Pacific coast, Oregon

The next morning, after a sumptuous breakfast of chicken & pita bread sandwiches with some fresh fruit – (By now I had realized why my aunt had packed that huge amount of food … we needed it!) It was time to head out. The journey was a drive around the pacific coastal route, the famous Hwy 101. This route is amazingly scenic. Scenic cliffs, beautiful sandy beaches, the white foamy waves crashing on the cliffs and the sand – these were sights I could gaze on all day … I don’t know what it is about the ocean that is so relaxing. I always find myself refreshed after gazing at the ocean. Moving on, we saw a part of the coast where the water had carved out a hole in a rock and when the waves rushed in – the water spouted out like a whale spout – Here it is!


Continuing north towards Portland along the coast, my cousin mentioned that a visit to the Tillamook cheese factory was mandatory! So off we went to Tillamook. After a tour of the cheese factory and samples of the cheese, I was told they have some of the best ice cream around. Ate that too … By now I had long stopped thinking of the words “calorie count” …
We continued further north to the haystack rock – famous rock that finds itself on most of the Oregon posters and tourist pictures. The sunset and the rock at the beach was a picture perfect setting … The 80 mile drive back was over rather too soon, and I realized with more than a twinge of sadness that my vacation was almost over. Tomorrow, I would be heading back to Chicago. As I was thinking of getting back to the routine, I realized I would always have all these awesome sights and memories of my time spent with my aunt, uncle and cousin to reflect on whenever I wished – in the blink of an eye! Isn’t that awesome?

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

On Saturday morning, we headed out from La Pine State Park to my most awaited part of the trip. Crater Lake National Park … As we headed towards the lake, the panoramic view took my breath away ... My first glimpse of the lake was the North Rim in all it’s splendor.
It was a bright sunny day, but there was a cold breeze blowing – one that made you glad you had a jacket on.
Crater Lake was formed 7700 years ago, by a volcanic eruption that left a huge crater after the explosion. This is a land locked lake, there are no rivers that run into it. As a result, this is one of the cleanest natural water sources on earth. The only water that feeds this lake is from the rain & the snow that falls into it. Truly, the water is a hue of blue that could match the sky on a summer evening. I tried my best to get pictures of it, but none of these pictures can do justice to the actual view of the lake.

In this lake is a tiny island, called Wizard’s Island – the result of another minor volcanic eruption that created a mini hill in this lake. During the summer months, they also have ferry boats that take visitors to the island for a day trip. Unfortunately, we were 2 weeks too late for the ferry. However the view from the rim was awesome!

Various volcanic rocks in all their interesting shapes were by the lake. Here is one that looked like Smoky the bear, while another looked like a native Indian tribal chief completed with headgear!

We drove around the entire rim of the lake, and each section looked as awe inspiring as the previous one. Check and see if you have a favorite view!
Soon, it was time to move on to the next part of our trail – the western coast of Oregon. It was night by the time we reached the Umpqua Lighthouse campground. However, with a renewed burst of energy, we set up camp (including the tent) in a record time of 20 minutes, and were all set to go view the lighthouse!

It was the first time I was seeing a lighthouse at such close quarters. It reminded me of all the mystery stories about smugglers and fishermen that I’d read as a child … The flashing lights did look rather mysterious and sinister.
My photographs of this lighthouse are pretty bad, and I only have my lack of skills to blame. Need to spend sometime improving those before my next trip!

Inspiring marathon ...

Sunday, Oct 07, 2007 - The day dawned bright & clear. It was the day of the 30th Annual LaSalle Chicago marathon. It was last time the marathon would be run with the "LaSalle" name, since the bank has now been bought by Bank of America. It was also a special day for me since I was one of the volunteers who would be serving drinks at the event.

One of my friends was visiting from St.Louis, and he agreed to volunteer as well. Up bright and early, well - by weekend standards, we boarded the train to get downtown. As we stepped out of the station, a truly inspiring sight met our eyes ... Contestants in wheel chairs & runners in the 75 deg heat (the mercury would later climb to 87 deg by noon) and people lined by the sidewalks with banners, placards and pom poms - cheering the runners on their way! It was like all of Chicago had turned up to cheer them on.

We walked the 1.6 miles from Union Station to Grant park, most of the main roads leading to the venue were blockd due to the marathon. On the way my friend stopped to pick some free headgear courtesy Energizer that looked like pink bunny ears! Cheering the runners along the way, we walked on to our destination, where we were part of the beer tent. Our stall was supposed to serve out beer to the runners that made it past the finish line.

The first set of runners that crossed the finish line, were mostly professionals and athletes who were training seriously for other marathons. When offered a beer, they just looked at us in disbelief that we were serving beer at a marathon!

At this time, I was wondering if we would ever serve out the beer we had with us. However, this was to change shortly. Within an hour, the next batch of runners - amateurs who had trained and made it across the finish line were at our stall. These were people who had trained hard for weeks to be able to run the marathon and had made it!

Our camp was making up slogans like "You trained all year, now have an ice cold beer!" Quite noisy with our slogans, we attracted a lot of attention and soon had runners flocking to our stall. All of us volunteers were just running back and forth with cups of beer. The beer dispenser had 5 taps and we were just letting the beer flow out. Moving the cups out in an assembly line fashion - they were disappearing faster than we could serve them!

Never had I seen so much beer in my life ... flowing like water. It was an experience of a lifetime! For about 4 hrs - we served beer non stop. The runners were glad ... Most of them blessed us or thanked us, and expressed extreme gratitude in some form or another. Just watching their expressions as they downed the ice cold beer, the sheer contentment that you could see on their faces ... was worth enduring the heat to serve it.