Chicago Blues Festival ...

This weekend found me travelling to downtown Chicago to visit the Chicago Blues Festival. My friends Preeti and Vikram were going to meet me there, so I opted to take the train into downtown to avoid the pain of negotiating the traffic and the parking woes that plague Chicago. A mile from the station and I found myself in a huge traffic jam with only 10 minutes left to catch the train. Trains in this place are weird - on weekends, you have a train into Chicago once every 2 hrs!! If I missed this one - I was done for until the next one decided to trundle by.
Luckily for me - the train was also 15 minutes behind schedule and I managed to get into it rather comfortably. Soon, I found myself at Chicago Union Station ...

The city of Chicago has free trolleys that run in the summer to ferry people from Union Station to the various tourist spots. I boarded one of these and went to Grant Park - the destination of the Annual Chicago Jazz Festival.
The place was rocking and jiving and humming with activity. You could hear the Jazz bands from a distance - Saw some bands from Louisiana and some from Mississippi too in addition to the ones from Chicago. The music was so catchy that you found yourself swaying to the best even though you didn't know the song! The was a series of jam sessions where they would play music and each musician would try to out do the other - kind of like a "jugalbandi". Watching these performances live, cheering and applauding the musicians was a great experience.

And of course, there were the promotional Food stalls - Connie's pizza, Billy Goat's Tavern, Siam kitchen to name a few. All the big names in beer were there too - and those stalls were crowded!! People were having a chilled out great time.

Levi's had a Signature Fit machine on display as well. You had to walk in and stand in a kiosk that gave you the name and size of the Levi' fit that fit your body the best! For someone like me, who can never find the perfect fitting jeans - this was awesome!

After trying out the custom fit machine, we walked into a Livestrong booth where they were giving out free Power bars ... these are a new kind of cereal bar that was being promoted there.

BP also had a promo, where I won a Tshirt! Wow! This was in addition to the various beads and necklaces that were being handed out as we walked around.
Great music, good food , and awesome weather .... What else could I have asked for?

Visit to Smoky Mountains - 2

The next day we decided to trek on some Trails in the Smoky mountain National Park. After getting off to a rather late start - we headed out to the highest point in the Smokies.

This is a asphalted trail more like a road - that lets people with disabilities enjoy the trail and the view too. I appreciate this thoughtful approach towards ensuring that everyone can enjoy the wonderful sights that the moutains have to offer.


This was a rather long, and hot walk to the top. Temperatures were touching 90 degrees Fahrenheit and we were glad to fianlly reach at the top and enjoy the cool breeze. The view from the top - needless to say, was extremely picturesque.






Next, we decided to head out to another trail called the Rainbow Falls trail. This is a 2.6 mile walk through the woods. This was like an actual trek and great fun. Denish, Parag and myself were leading the pack followed by the others. En route Denish spotted a deer, while Aparna encountered a snake! This trek took us over an hour to complete and the waterfall at the end was worth the long walk. Just hearing the birds chirp and walking through the woods along the river hearing the water gush down was enjoyable. On the way we also saw an owl - fast asleep in his hollow.

It was rather late as we were climbing up and since we did not have any torches on us - I had smartly left mine in my backpack in the car!! We moved as fast as possible and soon we were at the Rainbow Falls.

The falls were probably named such because of the sun rays that fall on them and create a rainbow effect. However, we were too late to enjoy that view since the sun was setting by the time we got there. The setting still provided a great view and after enjoying the refreshingly cool water of the falls - we headed back. By this time it was getting darker by the minute and the thought of bears inhabiting these woods was foremost in my mind. Denish took the lead and was soon out of sight, while Parag & myself were next. Tiredness was catching up with us and all of us were stumbling and tumbling down the trail.

Back at the cabin - it was time for some good tandoori style grilled chicken. Shantanu & myself prepared the marinade while Alok & Parag pitched in with the grilling to get them done uper quick. This was combined with corn on the cob so that the vegetarians could enjoy it in addition to their cooked meal. The chicken was a super hit and we also had some veggies converted to chicken-eaters who appreciated it!

The drive back the next day was rather uneventful, and as I drove across the Chicago Skyway toll - thoughts of work and office started drifting in. But it had been a wonderful 3 days - ones that I would always like to recollect at leisure!

Visit to Smoky Mountains - 1

On the Memorial Day weekend - my cousin Alok and some of my colleagues decided to head down to the Smoky mountains for a long awaited and well deserved break. Alok had just completed his graduation and was all set to chill out with the rest of us.

We left Chicago on Friday afternoon - equipped with maps and directions to Pigeon Forge in Tennesse. We had to drive 600 miles SouthEast of Chicago, and would be crossing over into Eastern Time.

The drive out of Chicago was crowded and needed a lot of patience, since the first 75 miles took over 2 hours. Luckily, Neel was at the wheel, so thing were calm. Once we headed out of Illinois, it was clearer - and after crossing Indianapolis, it thinned out considerably. The rental Hyundai V6 gave us lousy mileage, but a decent pickup - so driving it was a pleasure. We also enjoyed the scenic view through the plains of Kentucky. After a quick halt for fuel and food and change of drivers - we continued on our way. Midway through the jungles and wilderness of Kentucky, after having been on the road for over 8 hours - Alok decided to talk about ghosts and the supernatural and horror movies. Since I abhor horror stories of anykind - I totally discouraged the topic .. but my brother - persisted. After about 11 hours of driving we reached the sleepy town of Pigeon Forge. Well, since we reached there at about 3 am - the town had every right to sleep anyways! We checked into our hotel - and got some much needed sleep.

The next morning - we were woken up by phone calls from the rest of our friends who had reached from St.Louis and we quickly headed out to meet them. After a quick breakfast at their cabin, we headed out to Gatlinburg for some white water rafting. This was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. We rafted on the Little Pigeon river - this is a relatively calm river, but does have some Class 4 rapids to boast of.

On reaching the raftin point, we were kitted out in a lifejacket, helmet and a paddle. We also got a quick crash (not literally) course on rafting safety and basic moves. We had a very experienced rafting guide with us. Anthony had been rafting across the world for 11 years and has also been on the US national rafting team. He had a ton of information about rafting, rivers, wild life habitats and the like. He taught us how to spin through a rapid, paddling through, steering and also a technique called surfing. Surfing a rapid is when you turn the raft into the rapid such that the water is coming into the raft. This technique requires a lot of experience and practice and we could do this only because Anthony was with us. We also saw a girl from another raft topple over into the river and the guide of her raft was quick to throw the pull in float to her and pull her back in.

As the waters got calmer, some of us jumped out of our raft and enjoyed a swim in the river too. The water was chilled and a good way to combat the 83 deg heat. It was an unforgettable experience.

Back on firm ground - we picked some food to eat, and headed back to Gatlinburg. After some wandering around in Gatlingburg - this place is a typical hill station with local attractions being touted as the "best" in the US, I picked up a souveneir fridge magnet while everyone else was wandering around - and we headed back to Pigeon Forge.

Picked up some groceries for dinner and headed back to the cabin. The sun was setting by the time we reached the cabin, and here is a view of the sunset over the Smoky mountains. (Remember - you can click on the pictures to make them larger.)

The dinner plan was for the veggie people to cook the vegetables - while the rest of us omnivores made some chicken. Now chicken - took longer to cook than the veggies, and with everyone being ravenous - I could hear more than a few questions of when the chicken would be done. Infact, we tried all sorts of stunts with the cooker that the chicken was being cooked in until the lid opened. Finally, the chicken was done, and everyone tucked into a great meal.

At midnight, we had Alok cut a cake for his birthday. Poor guy also got some smashed on his face, but since he didn't know the people too well - he escaped the birthday bumps.. :)) After the party - we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.

Tulip weekend ...

A crisp sunny Saturday morning - a 180 mile drive to Holland in Michigan to visit a tulip farm. A great drive and fantastic tulips.


(Remember - you can click on the pictures to make them larger!)

On the way - a stop at the Big Red Lighthouse on Ottawa beach. This is a beach formed by Lake Michigan. Looking at the water, you almost forget that it is a lake. It is this huge vast water body .... that goes as far as the eye can see.

Pictures of a Forest Preserve

Yesterday - when I left office, it was a warm but windy sunny day. I decided to go to the gym for a workout, but on the drive home I figured it was too good a day to waste in the gym. On the spur of the moment, I decided to head out to a nearby forest preserve with my digicam. Here are pictures of some of the sights I witnessed.
This is a panoramic view of the main section of the preserve. The tree with the white blossoms provided an interesting focal point to frame this picture.


A close up shot of some of the white blossoms on a tree. The yellow background as observed between the blossoms is the reflection of the bright sunshine off the green grass. Fancy that - the grass looks like yellow blossoms thanks to the sun! The sharp focus on the flowers has helped enhance the diffused effect of the sunlight.


This was a huge tree that was laden with blossoms. Notice, the leaves are almost invisible....
Here is an interesting looking yellow dandelion. Yes - a weed, but looked very pretty sitting amidst the geen grass, and that was is reason it currently holds pride of place as my desktop wallpaper!