Mbuni's Mbuti's and Mbubi's all found in the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

After a tiring and exciting adventure at the Olympic National park in Washington, a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo seemed to be the best option for the kids.

We have heard a lot about this zoo but never visited in our previous trips to Seattle. This time we entered when they opened and exit when they closed the park and must have covered every alley way in the zoo map (including a visit to every restroom and snack stall!)

This was by far the best zoo trip with the kids. Seattle apparently does not get that many days with such gorgeous weather. So people flocked to the park, even on a weekday and the animals were also well behaved. Chances are they don't get to see such nice weather either!

Zoo animals usually just show their behinds to show people how they feel about being in the zoo (which they did in plenty this time also), but for once they also came close to the people, fence, glass wall etc. to give the photographers a chance!

For some reason, the many women who visited consistently reduced the % cloth cover by about 50% compared to women outside on the street. These women were more scantily clad than women in California beaches or Disneyland on Memorial day weekend. Now, that must set the bar pretty low. The shorts that some girls wore made my shorts look like pantaloons!

Needless to say, the desi family dynamic in any place where there are way too many scantily clad non-desi women who constantly feel the urge to come tell the group that the embroidered salwar kameez with mirrors and chamki's is gorgeous, gives rise to some funny moments... (most of which are blog worthy, but will not be posted because my kids read the blog).

The menfolk, who are seasoned veterans, when it came to looking at cleavage that reminds you of the grand canyon, straight on and ignoring it effortlessly were checking the other men to see if anyone flinched. I think we should start calling it a game, aptly titled "vishwamitra". The first one to stare, gets hit on the head by his wife and the entire family.

To summarize, we saw,

Mbuni's : Mbuti's : Mbubi's in the ratio of 2 : 200 : 2000

not to mention the other animals.

You can use these photos to quiz your kids. Name the animal or bird by looking at the buttshots!

Sorry for the couple of x-rated shots there.. Must have been one of those "love is in the air" days in Seattle, and in case you are wondering...

Mbuni = Ostrich in Swahili
Mbuti = Woman wearing a shorts/skirt where ass cheeks are visible in Sundari
Mbubi = Woman clearly displaying bra or a clear lack thereof, again in the ancient extinct language called Sundari (a close cousin of Swahili)

You get to see the faces of the animals and birds in the next post, so do check back tomorrow.

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Mount Rainier

Just the highlight of a day trip from Seattle..

Paradise and the reflection lakes are indeed paradise!

More to follow..

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Olympic -photoblog

"Wow!" summed it up.

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Local economy

Just before going to Seattle, we had visited 3 of the local malls in the south bay here to shop for gifts and they were all downright gloomy. Not many people, not many bags, half lit malls (to save electricity?).

The malls in Seattle were brimming with people. Happy people, who were shopping after Christmas, with lots of bags in their hands. Decked out malls that screamed "happy"!

The contrast was too obvious.

It almost appeared as though Seattle had not yet seen the job slump that has hit the bay area.

This mornings news mentioned lots of job losses in the Seattle area and it made me feel sad. They are going to see what we see and it is not a pleasant sight!

Hope that this downturn gets reversed soon.

A lot of friends have forwarded me a funny news item. Apparently the Porn industry wants a 5 billion dollar bailout !!!

Looks like everyone wants a bailout of sorts. Reminds me of how at one point in TamilNadu (when we were in high school) 90% or more of the population was eligible to be called a Scheduled caste/ Scheduled Tribe/ Backward Caste / Most Backward Caste or Other Backward Caste. How could 9/10 people be backward? As a percentile that didn't even make any sense!

Vividly remember, going to Anna University to drop off our DOTE application forms with two numbers on the top of the application. There were piles of applications on the floor and you would shudder when you saw your application getting dropped in the forward caste pile!

Today eveyrone in the US is part of some group or other that has been hit and need some rescue or protection ...Banks, Securities, Insurance folks, Car Makers, Porn makers...

The entire post can be summarized in one word

Kaliyugam!

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Et cetera, or should we say Eggcetera?

On our recent trip to Seattle we did more than go to

Snoqualmie Falls
Boeing Future of Flight
Olympic National Park
and watch "The curious case of Brads Buttocks".. sorry for the slip, "Benjamin Button"

We also managed to go spend a few hours at a place called Northbend inspite of bad roads and snow, eat at Mayuri Chat, Mayuri Restaurant, InChin's Indian Chinese fusion restaurant, breakfast at Eggcetera, visit the local Indian temple on Jan 1st and and and and and...

Yeah, we were busy!

Just to close out the Seattle trip posts

1. Mayuri Chat served me a spoilt samosa which was refried (probably a previous batch?) Thoroughly disappointed!

2. Mayuri restaurant served us really great food. Food that compares to some of the local desi restaurants in the Bay area.

3. Inchin's was amazing. I knew there was a good chance of an allergy attack that too on New Year's eve but took my chances and went there anyways with the rest of the gang. Their Seczchuan fried rice was amazing. (Did get an attack later that night and paid the price for tasting something that either had peanuts or sesame seeds on it and was a spoilsport at the card games that night..) Truly amazing food and fantastic service!

4. BIL decided to take us to Egg's cetera in Seattle instead of a long drive to Mother's Bistro in Portland (yes, on the last two Seattle trips we have driven to Mother's Bistro in Portland to have brunch. It is that good!) But this time we decided to try Egg's cetera, a place with a look and feel that is similar to Mother's and the Brunch was great. The Pecan waffle was mouth watering, and we conclude

Mithun: Amitabh :: Egg's Cetera: Mothers

Leaving you with two pictures that defined the rest of the trip...

Inchin's on New Years eve

The Northbend mall a day after we landed in Seattle. The backdrop was so unique for an outlet mall.

We have already begun the process of leaving the trip behind in our memories and are back to the work, school routine!

The posts on life's "little" quirks will begin soon enough...

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