Spring in Seattle

FULL SEATTLE PHOTO ALBUM
After visiting family in California, Abhay and I flew up to Seattle.  We had never been to the city and thanks to Abhay's cousin, Vijay, we had a great host and tour guide.

While it was already night when we arrived, we wasted no time in heading up to Vijay's roof to see the Space Needle.


Contrary to popular belief, the weather in Seattle was amazing for our trip. We walked down to the public market first thing in the morning.






Abhay and I with Vijay.


The famous street where the first Starbucks is located. Interestingly, the locals seems to prefer other local establishments.




Inside the public market.






Very fresh fish.


This place is also famous for the fish tossing.


Wandering around town.




Onward to the Space Needle.


Amazing views from the top of the Needle.








The Needle was the perfect place to watch the sun go down and the lights of the city to come alive.




The next day we decided to head out to Bainbridge Island which is just a short ferry ride from Seattle. I took a picture of a map to offer some reference.


This was the first and last bit of rain during our trip.


It stuck around for about 15 minutes which was just long enough to offer two fantastic rainbows during our ferry ride.














Bainbridge Island is a quaint, very residential town with homes that must have amazing views of Seattle and the mountains. On the Island we just wandered around its little shopping area and tasted some local wine.




Back from Bainbridge we stopped briefly to see the unique architecture of the Seattle Public Library.


We had an amazing time on our trip.

Spring in San Francisco

FULL SAN FRANCISCO PHOTO ALBUM

Abhay and I used our Spring Break (that's right - we still have a Spring Break since we are still in collage) to travel to California to see my grandparents.  We wanted to make the trip to visit since they were unable to travel to the wedding in November.  After seeing lots of family on both my mother's and father's side who are all in small towns outside of Fresno, we drove up to San Francisco to spend a couple days in the city.  We had a wonderful time wandering around the city.

One of my favorite spots I've been visiting since I was little is the Palace of Fine Arts.  The structure was built for the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915 and restored in 1967.







A nice shot of the Palace of Fine Arts from a nearby park.


Alcatraz


Shots of the city.








Yes, you can smell the chocolate.


Golden Gate Bridge




The Bay Bridge




Dinner with Abhay's cousin, Shalani (and her husband Vinay who is not in the picture) and Abhay's friend, Joe.


We even got to meet Shalani and Vinay's new daughter, Syona, who is completely adorable.

Krishna Temple in Udupi

FULL UDUPI PHOTO ALBUM
The Krishna Temple in Udupi was absolutely amazing.  It is so impressive that this temple can handle the massive amount of Hindu followers that travel to this site everyday.  Every visitor to the temple is also fed a lunch or dinner which just goes to show the amount of organization that goes into running this site.
These chariots are used during special celebrations.






There are small worship sites through out the entire complex.






This is the area where visitors wash their feet prior to coming into the temple.




This is the seat that Shri Madhvacharya himself used.


As you can see there are several different levels to this complex.


This elephant is special and blesses visitors.


These rooms are new to the site and will be used to serve meals.


The Paryaya Swamiji blesses and feeds all the animals at the temple each morning (Swamiji is the one in orange).


I was able to be blessed by the elephant.


One of the main temple rooms.


This was a special day to celebrate graduation of students who studied Madhwa philosophy (Sri Sudha Mangala). This is a really great achievement.






We helped push the chariot.


We also traveled to the place where Shri Madhvacharya was born.

Travel to Udupi

We are taking an overnight trip to Udupi. Udupi is on the coast of Western India and is the site of the Krishna Temple. This temple was founded by the Hindu saint Shri Madhvacharya in the 13th century. There are actually eight temples on the site and houses a school for priests.

We took a train to Udupi and as a result of traffic we were so late to the train we literally ran to catch it and had to jump on while it had already started moving. The scenery was beautiful.








Our seats on the train.


Arrival into the train station

India Reception

LINK TO FULL INDIA RECEPTION ALBUM

The reception in India to celebrate our wedding was a beautiful and amazing evening at the Leela Palace in Bangalore.   I feel so lucky that I was able to meet and celebrate with so many of Abhay's family and friends in India who were unable to join us in Philadelphia.



Our guests of honor, Abhay's grandparents.


Much to my delight, Ahbay's grandfather wore the knit cap I made him to the reception.






There are entirely too many great photos of family and friends - so please check out the full album.