2009 - a year to remember

2009 started in New York City. We watched the crystal ball fall on TV. I went around various famous places in New York with my cousin sister and her husband. It was a nice trip and thanks for the "Vengaya Vatthal kuzhambu". Then I came back and got myself a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition car. And after that I started traveling. There have been days when I have taken my car and driven just for the sake of driving with no place to go. When the fuel tank was close to empty, I used to re-fuel and return home.

We went for the skiing summit a few times, to the waterfalls, some hikes - all in my car. It was fun. I used to get tired and get a sound sleep. I used to go and play games like Poker, 5 cards/Uno, Taboo in my seniors' place. We played Squash in the weekends at the health club. We played Table Tennis in the late evenings. It was quite good. Inspite of all these efforts, I was not happy. There are a lot of reasons for it. I felt like going back to my home country.

There were so many happy days in 2009. I wish it continues this way. Ya, I am, on a whole, not so happy but it is ok with me. It happens and happiness will be mine soon. Some highlights of 2009 so far:

A trip to Alaska
This is like a dream trip for anyone. We went to Fairbanks. During our flight, we saw the Northern lights. The dance of light in the sky will just mesmerize you. Then we took a couple of AWD vehicles and I drove one(RAV4) most of the time. It was a great experience to drive there. We stayed in an isolated bungalow on top of a hill in the Cleary Summit, far away from the city lights. We saw the dancing bands on the sky that day. By that night, our mission of the trip was accomplished. But then we had planned a lot more for the next few days. We went to a small town called North Pole. Then we went to a vast open land of ice. There we went on a dog-sledding ride. Sledge dogs pull you on ice and then through the "Arctic"* trees. After dog-sledding it was Snowmobiling. This was the ultimate fun ride. We rode the snowmobile with full throttle - no traffic, no rules. We climbed sharp cliffs of ice with it. It was awesome.

The next few nights there were only faint displays of Aurora. It was not so great as on the first day. Then we went to the famous Denali national park. We hiked to the Horse-shoe lake, a frozen lake wearing snow-shoes. It was a great hike. The drive back from Denali to Fairbanks was an unforgettable one because of the snowstorm. Driving in the snowstorm with low visibility is not so easy. Then we went to Chena Hot Springs on the next day and we took bath in the open at -20 deg F. The water was at 70 deg F. It was an amazing experience. Then on the way back we spotted some wild animals. Overall, it was a great trip.

I will continue more on the next trips in my next posts. Now, leaving immediately to see Tulips for the 3rd time. I doubt if the people in the gardens would have seen Tulips longer than me. :)