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 :-)