It has been the longest since I have written my travel diary. Since there has been a couple of exploration after moving to the US, I would love to share in my experiences with the readers. If you are not in the habit of writing one, it is an amazing activity to relive the vacation days, and keep it in your memory log. There is no best time to pen down your thoughts, but the fresher it is, the better. I would suggest taking some time off and writing while you are on the trip or as soon as the holiday gets over.
Without further delay, the first one for me has to be about my first ever-camping trip. This one was at Northern Cascades, an alpine landscape, around three hours away from Seattle. After heavy breakfast, we left for our trip .Since everyone was an experienced camper, had taken care of all the provisions and requirements that were required. The car was full, so were the seats with the passengers and other supplies we picked on our way. The last hour of drive was pretty with scenic view.
There was no room at all in the vehicle making it super fun. We were a group of five and with the conversations that were, flowing and music played; we did not realize how fast we reached our campground (Newhalem), which was booked online. We were located in the central and near the washroom area, which was convenient, for us if we were to use in the night. The visitor center was around the corner and there were lot of school kids who had come for the camp. I found this to be such a perfect outing for the kids.
There were various campsites around the area and as soon as we reached, we started putting up the tents. It was such an interesting experience to learn how to make one and reminded me of my tiny camp that I made when I was in school. On the other side, the lunch was being prepared. It was super fascinating to see the different types of utensils that we were using to make the meal. The hammock was up, the greens looked beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was warned that it would get cold in the night, especially while sleeping on the sleeping bags. After lunch, with some quinoa and veggie sambar mix, the most delicious meal, we went out on a River loop trail.
An hour of walk was splendid, seeing hundred types of leaves, to big bark trees, I was mesmerized seeing the greens and at the same time blessed that the nature has so much to offer. There were some trees, which had algae on them, yet looked pretty and some affected by lightning. We saw some wild mushrooms and berries on our way as we reached the riverside. The water was extremely cold and we could not stay with our legs dipped for more than couple of seconds. As we walked, we saw an amphitheater, in the middle of the park; as we discovered that different activities are held in the morning. We sat on the benches and closed our eyes; we could hear the river gushing and the sound of the leaves swaying clearly. We were so close to nature and there was so much calm. Everything was perfect in this nature world.
The cellular network was down and it was a bliss. I feel in our everyday life the way we have been addicted to our phones, this seemed to be the best way to connect to nature and ourselves, get answers for many questions that we are looking for. We did not miss our cellular connection for a bit, as we were connecting to something more humongous.
After getting to our campground, we started playing some board games and doing the things that we love doing. It was time for dinner and I witnessed the best barbeque ever under the stars so bright. We ate variety of peppers, corn, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, potatoes for the night with the peanut achar on a perfect-lit campfire. With conversations over a game, we did not realize how four hours passed by quickly. We did not gather it was getting colder, as we were next to the campfire but as the night passed, the air was becoming chillier. We put all the food materials back in the car, as the bear loves eating them if kept outside.
There was a couple trying to figure out where to keep their remaining food that they wanted to carry with them on their backpacking trip since they did not have a car. That was interesting. With all of this stories, I almost started wandering if the bear does come in the night, what would the repercussions be. The night passed by fast as we snuggled into our sleeping bags and we were up for yet another adventurous day.
We started the day with some crisp bread with bukunu. After disassembling our tents and keeping our supplies back in the car, we set ourselves for more exploration. We reached Lake Diablo, which was gorgeous. It looked like one from the postcards, turquoise blue water and a fleet of ducks passing by, green trees all around the hills and the lakeside covered with pebbles. It was the best place for each one of us to immerse in natural surroundings. After spending about an hour, it was time for us to leave.
On our way back, we wanted to grab some huckleberry ice cream (which is the best-est ice cream I have ever eaten), but ended up raspberry picking. That was a lot of fun, as we went inside the farm and chose our own raspberries. The scorching sun made it more exciting as it was our first time. We did not realize the amount of berries we had all collected, and it turned out to be much more that we had to think of alternatives about the berries.The clock was way past our lunchtime and we wished we could teleport ourselves to the restaurant. We were an hour away because of the traffic and started running our imagination guessing different objects formed by the cloud. We finally reached, enjoyed the best South Indian at Chilies and as tired as we were, we set to explore a little more of Seattle in the night. To one of the best experiences and perfect camping trip !
