Trip to Portland, Maine - 05/14/2005

This week, my quest for Unknown took me to Portland, Maine (Hannaford account where I previously worked is located here). You might be thinking, what is this Unknown, actually I too am not sure what I am looking for or why do I travel so much :-), that's why Unknown. When my search is over, and I come to know abt the Unknown I will let you know abt it with my last mail on my travels :-)

Portland is a place far away from Mangalore but where you can enjoy as much as in Mangalore. Reason is very simple, there are people here who have worked together for years, used to have coffee breaks everyday (twice daily :P) and have gone for trips. We have spent lots of time together and so meeting everyone and spending time again was lot of fun.

This trip was to be sort of secret mission with only Sagar and Nithya knowing abt the plans (since I wanted someone to provide logistics support at the location :P). But the plan was out well ahead in advance. And Sagar got the surprise instead :P. Planning was done in secrecy so as to give Neeru surprise on her bdday which was on 14th May. But she was knowing. Well then also the tip was really a good one :-).

Stranded on Detroit airport's runway and not able to call and tell Sagar and Neeru that I will be late by an hour, allowed both them to see the beauty of parking lot :P. Portland is very nice place, which I saw from the sky. Flying over the Atlantic and with sun setting the beautify of land (with mountains and some lakes and so much greenery) increased manifold. Had reached from Pacific in west to Atlantic in east in just 2 weeks (pretty fast I suppose). Moving out of airport, met Sagar (and he was like just scolding me for not calling that he will be late and also was telling that he was dumbfounded when Neeru gave him news some days back that I was coming to Portland, to his surprise). Went to Sagar's apartment and there met Vikas. For dinner we went for Chinese buffet. Man lots of variety there. Vikas found nice way of getting drunk. He would make crab drink beer and afterwards eat the crab (if you don't believe me, just watch the first picture). We were last people in the restaurant and also got the privilege of seeing how Chinese people clean (it was somewhat scary with all types of sounds coming from inside kitchen). As sounds were getting louder and people coming more and more closer to us for cleaning we decided to move out as none of us except Neeru is karate expert. And we did not want her to destroy that beautiful restaurant :D.

With some more time to 12, we went back home. At around 11.45 we went to Neeru's place. Nithya and Mrudula brought ice cream cake and we forgot to keep it in fridge, so it had started melting. There was no way of "cutting the cake". Neeru's bdday was celebrated in special "spooning the cake" way :-). (Term is coined by me, so please do not start checking the dictionary :P) After cake ceremony, comes most important part of bday. Glowing face ceremony :D. With cold cream on the face skin starts glowing in 5 min and we did painted whole surface area of neeru's face. Mission was accomplished successfully - With threats coming from neeru about not painting her face, we had done a great job :).

Next day, we first went to Fort Williams which earlier used to be US Army's fort. As I had not told about my trip to many people, light house which was getting renovated was not complete (should have atleast told Portland Mayor abt my visit :D). From fort Williams we went to Old Orchard beach and then went home and took some rest. This time at home I saw telegu movie Arya (Songs and dance were great :) ). In evening Neeru told that we will be going to Lake Sabego. Dale also joined us. At the wheels was Neeru and myself - poor chap, sitting and praying in back of the car, but she drove pretty well. After moving around 4-5 cities, we finally reached Lake Sabego - as Dale finally made announcement "I officially announce that we have reached Lake Sabego". Previously we had heard some comments like "We are officially lost" from Dale. It is a beautiful place. Pass through the jungle (reminded me of Mangalore trips) and then reach lake shore. Its so quiet there. We spent some time there and clicked some nice snaps and while coming back we met Mr. (or might be Ms.) Deer. :).

For dinner, we went to Thai restaurant. My first experiment with Thai food. one recommendation - do not order "hot". Let spices be "medium". Hot is toooooooo much spicy. Next day we went for shopping in Maine mall and had wonderful lunch at Sagar's place which was prepared by Sagar (hey Vikas did you helped??) and Nithya and Mrudula.

After lunch time it was time to catch the flight. Well trip was really good. Met most of the HBR gang :-)

Trip to Holland Tulip tulip everywhere - 05/07/2005

"Deekha eik khawaab to yeh silsile hue.... Door tak nigahoon main hain yeh gul khile hue....."

Remember the song from movie "silsila" where they have shown tulip gardens..

This weekend (7th May - Saturday) decided to go on trip to Holland (yeh.. holland.. as in H.. O.. L.. L... A.. N... D.. :-) ).. Whomsoever I mentioned this asked me one thing "What about Visa". So before you ask will tell you. Holland is a city in Michigan situated in Lake Michigan. This city is inhabited by Dutch people and thats why the name Holland. It is no different then any other actual Holland city.. Things are pretty much same.

It is 3 hours drive from Detroit and we started (after some initial delays.. as usual :D) in morning.. This time it is going to be one day trip only..

As Tulip time festival was also starting on same day (Tulip time festival is one of USA'a top festivals to be in. http://www.tuliptime.com/) This festival starts with start of Spring as this is time when Tulips starts blooming.. Its the best time to see tulips without going to well Holland or Canada (canada also has lots of tulips in some cities).....

As soon as we reached the city we started seieng tulips everywhere.. in front of houses on streets..
We first went to windmill islad. This place has an actual original working Windmill imported form Holland (before Holland nationalised windmills which prohibits takking them out of the country). This mill still runs and grind wheat to flour :-). It also was having lots and lots of tulips and lotsssss of varieties and diffreent colors of tulips.. atmospehere was all mela types as we have in india :-).. I tried all my photgraphy skills :P taking pictures of all tulips and all I can take. Besides windmill is a small farm where tehy have lanted tulips in a rows.. just as we seen in movies :-) It was soooooooooooooo beautifull.. Lots of tulips and lots of colors.. Just wanted to pluck some, but kya karoon US main apna indian ishtlye phool toodna nahin chalta hia :P... We spent lots of time in the graden and seeing around the place..

From windmill island we then went to holland downtown. In the city streets they have planted tulips everywhere.. ots around 6 mile routes where we can walk and see tulips all around :-) There was tulip tram service which takes around the place, but unfortunaley (or say fortunaletly) it was all booked.. So we walked around the strrets ourselves :-) There is one Cenntanial Park also where all tyoes of tulips they have planted. We missed the Dance performance there :'( but we were able to take snaps along with some performers :D

It was time to move on to next destination.. "Dutch Village". This place they have put up everything related to holland in small place. good place to experiance how thinkgs work out and how they live there.. how they do things.. here again we missed dance performance :( but were able to see how they make wooden shoes. yes in holland still 1 million people wear wood shoes. It all started some centuries back when they once had scarcity of leather and someone came up with idea of making shoes made out of wood :-). We also saw "making of was candles"... not normal candles which we have but artistic candles.. (last of the pics are of those - taken from mobile as battery of camera got drained out) they make these beautiful candles in just 15-20 mins (before the wax gets cold) and we saw its making from start till end.. they are really fast in making those.. and color combinations and all are really too good :-)..

As sun was setting we have to start our journey back home. But this journey also was excellent one and worth everything :-).... have missed out going to tulip farm (commercial farm - having millions of tulips)..., So will plan again another trip to this great place..

BDay Trip - San Francisco - 04/30/2005

To celebrate occasion of completion of my quarter century on third rock from sun, i decided to go to west coast. This time state being california and place being santa clara (my college friends were here) and san jose (one of my collegue) and both these places being near to San Francisco, a very beautiful place which I will say to be in :-) This trip is important and memorable because I was visting and meeting a friend, a very very good friend, after a gap of almost three years.

Well start was not all that good. While going to parking before my flight to SFO, I missed exits twice and so was wandering and trying to figure out how to reach parking lot. After sometime I somehow reached parking lot and after parking car reached airport. This time at airport did not have any trouble and was through with security check in 10 min. Flight was from Detroit to Charlotte (which is in east coast) and from east coast to west coast. Both flights I slept well so as to cover up for lack of sleep before the trip begins.

I reached SFO at 10 PM (29th April) and Divya, Sachin and Nitika were there to receive me. I was meeting Divya after almost two and half years, sachin for the first time and nitika after two months (had met her in Chicago). From airport we reached Divya and Sachin's home. These people had prepared for my bdday :-). They have brought ice cream cake (hey its still there in the fridge... I forgot to finish it yaar). At 12, I cut the cake or better say ice cream :P and was very happy to not have my face painted. For those who are not aware of mangalore tradition (our tradition), at office during cake cutting there is face painting and at home along with face painting there used to be hair painting and also ear filling ceremonies. So this time it was all clean clean :-) And yeh forgot to mention that no one gave me bumps :-). After cake cutting and off course cake eating ceremonies we all chatted for some time and then slept. To start journey for next day which was going to be continued for two days.

Next day (30th April), Anup also joined us and we all started for the day. Divya's and Nitika's plan to take as many parties as possible was not getting successful. Will tell you as had some occasions where there plans failed :P. First was as we started we decided to go to eat ice cream and when we reached shop it was closed :) As there was still around 30 minutes before it was opening we decided to move on. I was saved at that point but to be later bakrofied next day when they all took ice cream party :P

Our first major sight seeing spot was Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Before that had seen, headquarters of many software companies. As name suggest it is very mysterious place and we drove through forests and beautiful mountaneous landscape before reaching this place. In mysterspot, gravitaional pull is bent.. that means it is not perpendicular to earth. but is bent at an angle... so one has to stand slated at an anle other wise you will fall.. We all tried some Matrix stunts :P and also Anup reached my height (only for the time we were in that place :P). Find out more abt the place from http://www.mysteryspot.com/.. Its a nice place to see something unusal and see how physics which we have always studies is not correct at some places of the world and which we are never taught.

After Mystery spot we went to 17 Mile Drive.. man what a place.. its road along Pacific and on the hills are posh houses.. overlooking pacific.. i want one of those. they are so beautiful.. also they have golf course just opposite pacific.. i think fishes willl also now be playing golf deep under water :-) That is so beautiful drive.. amazing.. there are so many beautiful places and spots in here :-)

From 17th Mile drive we went to another longgggg drive... That was on CA 1 (intra state California highway 1).. This highway runs along the pacific coast and gives wonderful view. it has become now my one of the best driving places :-)... Some day will drive the whole strech :-) One side are mountains.. green mountains and other side is pacific.. blue pacific.. it feels so good driving about there.. Drove there for hours and then decided to come back.. While coming back we took photos of "Happy Cows" also (ab jinhein nahin amaloom yeh kya hai uske liye : California ki Happy Coes ka yahan Ad aata hai :P ) heheNow was the movie plan and decided to watch "Kaal".. bus yehi pe maat khaa gaye... saali philum ghatiya nikali :( barbaad movie.. DO NOT WAtCH... Ajay devagan bhoot hai aur wohi sab ko maarta hai.. shaa. kya barbaad movie banayi hia.. in loogon ko aur acchi story mill sakti thi :P

Next day plan was to visit SFO downtown... So we staretd... Crossing various beautiful sities.. Pacifica, Salisuta.. all on teh coast and overlooking Pacific.. All having beautiful houses... All sch that you will feel like spending all yourlife there.. California is beautfiful plac eto live in :-)... First we went to Golden Gate bridge... its amazing.. between two mountains which forms border of Bay and Pacific.. driving over it was amazing.. Tried some stunts also as came out of moonroof to take some snaps.. We walked over the bridge and from there bay area and downtown have good view.. We can also see Alcatrez prison (The Rock fame :)).. there are some vista points on the hills from where we get better view of bridge.. When its foggy. its looks morfe beautiful and bridge will be hidden by fog and we can only see top points poking above fog, but Sunday was clear day..

From there we wnet to downtown SFO.. and to Fisherman's Wharf.. from here starts the Crises to Bay and also to Alcatrez.. Since Alcatrez cruises were sold out we wnet for Bay cruise.. In Bay area there are lot of people foing sailing and all.. Its always full with people doing water sports.. We again went till Golden gate, but this time under it and how magnificient it was.. What a human mind can think and what humans can acheive, these all magnificient peices of work reinforces the felings...Cruise also took us to Alcatrez, we just saw it from outside and did not get chance to explore it or do some Nicolas Cage like stunts :-)

After bay area cruise it was time to see downtown :-) And for that wee took tram journey :D.. its an open tram and indian ishtyle main latak sakte hian :) downtown is built like steps.. sleep hill then a step.. and then again steep hill and that tram took us up and down .. :-) toopk whole journey and back in tram, which was good :-) saw most part of downtown and this beautiful city of artists.. this place surely tells that it has artists in there.. because everything is so beautifull there is one crooked strret as name suggests its serpentine.,, aadhi teedhi.. and on both sisdes are gardens.. pics did not come out.. all are shaky :'(

It was time for my flight and so we came to airport..

it was such a wonderful trip.. wonderful in many ways.. which can't be put as words.. so ma not putting.

Now, before I close this trip details and tell u links for pictures.. here is smalll contest..Count number of times I have used the words "amazing", "woderful", "beautiful" and "wow". Send in your answers and you can win trio to San Francisco *

*Terms and Conditions:Will be discussed after contest finishes :P