Our Valley of Happiness

I am one of those people who are extremely lucky to have the love of their life with them. I always look forward to his birthday, the best husband ever deserves the best birthday he possibly can get! This is the time of the year i invest most of my time and thoughts on how to make it special. This year I am giving him a crocheted scarf with some simple monogram and baking an Opera cake.Super excited! The cake of the day was one of my favorites, Opera cake . Though its such a time consuming one i think its all worth it. I love the different layers of colors an textures with spongy almond cake. Needless to say it was a super hit with my hubby ;) For the scarf I started with a chain of 340, its 70+ inches.The basic pattern i followed is from here . I modified the pattern to add new colors and to make it symmetric. I love the chain spaces stitches and the x stitches and the texture it creates. Even before i completed the scarf i was so in love with the textures i was getting:D

Our day 2 at Upper Peninsula started at around 10AM on Sunday-05/27/2017. We had the pictured rocks cruise planned for the afternoon and few sightseeing for the morning. Pictured rocks national shore is a magical place. The painted rocks will make you wonder at how diverse our beautiful world is. It is a must see-never to be missed-place in Michigan. I don’t know what took us this long to visit this magical place. I already am in love with Michigan, and after exploring the pictured rocks, the beauty of it made me emotional and made me feel so proud to be a Michigan resident!

We had been planning this trip for so long and had to postpone so many times. This time during the memorial day-5/29/2017, finally we made plans to the beautiful Upper Peninsula. Our day started slowly around 8:30 AM in Mackinaw city. We had our breakfast and drove to Kitchitikipi at Palms Book State Park, around 2 hours from Mackinac City. You would be driving on M-2, which is kinda MI's own PCH :D The lake is just beside you at times, offering great views of deep blue water.  Kitchitikipi is a hidden gem of Michigan. The name means big cold water and is commonly known as The big Spring. The gorgeous emerald pool acquired its color from the high Sulphur content in the water. The early native Americans called it “Mirror of heaven” which really suits the gorgeous pool. We reached Palms Book State Park around 11 AM. Kitchitikipi is small walk from the parking lot. It is MI's largest fresh water spring constantly at 45 degrees. So even in winter, the spring w

This is one of the trips that I thought would be a fully urban feel and turned out not to be! La has its own fair share of everything;beaches,canyons,markets,gardens and the posh city life. We reached LA on the night of 26th April. We were staying near to the beaches, so it was a short drive from airport. Once we landed we grabbed dinner and shopped for water and snacks for the rest of the week. By around 10'o clock we were all set to hit the bed.

This year My sweetheart received a handmade card. The card had an opening at the front which will display a photo, and once you open the card, the photo is replaced by a second photo. Inside of the card: The cake for the year was black forest.

Our plans for the second day at glacier was to drive the 'Going to the sun road', and hike the HighLine trail. Going to the sun road is 50 mile very scenic drive through the mountains. It can be accessed from the east entrance at St Mary or the west entrance at West Glacier. We chose St mary, thinking we could watch the sunrise over St Mary lake when we start the day. The scenic road can be done by park's free shuttle system too. They are free and make stops at all attraction points along the route. Since we had to reach the other side of the mountain, we took our car.  The highest point on the route is Logan Pass which is home to two very beautiful and breathtaking trails, Hidden Lake trail and HighLine trail. The 12 mile HighLine trail is carved through the Garden Wall mountain ranges, you walk through a very narrow trail which is made right through the mountain. Though a lil scary this is a highlight of Glacier National Park.They also have a hand rail hung to the m

Glaciers are formed by the repeated snowfalls in winter, and snow melts in summer. When snow accumulates by each passing snow fall, the snow becomes ice and heavy. This causes the mass of ice+snow to move around shaping and corroding the rocks. For this reason the mountains surrounding the glaciers will have very unique shapes, steep drop off points and can have sharp edges. Sad thing though, as temperature increases by global warming, the snow gets time to melt away and glaciers will slowly disappear. I read that, glacier national park had so many glaciers,which now dont even exist.

Our day started really early by 5:40 AM. We directly walked to yellowstone lake to watch the sunrise. We spent some time there as the sun rose and painted the mountains. Serene.

We were planning for this yellowstone trip for so long. Since we were staying at Oregon for an year, and never were able to make it to Yellowstone it was a real regret all this while. But this time everything got lined up so good, and we were off to Yellowstone within a week.

Bright blue beaches surrounded by golden sand dunes; Warm water surrounded by sunny hot dunes; Sleeping bear dunes national lakeshore is a real treat. Various types of activities await you there. Swim in the lake, climb the dunes,scenic drive, or  hike the forest enjoying the stunning views of Lake of Michigan/Glen Lake. We reached the park by 11 am on 9th July. It was a lil tough to find the visitor center, apart from that the whole trip was a blast. Our plan was to hike empire bluff trail, pyramid point trail and climb the 150ft 'dune climb'. We had to change our plans as the day progressed and it turned out to be one of the best weekends ever, in MI.

Ludington Statepark: Day2 Our day 2 at the park was reserved for hiking the park. There are many trails which you can explore among which we selected the Light house trail,Skyline trail and Big sable river trail. Ludington statepark is indeed the best state park of MI including all the activities you can possibly do. You can see so many people parked beside the road towards Lake Michigan. If you park your car and walk to the beach it will feel like its your own private beach!

Ludington Statepark: Day1 Ludington statepark is like a natural amusement park! Its like you visit Acadia in NH. From the moment we entered the park I was in love with the park. I already wanna go back. Its a combination of dunes,trails, river,unique canoe trail, hamlin lake and the might Lake of MI. Statepark is just between the lake of Michigan and hamlin lake,which is connected through sable river. It all are so serene and beautiful. This obviously is the prettiest statepark in MI I have ever been. A view of lake MI.

Lansing river trail is a gorgeous trail through Lansing connecting so many attractions in Lansing. The trail is almost 20 miles long, paved road.  It passes through Potter Parker zoo, Lansing Old town, Hawk Island, Lansing downtown and so many other such things. This weekend we decided to hit the trail near the Lansing city market and visit the Old town. In most of the areas you walk through the side of grand river enjoying the trees, river and the freshness.The trail is very well marked too. How beautiful is it?  

We are blessed with so many trail,parks and lots of serene nature just around us here in MI. Everybody should take time to step out and breath the pure air, and experience the nature for yourself. MI is called 'City of trails', which is absolutely the fact! We started to hawk island after our lunch and it was very sunny and pleasant. You will have to pay a small fee of $3/$5 to enter the park. You will have many things to do in the park starting from hiking to snow tubing.

Muskegon State park is a combination of forest, dunes and lake. There are so many trails inside the park to chose from and we chose Hearty hikers loop and lost lake loop. Hearty hikers loop includes scenic ridge areas where you can overlook the tree canopy and Lake Michigan. Lost lake loop is a trail surrounding 'Lost lake', as the name suggests, a lake lost in the woods! We reached the park by 11:30 on 5/22/2016. We grabbed a map from the park entrance. Since we already had experiences with hiking the dunes we knew it was not going to be easy. So we packed our hammocks, snacks, fruits and enough water for the hike. When you arrive Lake Michigan welcomes you with all its charm. Weather was very good and there were so many people fishing and boating.

I have never flied a kite! Never! Let alone flying one, I have never seen anybody flying kite,well in front of my eyes neither did I ever made a kite! So when we heard about the kite festival in Grand Haven, I couldn't wait to be there. While making the plans we read the reviews about this beautiful trail at 'Rosy mound natural Center'. We decided we will hike/walk the trail first and then go for the festival. It was a comparatively short trail, just around 3 miles. We thought it would be perfect for the day and headed right towards it on 5/21/2016. We reached the nature center by 11'o clock and just the first look on to the trail proved us we were not wrong. It was beautiful trail, very well maintained. I don't know if I can call it a hike, it would be a walk, but rated a lil above medium for its difficulty. The trails consisted of 70% stairs, at some area really steep stairs. But everything about the trail was just so beautiful and fresh.  We started walkin

When you have a state park just close to your home why would you ever wait? At this point I am completely in love with Michigan and just want to explore everything in here.  My husband and I travel a lot, but never have done a planned hiking. So i thought this would be it, close to home and around 8 miles. That would be perfect for a start. So we picked a date, and decided to start early morning on 05/07/16.I was so excited for our first hiking trip, but just two days before our hike, the weather forecast changed for Saturday, and showed heavy thunderstorm.I thought we will have to postpone and so we didnt do any preparations and slept really late on Friday. Next day morning to our surprise the weather changed to Sunny with clouds. We couldnt wait, I marinated some chicken and put it in the oven quickly. We made plans on which trail to take and what all to carry. After all these mess, we started by 10:30 from home.