Tall Ships 2006 ...

Last weekend, I visited the Tall Ships festival at Lake Michigan, Chicago. A tall ship is any sailing ship that has at least two masts and is square rigged. These ships had docked at Navy Pier for a few days before continuing on their worldwide voyage.

My friend Lipika, was visiting me that weekend, so off we went to see the ships. It was a beautiful sunny evening with a cool breeze charateristic of a typical Chicago summer day. Navy Pier was crazily crowded that evening. Seemed like all of Chicago had turned up to see the ships.


The ships looked majestic with their tall masts. Unfortunately, the ships were docked and their sails were tied up. I did manage to get a few pictures of one that was sailing across the lake.
Just watching the ships seemed to take you back in history, to the times when sailboats were the only mode of transport over the seas. Giving in to flights of fancy, it reminded me of Pirates of the Carribean, and the pirate memorabilia on sale only added to the effect.

Weekend in Bloomington & Champaign

This weekend I drove down to Bloomington to visit my friends Preeti & Vikram who were moving to Pittsburgh for Vikram's new job assignment.
I got to Bloomington in time for dinner where Preeti had made these awesome mushroom & cheese hors d'oeuvres. After a long day at work and a seemingly longer drive through the traffic - these were the best surprise and truly heavenly.
The next morning I drove to Alok's University in Urbana Champaign. We met up for lunch and ended up going to the Red Lobster for some awesome grilled lobster and shrimp. After some more delicious tiramisu cake at Moonstruck the local U of I cafe with Alok & his friends - I headed back to Bloomington, for some good Thai dinner at a place Preeti and Vikram had stumbled on. It was good. :)
After dinner we went for a drive to Leroy in Preeti & Vikram's Jetta. The road to Leroy is lined by corn fields on either side. The Jetta has a fantastic sun/ moonroof. I stood up in the car and peeped out of the roof - It was a fantastic feeling. The cool wind on my face, for a moment - it felt like riding a bike with the wind in your hair and watching the stars in the sky, smelling the fresh corn fields of grass and corn and the typical meadow scent - far away from the city, far away from everything ... Just being able to stand up in the car and look out through the roof, was amazing and it seemed to blow any negative thoughts away.

Visit from the STL-ians...

Last weekend, two of my friends from St. Louis, Aparna & Shantanu finally drove to Chicago. They were joined by two more friends, Parry & Avanti. Avanti was visiting Chicago for the first time, but Parry had been here before.

They reached here on Friday night - and then we were chatting until the early hours of Saturday! Managed to drag ourselves out of the house by noon, and made our way to a place in Wisconsin called Lake Geneva. This is a picturesque lake, but it was a too hot a day to really enjoy the lake front. En route - we stopped by to pick water and juice and ended up buying enough stuff for an army! Since we'd skipped breakfast, the provisions were put to good use. :)

Lake Geneva has a lot of speedboats and water scooters, but sadly, most of them were booked for the day. After checking some out - we walked into a nearby restaurant for lunch. This was a non chain place, where the ambience was relaxing and the service extremely hospitable. Sitting there - watching the lake, and the boats go by was an experience in itself.

After this leisurely lunch, we looked out for some boats to rent, but didn't find anything suitable. Since Parry had to meet a friend in Chicago downtown for dinner, and Avanti had still not visited the typical tourist places like Navy Pier we decided to head back.

After we got home, Shantanu, Aparna, Neel & myself decided to stay at home and relax after being out in the hot sun the entire day. So we cooked some chicken gravy - ekdam Indian style (It turned out decent - guess I can cook chicken ;)), some delicious Bengali style daal - (recipe thanks to Shantanu) and rice. Parry missed this dinner. :( That was ironical, since he was the one who had requested that we eat home-cooked chicken atleast once when he visited and here we were eating some awesome chicken curry without him! After a relaxed dinner we decided to walk down by the lake. The gentle summer breeze was refreshing.

Parry & Avanti got back by 1 am - after a short stint of wandering the streets of Chicago (when trying to get onto the correct freeway) - with a bit of online help (thanks to google maps) they were soon on track.

The next day - we decided to go shopping to a mall in Aurora. Aparna, Avanti & myself left for the mall while the guys decided to get there later - after giving us about 3 hrs of a head start. :)
Shopped for clothes, and then I spotted Rocky mountain chocolate factory - famous for it's chocolate dipped strawberries ... Since Parry had missed the Taste of Chicago festival, when I told him about the chocolate place, he was thrilled. After munching on these delicious treats (yes - I really need to learn to make these at home), it was time for Neel and myself to return to Chicago, while the rest went to St. Louis. A memorable fun weekend - spent with friends, with some good food and shopping too ...! :)

Taste of Chicago

This weekend we went to the Taste of Chicago festival. This is a food festival in the heart of downtown Chicago.
Walked around a lot - just soaking in the charged up air - it almost feels abuzz ... you see people of all ages from 5 to 75, enjoying all the various kinds of food.
The atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant aromas of food wafting from each stall ... I even got a tatoo! (Well, a temporary one, the ones that wear off on washing) It was great. Ate a variety of dishes ranging from the Indian Samosa to the Middle Eastern humus to grilled shrimp. Also had some heavenly chocolate dipped strawberries - these were just phenomenal - and I need to learn the art of making these at home. They were heavenly. (Come to think of it, how could a combination of chocolate and strawberries ever taste bad?? - but whatever ... )

New York Reunion

The next morning - or whatever you can call it after 3 hrs of sleep ... Avni reached Adele's place right on schedule. Thanks to the minimal sleep, we were quite groggy and barely made it to the station on time for the rain to NYC.

We made it to NYC by 12.00 pm. Adele barely made it... in her excitement to get to the mall (where we were all supposed to meet) Madam looks in the wrong direction of a one-way street and happily walks into the path of an incoming bus! After dragging her back to safety. we literally ran towards the mall in our excitement. Meeting everyone else was fabulous. Disha, Shameen, Kinjal, Shilpa...they all looked fabulous! Shameen and me immediately whipped out our cameras... Avni was the designated gal who accosted random New Yorkers and Chinese tourists to take our group pictures. We then proceeded towards a Mexican place for brunch. I think they guessed in advance that we were going to create a racket...because they gave us a table as far away from the other patrons as possible :)

After a couple of hours of reminiscing and drinking Mimosas we finally got our brunch! We went through some old pictures that Disha had brought along. Really funny to see the old "puffy" hairstyles ... Adele has threatened everyone with dire consequences if we post those pics online! We then walked over to Central Park, where I accosted some more people to take our photos. Unfortunately as all good things do... this had to end too. Shameen and Disha split up to get Coach and Gucci bags (oh yes .. talk about living in the lap of luxury) . The rest of us went to pick up magnets (75 cents) and I LOVE NEW YORK T-shirts ($3.00) from Times Square. Walked around in Times Square. It was so hot - we all felt rather dehydrated. We kept stopping in all the "air conditioned" showrooms to avoid the heat. I am sure we had suspicious cops following us after a while... We then went our own ways with promises of another reunion soon. Shameen has offered to host a chaat party in Boston if the rest of us can make it there!

The funny part if that it did NOT feel as if we were meeting after 13 years! We were all so comfortable and completely at ease with each other....it was great.

New York By Night ...

Armed with directions and train route information from Adele, I got onto the correct train and reached Perth Amboy station by 8:30 pm. Adele was at the station to meet me with a big grin on her face. She was driving a huge SUV and I must admit I was paranoid to see her drive it. Looked like a small kid trying to control a hulk of a vehicle!

Met Adele's fiance Steven and we both shared our paranoia over Adele's driving skills and pulled her leg about it. We then decided to go into downtown NY (again ???) for dinner. After driving through the notorious Jersey traffic, we were back in Times Square by 11pm. After a quick dinner of some delicious Kathi rolls, we went to a nightclub to sample the NY nightlife. I found the place rather loud, and so did Adele, so we spent the time sitting in the lobby catching up. Once we were done - we got back to our parking lot at 2:30 am, only to be told that the lot was closed until 6 am. Now we were stuck. Left with no other option - we decided to spend the night at 33rd & Penn station. There were a lot of people like us, either stranded or just waiting for their train there. I spent time there chatting with Avril, Steven & Adele.
Soon it was morning, and we strolled out at 5 am, to the nearest MacDonalds for a sumptuous breakfast. Got back home at 7 am ... Had a mini school reunion planned for brunch, but just could not help catching up on a few hours of sleep .... :)

New York - Day 1

The visit to New York city, the next day began with a train ride from Connecticut's New Haven terminal to New York's famous Grand Central station. The first impression of Grand Central is just awe inspiring. This terminal has about 130 tracks that serve routes all over mainland USA. The main lobby is this huge expanse of space - that could probably contain a station in itself. It has some neat decorative motifs on the ceiling - the pictures don't quite do justice to that(but I've added them here just the same)

We walked from Grand Central station to Times Square - passing Bryant Park and the New York public library (another huge building) on the way. As I walked along the sidewalk - the first thing that hits you is the sheer number of people on the street. It is crowded and noisy and for someone from Bombay - feels just like home! You have hawkers selling their wares on the street - selling stuff ranging from hotdogs & kababs to water bottles. Some other selling sunglasses and caps and other NYC memorabilia ... It has a very Mumbai downtown feel to it!

Times Square - The place where the New Year ball drops - a phenomenal area that buzzes with activity round the clock. This place has some of the most amazing stores and restaurants, most of the "trendy" chains and some others are here. You see Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood jostling for space with MacDonald's and other burger and pizza places. Around the Times Square area - you also have a few kebab and grill places tucked away into corners.

After a quick run through of Times Square - we headed out to do the No.1 touristy thing in NY - visit the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is located on an island, and you need to take a Circle Line ferry to visit this one. After a long long wait in the hot scorching sun - we finally got onto a ferry - one of my friends referred to it as a rat box since it had a lot of people crammed on it. After a 20 minute ride - where you can see some breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline, we reached Staten Island. This island has the huge imposing Statue of Liberty. This statue is made of copper and was originally brown in color, but oxidation of the statue has now turned it green. Any coincidence that US dollars are also green? ;)

Since the tours to the top of the statue - into the crown are no longer permitted, we clicked pictures from the base of the statue and moved on to Ellis island in another ferry.

Ellis island was the first immigration port in the US. This place is now a museum with pictures of immgrants in the 1900s.

Walked around Ellis island and boarded the ferry back to mainland NY. Once again - the view of the Manhattan skyline - is awesome. It is like the skyscrapers are all competing with each other to gain your attention. I've tried to get some decent pictures of this - but the overcast day didn't quite help my cause. Switched to black & white effects on my camera in the effort to get some different kind of pictures instead.


The next thing we did was walked down to the famous Brooklyn bridge. This bridge looks rather unimposing compared to the other large bridges around, but has its own charm.

After walking around the Hudson river area, it was time for me to take a subway and head out to Adele's place for the much awaited school reunion. I was going to meet some of my classmates after 13 years ... wow!

New York Tales ....

Yes ... Finally managed to plan a visit to New York city! Started out on Friday, June 30 ... The previous weeks had been quite crazy workwise, so was more than ready for a holiday.

For a change, my flight out of Chicago's O'Hare airport was on schedule. I mean - isn't that rare? Well, I wasn't complaining.... :) After about 90 minutes of flying, I suddenly saw this airstrip that ends into a river! Yes, that was the one we had to land on. La Guardia airport is located such that you almost think that the aircraft is going to land on water, but miraculously - they make it to the runway. Well, talk about precision flying! The flight attendant on this Delta flight was one with a pretty good sense of humor. He kept up the wisecracks right until we disembarked... Some of them - "We hope you have enjoyed this flight and thank you for flying Delta." followed by "If you have not enjoyed this flight, we thank you for flying Continental!" When reminding passengers to take all their belongings with them, his announcement was - "Please ensure you remember to take all your belongings with you. Anything left behind will find it's way into Renee's garage sale tomorrow. (Renee - being the other flight attendant.)

Met one of my friends at the airport and was driven to New Haven, Connecticut. This is the place where you find the famous Yale University. This town has a typical college feel to it - quaint restaurants and cafes, roadside art shops selling some work by student artists - It almost gives a British rather than the typical stereotyped big block monotonous American impression.

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!