Laure and Quarup

With an amusing ride through Delhi traffic we were on our way to Agra. Our friend, Sidharth, arranged a private driver to take us three hours south to Agra. After two days on our feet in the blazing humid heat we were more than happy to sit in an air conditioned car and watch the country side go by.

See a closer view of our interactive map.

We stayed wide awake as our driver raced around other cars and autos driving down both sides of the roads. We constantly heard horns blaring and occasionally saw camels pulling carts.

Morning traffic while leaving Delhi.

You can get a ride even if there are no available seats inside the bus. There's plenty of room on top.

See a closer view of our interactive map.

Before checking into our hotel, we stopped at Agra Fort. In the scorching heat of the afternoon, we took an audio tour of the complex. The fort provided a clear view to the Taj Mahal for Sultan Shah Jahan to remember his late wife, Mumtaz Mahal for whom the Taj was built.

Perfume water once flowed in this desert fort's fountains.

Our first view of the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort.

Once we checked into our hotel we didn't want to leave. Not only was the air conditioning an amazing relief from Agra's heat but our hotel was very luxurious and our plan to see the baby Taj that afternoon flew out the window.

ITC Mughal Hotel lobby

The next morning we took a guided sunrise tour of the Taj arranged by our hotel. Security to enter the Taj was tighter than our airports after 9/11. Metal detectors and pat-downs prevented any food, lotion of any size, or stuffed animals from entering. This included our travel buddies, Mochi and Rug, who had to stay behind.

The closest the boys got to the Taj Mahal.

An electric powered auto arranged by our environmentally conscious hotel.

 Seeing the Taj up close was breath taking. We both agreed it is truly a world wonder.

Our guide knew the best spots to take photos.

Love

Checked another world wonder off our bucket list.

We made it back to our hotel before the sun had a chance to turn us into a sweaty mess, had breakfast, and packed our backpack. Our hotel arranged our next private cab for us and we were on our way to our next stop - Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Quarup's Indian experience started before we even arrived there. An European girl next to him on the plane frantically kept complaining to the stewardess about the airplane food: “Too spicy! Too spicy!”

Quarup knew we were on the right flight.

See a closer view of our interactive map.

Upon arrival in Delhi, our good swing dancer friend, Sidarth Kapoor, received us and kindly hosted us at his parents’ beautiful home. This is how it felt leaving the air conditioned airport:

“SMACK” -- slap on the face!

The weather in Delhi was hot (108F or 42C) and humid and didn’t ease up much even at night. Sid kindly offered us an air conditioned bedroom, which we came to appreciate very dearly especially after the power went out in the middle of the night. We later found out the power goes out at least once a day in most parts of India.
But Sid really took us under his wings and made us feel very comfortable. He cooked us some traditional Indian cuisine that his mother had made for him growing up. We quickly became accustomed to the daily ritual of chai and cookies.

Starting off each morning in Delhi with Sid's chai and cookies

Half way between San Francisco and India we stopped for a 12 hour layout in Italy. Since we spent time in Milan last year, Quarup suggested that we spend the day at Lago di Como.

See a closer view of our interactive map

Directly from the Milan airport we set out by train to the lake. The train ride to Como took an hour, including the transfer at the Saronna Station. The weather couldn't have been any better for a day by the lake. After grabbing a gelato in Como's plaza, we boarded a ferry for a two and half hour scenic ride to Bellagio.

Bathing in the Italian sun on the ferry in Lake Como.

Two and half hours of villas like this.

Wonder if any celebrities got married here.

Once docked, we spent a few hours exploring the tiny cobblestone streets of Bellagio and had lunch outside on a terrace. Quarup mentioned that Bellagio was nothing like the Vegas version except for the water fountain on the lake... 30 kilometers away.

Main entrance into the town from the dock.

Narrow streets of Bellagio.

Bliss.

The only resemblance to the Vegas Bellagio Hotel.

Overall the layover was relaxed and easy going. Here are a few more snap shots from our day. After a day of sightseeing and being in the sun, we were ready to nap during our red eye flight to Delhi.

June 30 - July 24

Over Memorial Day weekend, we visited Northern California's Redwood National and State Parks, home of the tallest trees in the world!

Route to the redwoods.

We have arrived!

This network of parks contains a number of impressive old-growth Coastal Redwood groves, many documented to be up to 2,000 years old. These can be enjoyed while driving through the park but the best experience requires hiking amongst the trees.

Coastal Redwoods, the tallest trees in the world!

Laure hugging a big friend in Stout Grove.

At night, we camped at one of the parks' many campgrounds and did two of our favorite things: built a campfire and cooked on it!

Laure summoning fire.

Porterhouse cooked to perfection!

Although the old growth trees get all the fame, a must-do hike is the Fern Canyon - where its walls are beautifully covered by various species of ferns. Water streams down the canyon walls to join a creek that runs down the canyon to the nearby beach.

Fern canyon.

A breath taking easy hike.

Different fern species compete for water.

On another trail to view a waterfall, we crossed through a prairie where we spotted many Roosevelt elk grazing.

These elk look friendly.

We were amazed to see elk at such a short distance, yet we were slightly annoyed that they were on our trail (didn't they see the trail sign!?). The right thing for us to have done would have been to turn around and head back without disturbing the elk during what we later discovered was their mating season. Instead we did the wrong thing, which was to make noises and wait until they moved out of our way.

Get off the trail, stupid elk!

This worked for a while until we encountered a particular elk that did not want to cooperate. At first, he moved up a nearby hill as if he acknowledged us. As we started walking down the trail, he began urinating, which seemed a bit odd. After another moment, the elk charged us! We screamed like hell while bringing up our hiking poles and got out of there pretty damn fast.

OMG, run!

On the way back we avoided all elk by leaving the trail and cutting through thick bushes with another couple of hikers that were also charged by elk.

Up the bushes we go.

No stupid elks here!

After the scary encounter, we became more conservative about approaching wild animals. We used the car a lot more.

Try to charge us now, angry elk!

Mandatory car-in-tree photo.

The park highlighted several scenic drives. We enjoyed breathtaking views of the California coast. This will never get old.

California coast. Where we can safely view grey whales.

On our way home we took the old 101 highway and drove down the Avenue of the Giants. It's a 31 mile long scenic drive through a well preserved Redwood forest. The road offers a few spots where you can get up close and personal with nature.

Even fallen trees dwarfed us.

Every 18 years the northwestern United States gets an amazing daytime sky show. The moon passes between the earth and sun creating a unique solar eclipse. Since the moon is further from the earth, it's not large enough to create a total eclipse. With perfect alinement, the moon passes in front of the sun leaving just a sliver of sun shining all the way around the moon creating a Ring of Fire. The next time we'll be able to locally see this event is in 2023.

Trajectory where ring of fire was visible

We drove four hours north to Redding, California's Sundial Bridge for one of the best views of the Ring of Fire. The perfect alignment of the moon and sun only lasted four minutes but we thought it was worth the long drive.

Ring of fire diagram

We can't directly look at the sun because the sun's rays would burn our retinas. To look directly at the sun we had to wear special solar glasses or welding glasses to protect our eyes. These lenses are so dark that everything looks black unless you're staring at the sun. We were extremely lucky and bought two of the last few solar glass in northern California after waiting over an hour in line.

Protective sunglasses

Laure and the sundial bridge

A view of the solar eclipse through our new glasses.

Another way to view the solar eclipse is by watching the sun's shadow through a small pinhole. Several people at the park had homemade pinhole eclipse watcher set up to share with others. We are able to create a pinhole with our hands and watch the shadow change as the moon passed between the earth and sun.

Homemade eclipse shadow watcher

The shadow of the Ring of Fire

Creating pinholes with our own fingers.

Seven Rings of Fire

Spaces between tree leaves also casted eclipse shadows

We're already talking about a road trip to see the Hermit Eclipse on August 21, 2017. It will be a total solar eclipse that runs the full length of the continental United States.

Trajectory of 2017 total solar eclipse