Girls Night In!

Being total filmy, I couldn't stop myself humming this beautiful melody of movie "DIL CHAHTA HAI" entire day when I started thinking of sharing another post all about my friends.

Dil Chahta Hai
Kabhi Na Beete Chamkile Din
Dil Chahta Hai
Hum Na Rahe Kabhi Yaaron Ke Bin

Thought of sharing some glimpses of "Girls Night In" hosted by me few months back. What can be more entertaining than to spend some good time with your besties. Who needs a reason to celebrate, when we are the reason of celebration. These are the girls I laughed, cried and grew up with past 10+ years.

Some fancy DIY projects and fresh hand made food and I was all ready to rock and roll with the girls. Girls were surprised to the set up and also menu. Laughs, good times and memories we created and of course more bonding in this "we time". No kids , no hubbies or no extended family to take care, just time for ourselves. 

We were too busy laughing and giggling about the night that we forgot to take the cameras out for snaps, so leaving you with memories from our mobiles.

Had fun planning personalized Bollywood themed frames for each one!

My Welcome Board.

Some yummilicious food and Bloody Mary drink for the night

Personalized water bottles.

They all get to keep theirs as the memory of the night!

Not much fancy but pleasing to eye table set up for my girlies.



How can I forget my frame ;)

The pictures reveald all the storie of the night. We had good time with gossiping, lots of chit chats and well spent time together. 

If your "Girls Night In" is long over due, settle in these ideas and soon plan your own to catch up with your girlfriends and update your memories. Till we meet again, toodles. 

JOURNEY TO CANADA - 2

"Gar firdaus, ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin ast." -  These are the words for beautiful Kashmir in India - meaning if there is a heaven on the earth, it is here, it is here, it is here. Kashmir is and will be truly a paradise. But today I want to resemble the same words for my part of the world.

Sit back, relax, read and catch up some eye candy pictures of beautiful villages Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta with me.

No words, no pictures, no reviews will ever describe the beauty in these places. This is mere an attempt for you to visualise and visit the place in near future for once in a life time.

Snow covered mountains and sparkly water lakes have immense natural beauty, own unique appeal that you can't capture enough in the clicks of your camera.


In addition to our journey, we took Via Rail to reach Jasper from Vancouver.

It was an over night journey but we enjoyed every bit of it.The vegetarian food, the small yet efficient sleeping cabins and above all the breath taking views of passing by lush green trees, rain forests, cloud covered peaks and crystal clear view of the water.  I could not agree enough that it was the best way to glance rockies without the strain of driving.

The view from our Panoramic dome.
  We witnessed one of the most beautiful sun rise through this glass dome. 

On a two weeks summer vacation we covered all 4 provinces.

If you have a mind set for a relaxed and unhurried journey, be the guest of Via Rail, you will be happy with the Canadian hospitality on the tracks.

We ended our epic rail journey at another beautiful destination - Jasper.

Unfortunately for us, Jasper wasn't a happy stay due to their special visitors  "mosquitos". Probably our stay in woods made it more intense. We heard that they are pretty vicious in few summer months in Jasper.

Well, we had a good company of old friends so, we kept our day busy in Jasper viewing the hot spring lakes and beautiful Maligne lake.

This area is a habitat of animals, so you have chance to see them frequently on roads. We bumped into moose, deer and bears couple of times

 

Wherever you go,  mountains reveal their beauty at every angle and you will be only left with "ooohs" and "aaahs".

One of the most photographed location in Jasper thorough my lens -  Maligne Lake

The best ride was from Jasper to Banff. The impressive scenery will force you by all means to stop by and pose for them. It was like a portrait drawn by god.

If you are behind the wheels you can explore easily, take detours and dawdle yourself for as long as you like.

The dramatic scenic drive lead us to Columbia Ice Field. A must do adventure for thrills. The gigantic vehicle drove us to Athabasca Glacier.

  

The drive on top of the glacier was the most fascinating experience. The bus took us all the way driving on glacier with its big giant rubber wheels. It was a terrifying but amazing ride to crystal clear rivers and mountains.

A special 6 rubber wheel drive bus. 

Our bumpy ice ride to the glacier.

Yep, we did taste the rivulet water from the ice field. This is the purest water you can drink.

The glacier colour was a real turquoise blue

 Our next destination was "Banff" - an enchanting town! Probably Mr. Yash Chopra wasn't aware about this city otherwise he would have ended making few lovely duet songs here for sure. Cloudy hills, fog forests and mild cool breeze wanting me to stay back in the town forever. 

One day stay was good enough for me to fall in love with the place.

Moving forward to the most incredible point of our travel.- Lake Louise. The only word you will come up with is - WOW! I think I have used all the super, magnificent, amazing, spectacular words for this post. But Lake Louise was above all these and more. I am short of all adjectives to describe the beauty.  It truly is a piece of heaven on earth. I was totally hypnotized by the beauty.

Lake Louise is named after the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria

Fairmont Lake Louise will be the best bet to stay near the lake. A beautiful venue for a wedding also. They were dressing up a part of the property for an evening reception for a wedding.

The highlight of the journey: the most fascinating and beautiful Lake Louise. 

All the cities we visited were in summer months, but if you are a winter player, you may visit these places as they all offer plenty of winter sports and I bet the Canadian Rockies will be more gorgeously beautiful in winter times.

For now, I am just drooling over the wonderful vacation memories. Signing off and leaving you to plan an adventure and excitement for yourself in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. I guarantee you’ll find one of the most beautiful, unspoiled vacation place with spectacular scenery that will take your breath away.  Till we meet again, toodles!

Monday Mood Booster

Ready for Monday? No, not really! Me neither. I know we are on the same boat I am already dreaming Monday blues and specially those hyper active mornings. 

Rest assure, my morning scenario does not differ from many of you...packing lunch boxes, hustling around to get the tea ready, squeezing some time in between for my prayers and above all getting those munchkins ready on time so they don't miss their ride to school.

Well, no matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up is my "mantra". So, Monday bring it on, I am ready! 

Sharing the thought of my board to keep us going for the rest of the week. 

 

Have a happy Monday and a wonderful week ahead. Keep an eye out for the upcoming post of Journey to Canada part -2 pretty soon. Enjoy the weekend until it lasts. Till than toodles!
 

JOURNEY TO CANADA

I feel so proud seeing little ones growing up. My younger one read the whole post when I was giving final touches. His cheerful smile brought back many happy memories on his face. On the contrary, we need them to be there in our memories when they grow up and fly away from our nest. Creating memories and cherishing the moments will take us long way in their absence, and that is the best part of vacations, being close to them and adore the time with them.

Striking down another post, a post about a journey, a new destination and one of the unforgettable vacation which we will treasure over the years.

Being proudly Canadian, here I am with my first travel note of B-E-A-U-TIFUL British Columbia.
Often people consider Vancouver as the province but it's just a city of British Columbia (BC)
In this journey we will cover Vancouver, Victoria (the capital of BC) & Whistler.

Landing at Vancouver embarked visible culture of west coast with their ambiance of totem poles scattered at the airport.

Personally I found that Vancouver was much like any other metropolitan city. Busy roads and busy people. A visit to Stanley park and Capilano Suspension Bridge and an extra drive along the coast can be covered in a day.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

The must place for those who loves their lenses. Breath taking scenes and cliff views. A bit pricey but worth going if you visiting first time. 

Totem poles at Stanley Park

We drove around the  Stanley Park from different locations of the city but it would be more fun to take a stroll. Beautiful scenary and being in the middle of the city you have a view of the bay. Not much of a sport person who would bike down or walk the whole day in the park but people love doing so, may spend their whole day in the park. 

If you have a sweet tooth, must pay a visit to La Casa Gelato in Vancouver for 200+varieties of ice cream - Gelato. I bet you will have hard time deciding your favourite flavour or might just get full with the try outs they offer.

 VICTORIA, BC

If you’re in Vancouver, you can't miss out the magnificent Victoria city on Vancouver Island. It is worth a journey. I was more fascinated by all of the other cities han Vancouver. We drove to the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen and took our car in a ferry to drive around in Victoria. 

Parliament House, Victoria

China Gate- Built by Chinese community back in mid eighteen century. As my kids study in their history, many Chinese migrated to Canada for Gold Rush or building Canadian pacific Railway made their own space. This is considered Canada's oldest China Town.

Empress Hotel Victoria.

 NOODLE BOX - Asian restaurant was perfect for our lunch choices in Victoria.

BUTCHART GARDEN

Unlike my mom, gardens never excite me. I am not much of a garden person though I make sure to buy flowers for me and my home décor in timely manner. But I had to change the statement, as soon as we entered this Butchart Garden. My words won't enough describe how beautiful garden we witnessed. Here are some snaps from my lens. If gardens inspire you - go ahead read the interesting history

         

WHISTLER , BC                                  

I highly insist a visit to Whistler while your stay in BC.

You will miss out the immense beauty of  Mother Nature. 

I was speechless to understand so much to do in this mini town with the mountains, gondolas, village, sightseeing and more.

 In contrast to other people in the town we were less adventurous or I should write less risk takers. It sure was a town for the lovers of snowboarding/skiing. We met many avid skiers or snowboarders from not only North America but many different parts of the world who re-visit Whistler more often for the love of snow sports. Whistler is the number one over all ski resort as per voted by the readers of Ski Magazine.

The beauty of Whistler lies in two huge mountains -  Whistler & Black comb. We took peak to peak gondola ride and had an amazing memorable dinner at the peak of Black comb mountain.

Gondola Ride

Ski Gears

The view of Whistler town from the top

Peak of Blackcomb Mountain

Inukshuk

  

The top view from Whistler Mountain.

I am not much of an adventurous person, but when I was forced down for zip lining, I had to put up a drama for not doing it but the 3 musketeers of my family forced me to face all fears and take up the challenge. I must admit it was the most - the most wonderful experience of my life.

Highlight of the Whistler visit was the zip lining.  We took the 5 - zip lines with ziptrek.

The first trial one was in the town

I was literally forced down to leave the tree top and jump. 

Last one and longest one was for 90 seconds.

Well I survived the zip line and here sharing the amazing experience with you all. Digging down the memory lane for putting up the post brought back many sweet memories. More beautiful and more serene part 2 is in pipeline to tour actual Canadian Rockies and some via rail journey.

  Till than, toodles. 

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Image: 3: Source

Rest all images are clicked by me and do not use without permission.