaches you something, I learned something too . I learned that thank you in chinese sounds something similar to "CiCi"(sounded like "see-see").I am not quite sure if it was Mandarin or Cantonese.

As usual, signing off with this quote

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St.Augustine

Exercise and Me

Went to gym yesterday after 3 months break and today my muscles are punishing me. My family has history of Diabetes, Thyroid problem, Heart problem. My elder brother hasnt reached 40 yet and already had heart attack.The only way I can be healthy is by preventing them. And as we all know that takes eating well and exercising.

I was pretty well focused before my India trip, oh yeah of course I wanted to look good in my saris. But after my trip, my excuse was "I am homesick...don't feel like working out" and after that "Oh... its too cold" and when the weather started to get better "imm...I don't feel like". I was getting good at finding excuses for not having to go to the gym.

Thanks to my neighbor at work, she pushed me to get to gym and while I was there, I disinterestedly got on the treadmill and got a couple of magazines to keep company during my boring workout. And one of the magazines I picked was about running and I stopped at the article about a breast cancer survivor ,who if I remember correctly ran 21 marathons after she was diagnosed. Well, if she can do it, then anyone can do it. It gave me motivation to finish my 35 min power walk and also did some weights, felt really good.

The reward dint come until this morning, when my muscles were screaming pain. But I'd rather be at the gym than at the hospital, so planning to work out at least 2-3 times a week. Lets see how that goes.

Here's to keep me motivated...a quote by Gautam Buddha
"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease"

On that note....signing off for the day

Pics from NYC trip - Rockefeller Center

Here are some pics of Rockefeller center from my NYC trip last month. As a typical tourist, went to Madame Tussads wax museum, visited the lady of liberty, walked in the fashion district, shopped in Macy's. But visiting Rock was first time and hence am posting its pics. Well maybe if I have nothing to write in the coming few days, will post other pics of the trip.

One thing that fascinated me about this building was the conviction of one man in the face bad economic times. While we were there, we saw a short film about the history of the building and about the man. This building was constructed during the Great Depression . The construction of this building was the demonstration that courage and conviction even in hard times are sure signs of success.

Here you go people, enjoy

The building, that provided livelihood to over 40,000 during its construction.

View from Top of the Rock after sundown.

Another shot from the top.

One of the chandeliers in the plaza.

The beautiful waterfall near the skating rink.

The skating rink, was setup in 1936, still providing recreation to New Yorkers and to visitors

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Ok people, me signing off for the day on this note, a quote by Tom Krause.
"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose"

More about Rockefeller center here.

For all of you out there, whom the recession has affected in a negative way, don't give up hope. In the harshest times of our lives is when our true character reveals. Hang in there, you will triumph and will stand tall and proud.

Lazy me...

I was supposed to blog about my travel experience to NYC last month. Well, there hasn't been a thing in my life I have continued to do for a long time. I get tired, bored and move on to something else. My DH is the only person who has kept my interest in him unchanged over almost 9 years now.

Decided to blog regularly, if not for my travel stories, just to vent my frustration, kill my boredom or just plain writing about myself. Talk about blogging and everyone is doing it these days. Wonder how we all want to talk about ourselves, our lives and how much it makes us feel important. Well I am no different, and so you will see as this blog grows (hopefully)

Now the next question, should i leave it as anonymous or should i tell people about my blog...hmm...question to ponder on. Well, for now, will leave it anonymous.

By the way, the trip to NYC I mentioned earlier was fun. This was my third time, one thing I saw for the first time was Rockefeller Center. Now I no longer see any fun climbing insanely tall buildings and looking down on the rest of the world. But this one was ok, to know it houses NBC, and all the shows I see on TV are shot here. We could have done the studio tour, but were late for it. Well, an experience nevertheless, though wont last in my memory for a long time.

Another interesting thing is, I have always been to NYC with family, first time around was with my elder brother, I was in Boston then . Second time was with my parents, when they were visiting US and the third time, this time was with my younger brother. Interesting isn't it?

Talk about traveling, trying to convince DH to go to the Tulip festival in Ottawa this weekend, lets see if we will be able to make it.IF we do , will post some pics here. btw, the DSLR, I am asking my DH to gift me isn't in sights anywhere.

Chalo folks, to all those who stumble upon this blog by accident, or you are regular visitor.Thanks for reading to my incoherent thoughts and hope you are entertained . Keep coming back, coz you never know what my over imaginative and over working mind will spit out.