Wimberley Glassworks - a hot place with a cool demo

A while ago, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That", an animated television series for kids, used to be a big hit at our house. In one of the episodes titled "Marvelous Marbles", the cat takes the kids to a sandy beach where they are shown how sand is used to make glass. For once, I felt like I could play the role of this know-it-all cat. After all, Wimberley Glassworks, a glass-blowing studio with free demos, was less than an hour's drive from our house. My husband's colleagues had recommended this place to him a long time ago but we had not visited yet. Now that the kids were interested, we should visit. Two years rolled by as we kept thinking and planning !

The plan to visit materialized only with external force or out of town visitors. When someone visits, you keep thinking of cool local places you can take them to. A glass-blowing studio sounded like a "cool" place. In reality, it turned out to be a "hot" place. The high heat required to turn sand into glass keeps the studio heated, making winter the best time to visit this place.




On a Saturday morning in January, we headed to Wimberley Glassworks, driving along huge ranch houses and vineyards through scenic hill country roads. When we reached the studio, we were allowed to walk in and watch the demonstration that was already in progress. We watched in awe as the glass was being shaped and molded into a fine piece of art.

The main furnace operating at 2100 degrees

Shaping the glass piece

Well, that was quite interesting but kids wanted to see more. They wanted to watch a piece being made from start to end. So, we waited for the next demo that started in 15 minutes.

Waiting to see the next demo

Glass-blowing !

Rolling over mineral bits to add color

The artist started off talking about the history of glass-blowing and went on to show us the various tools. His passion for the art was quite evident as he detailed each step during the demo and also answered questions from spectators patiently. Starting from a few grains of sand or silica, he and his assistant went on to create the next piece of beautiful art. The furnace in the studio is kept running 24x7 at 2100 degrees and usually never shut down. It was used to melt the silica which was then shaped by blowing into the stainless steel blow pipes. To add color, the  hot piece was rolled over crushed mineral bits. It was amazing to watch the different minerals transform into vibrant colors. A few other tools were used to further shape and smooth the glass piece. The final result was a beautiful vase. It was gently removed from the pipe and placed into an annealing chamber. This helps to cool down the piece slowly and prevents the glass from cracking.

The final result !

All of us, including my brother and sister-in-law who were visiting us, loved the demo. After that, we browsed the store looking at the exquisite display items in the gallery.

As each piece was uniquely hand-crafted, the prices, as one would expect, were on the higher side. However, the informative and fascinating demos were free of charge. It was not required to buy anything either. Though most of the bigger pieces were expensive, there were a few small things that we would have loved to check out. Maybe, next time!

Store/gallery

Before curious little hands could break any delicate artwork, we quickly exited the store heading to the next "cool" destination to show off to our visitors.

If you are visiting Texas hill country and interested to view a demo or purchase a few of these exquisite hand-crafted pieces, you may check out Wimberley Glassworks website.

Kanyakumari - Temples and Legends

Almost all our family trips in India include a visit to a temple. With innumerable Gods and Goddesses and countless legends, these trips are quite interesting in addition to being spiritual.

On our recent trip to Kanyakumari, a town at the southern-most tip of India, we visited a few temples, out of which the first one was quite crowded. A crowded place is not in my son's league and he starts whining and complaining. If we can come up with a story or facts about a place, highlighted with what interests him, the visit becomes a breeze. And many times, he even asks us to visit the place again! As we walked through the crowded streets to the temple of Kanyakumari Devi (an Indian Goddess), complaints started pouring in from our little guy.

To Kanyakumari Devi temple

The temple was also crowded and boys have to take off their shirts before entering the inner sanctum. All this added to the little guy's frustration. Thankfully, there were many display boards with legends about the temple. According to a legend, the beautiful Devi was about to get married to the God (Lord Shiva) who resided at nearby Suchindram temple. However, the marriage could not take place at the scheduled time as the Devi had to stay back and fight an Asura (evil being). It seems the marriage was intentionally interrupted by Sage Narada who knew the Devi would lose her power to fight the Asura if she got married. The tricky Narada had sent back the wedding procession by making the bridegroom party think that the auspicious moment for marriage had passed. When she heard the wedding was off, Devi was quite upset . In her fury, she scattered all the decorations including colorful powders arranged for the ceremony. It seems these powders are what made the multi-colored sand one finds around Kanyakumari beaches.

When we entered the inner sanctum, the first thing we noticed on Devi's idol was the bright nose ring.  It seems many ships had used this as a reference point because it used to be visible from a great distance. As we walked around the temple, we saw a wooden green parrot that was Devi's vahana (celestial vehicle). We also noticed that most devotees were wearing green clothes. Green seemed to be Devi's favorite color.

As much as the legend made this temple visit interesting, it also made the next temple visit on our itinerary a pleasant experience. Now, the kids really wanted to go and see the God at Suchindram! As we headed to watch the sunset, there were no more complaints, only requests to hear the story over and over again.

Contrary to the first temple, Suchindram temple was not crowded. In spite of being tired after the long day, we felt very relaxed after this temple visit. The main "Gopuram" or entrance to the temple was huge. The pillar-lined walkway around the temple was impressive. One of the pillars was actually a collection of pillars that make "SaptaSwara" (seven sounds) of classical Indian music. We spent some time around these special pillars, putting our ears on each, tapping, and trying to figure out the sounds coming out.

As we were walking back, our little guy got all excited and kept grabbing my hands saying he saw Kanyakumari Devi's parent. I was surprised and asked him how he knew Devi's parent. He pointed out what he saw. Actually, he had said he saw Devi's parrot! There was a big green wooden parrot on one side of the courtyard. He was thrilled to have made a connection from the story he had heard.

We headed out and clicked couple of pictures outside the temple. Photography was not allowed inside the temple.

At the entrance to Suchindram temple

After the visit to the temple

Next day, we visited another small temple on Vivekananda rock built around the footprints of Kanyakumari Devi. A man at the door to the temple was narrating the story behind those footprints. It seems the Devi had come to this rock to do a penance to win over Lord Shiva's mind and marry him. She had stood on one foot for the penance.The kids thought they had to pray on one feet in this temple and were trying hard to balance themselves!

Temple on Vivekananda rock

Many years later, Swami Vivekananda had also come to the same rock to meditate. In those days, when this was not a tourist spot, it would have made a good place for meditation. Even with the crowd of visitors, it still was a very peaceful place.

A trip to the tip of India

Cliff beach at Varkala, Kerala

Our recent visit to India was centered around a cousin's wedding and there was not much time to plan anything else. As a quick family outing, we went to Varkala, a coastal town an hour away from our home in Kerala. It has one of the few beaches in Kerala with a cliff. Watching the sunset from the cliff brought back memories of family trips to Kanyakumari, a town at the southern tip of India. My mother-in-law mentioned the rare sight of seeing sunset and moonrise above water from this beautiful place. This can be seen if you visit on ChaithraPoornima, a full moon day in April .

Family outing to Varkala

While returning from Varkala, we just checked with the taxi driver whether he has done any Kanyakumari trips. He presented us the typical itinerary: watching sunrise and sunset, visiting Vivekananda rock in Kanyakumari, along with a stop at Padmanabhapuram palace which was on the way. Knowing our religious inclination, he also added visits to Kanyakumari and Suchindram Hindu temples. Having viewed a sunset the previous day at Kollam beach, and that day at Varkala cliff, my husband and his brother thought it may be interesting to watch a sunset from Kanyakumari the following day.

Sunset at Kollam on first day followed by sunset at Varkala the next day

By 9:00 am the following morning, seven of us were ready and all set for the trip. My in-laws opted out of this hurried road trip. Due to some delays in getting the right taxi, it was almost 10:30 am when we started from Kollam. We passed Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, and stopped at a small restaurant in the outskirts for a quick lunch. Though the trip distance was only around 150 kilometres, the traffic and congestion in the numerous small towns along the way was making it a long drive. The kids did not complain as they were busy playing numerous fun games with their aunt and cousin. As we drove farther south, the Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountain ranges became visible from the road. The drive was quite scenic as we passed many coconut and plantain groves with the mountains as their backdrop.

Coconut and plantain groves with mountain backdrop on the way to Kanyakumari

It was past 4:00 pm when we reached Hotel SeaView, where we had booked rooms based on a friend's recommendation. The hotel could not have had a better name. From the eastern windows of our top-floor room, all we could see was the sea! A beach with fishing boats and the ferry dock seemed quite close from the balcony. The Vivekananda rock and the statue of Thiruvalluvar stood tall amidst the waves.

View of Vivekananda rock and Thiruvalluvar statue

Without wasting any time, we freshened up and hurried to Kanyakumari Devi temple, a short walking distance from the hotel. The temple visit was interesting and described in this post Kanyakumari - Temples and Legends. From there, we headed out to sunset point, passing Gandhi Mandapam, a memorial built for Mahatma Gandhi. We were in a rush to catch the setting sun and did not have time to go inside  the memorial. The warm glow of the setting sun welcomed us to the western side of town. As it was a bit cloudy, we could not see a perfect sunset. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the soothing light and the colorful skies that appear in that magical time between brightness and darkness.

And on the third day, a sunset in Kanyakumari

The air was much cooler as we walked back to the van to head to Suchindram temple. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all famished. None of us had eaten anything after the not-so-good lunch. Surprisingly, the best part of the trip was waiting for us - Butter Paneer Masala! This cottage cheese dish was the current favorite with the kids and they order it at any place where they see it on the menu. Though the rest of us were bored by it, the dish served in the restaurant at Hotel SeaView was delicious. After dinner, we were recharged and ready for a stroll. As the streets were being washed and cleaned, we headed back to catch some sleep, making sure to set alarms to wake up in time for the sunrise.

Sunrise at Kanyakumari

Next morning, I fumbled in the dark room trying to find the alarm which was playing a song in the loudest volume. It took me a while to realize the sound was coming from outside. The loudspeakers blaring outside from the surrounding religious places would wake up anyone new to the place. We need not have wasted time trying to set the alarms. There was still more time to the sunrise but it was interesting to look out the window. People were walking to the seashore, a lot of faces were staring from other windows and big crowds were piling onto building tops.  No wonder some guide books phrase this as "India's Ultimate Sunrise Gathering".
 
The clouds cleared up just enough to show us the beautiful rising sun. It may not have been the most spectacular sunrise. However, for a person who has not seen any, it was indeed a beautiful sight. And it was quite special as it happened to be my birthday that day !

Watching a new day arrive on birthday!

"M.L. Vivekananda" ferry to Vivekananda rock

The hotel offered a nice buffet breakfast. Through the restaurant windows, we could see a big line outside the hotel gates. This was the queue for the ferry to the Vivekananda rock memorial. Thankfully, the hotel offered ferry tickets and we did not have to wait in the long line. That day, the tides were low and trips to the Thiruvalluvar statue were cancelled. This statue of a famous South Indian poet seemed to be a new addition in this area. I had not seen it during my previous visits to the place, more than two decades ago.

Wearing bright orange life jackets, the kids enjoyed the short bouncy ferry ride through the waves.

A ferry ride

Vivekananda Memorial on the rock

When we got off, we had to leave our footwear outside before heading into the memorial. The ground was already heating up but the white painted lines made it quite okay to walk back and forth. I thought about Swami Vivekananda who had spent three days meditating on this rock before heading to attend the conference in Chicago to introduce the concepts of Hindu religion and philosophies to the rest of the world. He is known as the person who made Hinduism a world religion. Many times, I feel the statement is misleading. It was not about promoting a religion but about his realization that the whole world can benefit if different cultures learned from and shared with each other. The West, which had material comforts and infrastructure, was lacking the peaceful bliss, which the East had owing to their spirituality and simpler lifestyles. Years later, we are in the global world where the differences between East and West are thinning out. Did we learn the right things from each other? I wondered as we strolled around the memorial.

The views were fabulous as we could see the three water bodies that surround the southern tip of India. To the west, the waters of the Arabian sea looked quite blue compared to the waters of Indian ocean to the south and Bay of Bengal to the east.

Bay Of Bengal                       Indian Ocean                     Arabian Sea

We sat for a while enjoying the cool sea breeze, and visited the small temple on the rock before heading back. 

Fun times!

As we headed back, we could see Kanyakumari Devi temple, Gandhi Memorial Mandapam and  the beach at the southern-most point of mainland India. We skipped visiting the beach as we didn't have much time. A lot of people actually visit here for a holy dip in the place where the three water bodies meet.

View of Kanyakumari Devi temple and Gandhi Memorial Mandapam

 

View of Hotel SeaView from the beach

It was almost lunch time. We thought of having lunch from the same restaurant and whiled away some time along the crowded streets lined with shops selling souvenirs, jewellery and shell crafts. We did some quick shopping before heading in. The "Thali" (Indian lunch served on a big plate) was quite good. But the kids ordered their favorite Butter Paneer Masala again! After the sumptuous lunch, we quickly packed up and checked out of the hotel, allowing us enough time to visit Padmanabhapuram palace on our way back. Check out YOU HAVE TO VISIT this palace! if you like to get more details of the palace tour.

When we finally got back to Austin, my husband's colleagues were interested to know about the places we had visited in India. They were quite fascinated to hear about the trip to the tip of India, the place where an ocean and two seas meet. One of them commented it must be like a resort town. Well, how can one explain? This place has religious as well other significance to the nation. It is one of the popular tourist locations attracting hundreds of visitors every day. Though it is nowhere close to being classified as a resort, the location transcends everything else. Surrounded by water that stretches to infinity, the crowds and noises fade away making this a unique place to visit.

Peru OR Japan - where would you like to go?

Your time starts now! Choose one place. Then, tell us why you chose that place instead of the other. Well, there are no right or wrong answers in this game. But there are some simple rules.You have to make a choice quickly and give a logical reason for it. As an example, if I ask "Egypt OR Romania", the answer could be "I would like to go to Egypt so that I can visit the pyramids, see the Sphinx or cruise through Suez Canal". The reasons could range from factual to personal. However, general answers like "I would like to visit because I want to stay in a hotel, eat food from a restaurant, have fun in a swimming pool or any such activity that can be done from most places" are not acceptable.

Okay, now you must be thinking what game I am talking about. We call it the "country" game. It started off during one of the school breaks when the kids were eager to visit the places they had heard about. We had no plans to travel but the kids would keep discussing options, sometimes both deciding on the same place, and other times, choosing polar opposites. Their travel wish list was getting jump started by their geography knowledge and being fueled by their imaginations. Soon, it turned into this game of choices, an interesting time-pass to tide over long drives, frustrating waits in queues or boring dinners.

"Country" game players

Taking a detour from the game, I would say the new generation has a lot of avenues to get information. There are numerous fictional book series with travel stories for young readers. My daughter's favorite series, "Thea Stilton", narrates adventures of five mouse friends traveling around the world, trying to solve problems ranging from environment protection in Alaska to capturing jewel thieves in India. Even non-fiction book series like "Enchantment of the World" are filled with great pictures and interesting facts making them a fun read. Once you add electronic options like "Oregon Scientific Talking Smart Globe" and app games like "Stack the Countries", kids have substantial amount of geography information at their fingertips. On top of all this, my brother, a marine engineer, sails around the world and tells us interesting facts about different places.

Time to get back to our game! Though it may seem like a geography test, it can provide great insights too. To the question "Would you like to visit XXX big city OR a beach resort in YYY?", the answer can tell a lot about a person!

Sri Lanka to India - an easy hop away!

For us, it is interesting to play this game with our kids to see things from their perspective and learn about their interests When the winter Olympics was in session, Russia would always get picked irrespective of what the other country was. At another point in time, when our daughter wished to be a wildlife photographer, almost all countries in Africa fell into the "automatic selection" category. To her, Africa was filled with exotic animals that she could photograph. When one of the choices happen to be a country where our relatives live, that would get picked so that they can visit them. India, U.A.E and Singapore fall into this category. In fact, Sri Lanka, the closest southern neighbor of India, also falls into this category. Our son thinks that he can jump from Sri Lanka to Kerala, a southern state in India, where his grandparents live!

Just as they have countries that would always get picked, they also have couple of countries that are blacklisted. Nepal is one such country. Even before the recent earthquakes, they were afraid to visit Nepal because of snippets of an Indian movie they watched. In this movie, they had seen a cute little boy being chased around by black magicians all around Nepal. So, that rules it out for the time being. Chile is the other country that they are scared to visit as it is so "thin". They say "If you step out of your hotel in Chile, you will end up in the ocean!". Well, picture it on a map to see their point!

Can you see the thin yellow line that is Chile?

I guess many of us would have played this game in our heads. And, I guess we all have some places that we would always choose irrespective of the lure of a dreamier, more exotic destination. And many times, we have places that are blacklisted from our itineraries, because of some fear or a bad experience. While some choices are preset, there are others that can open up our imaginations to visit the beautiful world around us, at least in our minds.

So where are you headed to next ?

Too far to see too-fah ?

How far would you go to visit a place that interests you?

Well, if it is a place that tops our interest list and within our reach, we would spend some time to plan a trip. But, if it is something that falls into the "maybe nice to visit" category, we would visit only if we happen to pass by or live somewhere close to it. When we were about to shift from California to Texas, we thought of places that fell into the second category. A visit to Eastern Sierras to the east of Yosemite National Park was one of the things in this list. Mono Lake with its limestone formations called tufa (too-fah) is situated in this area. In the midst of packing and getting ready for the move, we planned a trip to see too-fah ... before we got too far to see it.

Tioga Pass road

It was September 2005, almost a decade back, when we drove through Tioga Pass, the road that heads east through Yosemite National Park. This road is open only for 6 months from late spring to late fall and closed because of snow for rest of the year. The winding road through the mountains was lined with huge boulders. A big part of our day was spent along this road, stopping at overlooks and hiking a few trails that gave spectacular views of huge granite mountains, beautiful lakes and vast green meadows.

The Porcupine Flat area was a welcome sight with a tiny creek flowing through a lovely meadow.

Porcupine creek

Our next stop was May lake, nestled under Mt. Hoffmann which claimed to be the geographic center of Yosemite National Park. A short trail lined with huge lodgepole pine trees led us to this beautiful lake.

Most of the lakes act as mirrors for the huge mountains that surround them. Though we did not catch any spectacular reflection at May Lake, the perfect mirror image of boulders in a small lake along the trail was quite interesting.

Mt. Hoffmann, the geographic center of Yosemite NP

Mirror image

Glacial erratics at Olmsted point

Olmsted point provided sweeping panoramic views of the famous half-dome and Cloud's rest. This area with fractured bedrock was strewn with huge boulders referred to as glacial erratic. It seems the boulders seen here are not the same type as the surrounding rock and were brought here by glaciers. I felt the trees that grow here are great examples of adaptation. They bend and  grow along rocks to survive the winds and stay rooted.

Views of Clouds' rest and Half-dome

A great example of adaptation !

As we continued the drive, the huge and beautiful Lake Tenaya made its appearance. This is one lake that can be seen from the road and accessed without much hiking.

Beautiful Lake Tenaya

At last, we passed through Tuolumne meadows area, known for its wildflower splendor. Though the wildflower season was ending, the vast sub-alpine meadow with spectacular mountain backdrop was still a delightful sight.

Along Tuolomne Meadows

As we headed out, we came across a tiny lake with beautiful reflection of trees and mountains. The darkening skies added to the effect.

Rain shadow of Sierra Nevada mountains

It was late evening when we crossed into the rain shadow area. Rain shadow was a topic I had only read in my geography text book. It was amazing to experience the cross-over from lush green meadows into bare arid land. It showed us how the same mountain can bring different results to the land around it. Refreshing the geography lesson, mountains have a windward and leeward side. The leeward side is cut off from winds which bring rain-laden clouds and thus create a rain shadow region. It did matter which side you are on!

Tufa towers on land

That day, there was no time to stop at Mono Lake. We headed straight to Mammoth Lakes, a popular winter resort which we found to be well worthy of a summer visit. After spending couple of days going around numerous lakes and Mammoth mountain, we headed back, stopping at Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve. This was in the city of Lee Vining. There may be some history behind this name but I thought "Lee" in the name could indicate it was on the leeward side of the mountain. A short trail at the south side of the reserve, Mono Lake South Tufa Trail, provided the best views of limestone towers named tufas. A tufa is formed below water and Mono lake is one of the areas where it is visible above the water level and also on land.
 

Tufas in Mono Lake

Over the years, the lake level had fallen dramatically, showing off tufas that gave the landscape an eerie look at dusk.

Mono Lake Tufa Reserve at dusk

Though these formations may look weird, it was amazing to see how nature creates different landforms, just like different artists creating works ranging from classic to modern. The location, climate and time cause each part of the earth to take a different form in the spectrum of nature's artwork.

 

A close-up view of tufas

As we headed back with pictures of contrasting landscapes in our minds and camera, we were glad to have experienced both sides of the majestic Sierra Nevada mountains.