A Trip to the Dacha - II

Part I is here....

The next morning it drizzled a bit. Just the kind of weather to enjoy your morning cuppa joe by. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to see the property and take in the views.

The dacha sits on Hood Canal, in the Kitsap Peninsula, flanked by the Olympic National Park and the Puget Sound – the mountains and forests on one side, the ocean on the other. Pretty as a postcard!!


The View



A Rusty Ramp...


There were some chores to do and after that we went down to the rocky beach to see what the tide had brought ashore. Alisa, our young hostess showed me amazing stuff – bright pink and purple starfish, oysters, clams, crabs, weeds and reeds, small caves and lagoons.


The beach


Purple starfish - Picture taken by Hubbs


Purple starfish - Picture taken by Hubbs

Sea weeds - Picture taken bu Hubbs


Clams growing on a rope


Kelp - Picture taken by Hubbs

The tide pools were filled with teeny tiny crabs the size of a quarter of a fingernail. Alisa could spot them amidst shells and rocks. She taught me to differentiate between the male and the female crabs and gave me important lessons in marine biology.


The colourful belly of a crab


A starfish peelign itself off a rock to escape the mid-day sun...

The most amazing things to watch were the barnacles…there were millions of barnacles literally. And I got a clue as why they are blistering barnacles. It was not an easy place to walk around like the sea shores that I am more accustomed to. This was a very rocky place with extremely slippery reeds all over and sharp oysters and barnacles threatening to pierce our bodies…its quite natural that we were very careful, but yet, I slipped a couple of times. We also went oyster hunting and ‘Y’ baked the oysters with Russian cheese.


Alisa showing me open barnacles

We took drives to some scenic spot through the Hamma Hamma Forest, and sang Humma Humma for our friends. This picture was taken at one such spot...If you look carefully, you can spot Mt. Rainier among the clouds. And just down below, past all the water you can see Seattle. On a very clear day, you can see the Space Needle. Stunning views!!


Spot Mt. Rainier...

We then hiked to Murhut Falls in Duckabush. It was a great hike…I would say intermediate. We chose to be the last ones the trail and that gave us the opportunity to go at our own pace and admire the vegetation around and take pictures. There was this one spot when I told hubbs to go ahead and deliberately stopped to hear the silence of the forest. It was then that I noticed berry bushes all around me. Remember the bushes with red berries in The Village?? That is exactly how it looked…all around me, I saw bright red berries…and the silence was so eerie!! It was brilliant!! I took a few pictures and ran, lest ‘those that we do now speak of’ came for me!!


Murhut Falls


Very Berry eerie.....

The next evening we hiked to Dosewallips Falls. Another pretty waterfall…but I did not take my camera along. I regret it, but there will be more opportunities!!

Back at the Dacha, I made a quick egg curry and pulao and snuck my way to our friend’s hearts. My hubbs had already made his famous omelettes for them and they were mighty pleased with this cooking Indian couple. Lunch and dinner conversations were centered around culture and Raj Kapoor and Bollywood and life in The Soviet Union, all well flavoured by delicious food and divinely delicious Sangria.

We were the last to leave for the city. We sat on the deck with tea and cookies taking in the view one last time when we had a visitor – His name is Gavrushka and he is the friendly neighbourhood seal. Gavrushka comes by and says hello whenever our friends are there and he had been eluding us the entire time. All our melodious calls - Gaavrooooshhkya.... went unheard by the seal and just when we have given up, he turned up…belly up and smiling happily!! I believe they spotted 3 orcas a few weeks ago…Isn’t it a blessing to be able to just go out to your deck and see orcas and whales and seals and such….!!

Our hearts were full of peace and joy after this weekend!! I think our host the Dachnik, put it perfectly when he raised a toast the first night we spent there. He said, ‘Here’s to the Dacha where a few Jews from Russia meet a couple of Indians’. And we had said 'Le' Chaim'....

Again I say….Le’ Chaim!!