2009 in Pictures - May

May is expected to bring Spring season! it did.. though it was pretty cold and unusually cold for that time of the year, it did not stop the flowers from blooming, it did not stop the birds from coming out and singing, and it did not stop me from going to Holland, Michigan to enjoy the Tulip Festival.

I had rented a Nissan Altima for this trip, and I loved driving it... had not driven a car so smooth and so responsive yet! Totally totally loved it... and had just the right company in Joy along with me... Pritam, Sunil and Golu joined us from Minneapolis later in the evening after we checked into our motel near Holland!

Photography would have been a challenge for sure, because I do not know what to do when I am supposed to take pictures of flowers... I personally came back satisfied with the pictures I took that weekend though! enjoy the moments and some photographs from Holland below... This might just be one of the most colorful months of 2009!

The right set of people makes a trip so much better! I am so grateful to have good travel companions all the time (I also take credit in that though! I chose who I travel with, most of the time)

Artist's tables are one of the most interesting things that I know of... they shout out loud of creativity!

I have also been fascinated by wheels and rims for a long time... but I do not have a liking for such loud rims! I like them subtle... like Radha!

Holland in addition to the Tulips, is also famous for wooden shoes! And yes, you can wear them!

I also drove a Jeep Commander... Big SuV... loads of space! and Jeep :)

We managed to find a lovely local Italian restaurant for lunch and then a decent Indian restaurant for Dinner... had to rush and drive fast to reach the Indian one in the night before it closed, but we did manage...

Another very interesting thing we did in Holland was go on a Sand dunes safari... it was a crazy sand ride with adventurous twists and turns in a 1979 dodge truck!

The Big Red light house in Holland... This place was exactly opposite to Milwaukee on the other side of Lake Michigan...

We also managed to check out a local market in Holland before we headed back to Milwaukee.

I love huskies! Period! This one had such beautiful blue eyes!

Also visited a winery on our way out of Holland... Experienced a bit different US there... very quiet, non-concrete, natural America... lovely it was!

And more flowers near home!

The third car I drove in the month of May was a Mazda 6. Radical design, but another beauty to drive! I had rented it to get Ma Pa from the Chicago airport! Cannot explain that feeling in words... going to an airport to pick up mom dad after their first ever flight! very precious memory!

In May itself, I drove to Minneapolis and Chicago with Mom Dad!

This is a view from the 14th floor apartment in Minneapolis... my home away from home in America... the famous or rather infamous 1409!

See you with some pictures from June soon!

The drive that drives me sane !

It was a simple plan... lets leave when we can after we get up when we can and get ready in whatever time it takes... so we wake up at 9ish, get ready in 4 hours :D (there was a lot of catching up to do) and finally managed to leave around 1... the beauty of the entire plan being that we knew it was a day dedicated to driving and food and conversations and we did not really have a place to reach ! truly a journey being more important than the destination...

Atlanta airport on the evening I reached

the GPS has been giving me some trouble lately (I guess needs and update or something) though it brought us back home alright after the movies on Friday... It decided not to work for the first half hour or so, and then was kind enough to give us directions to the mountains just right!


View Larger Map

This part of the drive was not so hilly, but green... full of it...

We were headed towards the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and drove through 3 states, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee to reach the Clingmans Dome which is the highest peak in the Great Smokies at 6643 ft above sea level. To add an icing on the cake, there is an observatory which is build at the peak to get a 360 degree view from the top... very beautiful view, but makes it very artificial in my opinion.

This was by far one of the greenest drives I have been on... Tall trees both sides of the road all the way, mountains full of greens and shades of it... beautiful!

We took just one pitstop on this 4 hour drive, and I cannot express in words how it felt to drive on the mountains, especially when the roads were wide, and very smooth.

It would be a shame to drive around in the US and not see Harley all around... The owner of this one was kind enough to let me take a picture at the Gas Station...

View Larger Map

This part was all hills and curves...

The drive was especially very rejuvenating after we turned from Cherokee. Its a small town in North Carolina, and can be compared to a Katra before Vaishno Devi or Parmanu before Shimla or Bhowali before Nainital... has a lot of motels, restaurants, gift shops and a small river runs through it, which seemed to be a very popular picnic spot.. there were families enjoying the water, playing around in the stream, tubing, grilling and just being there !!! Nice...

Like I said... Harley and more of it...

Randomly stopped a few miles after Cherokee to enjoy the view... Dense forest, the sound of water flowing, lush green trees, couldn't be more beautiful

The Pontiac GT enjoying her break...

Mamu ki gaadi passing by while I was taking pictures...Mamus get the most powerful cars in the US... India learn !

Like I said before, green and more green... And these leaves would turn into paintings in fall!

A glimpse of where I was driving...

Another hour or so took us to the Clingmans Dome. There is something that happens to me when I drive uphill on curvy roads... I don't really know what, but there is something that happens.. I feel at ease, and am very comfortable... Good for another few months before I have to get out of my base again!

And some more bikes... men and women... on bikes... Jai ho Harley ki... there are more brands, but HD is by far the MOST Popular!

Count the concentric circle and know the age of the tree this block came from.. What is your answer?

Smoky mountains = thick forest all around... What fun it would be to camp and hike around in this area... There are many options and you can spend days walking around the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park....

At the top of Clingmans Dome, there is a cement structure which takes you to a high platform so that you can get a 360 degree view from the peak!

This is the eastern side view...Can only imagine how this would look at sunrise...

This is the North View...

And the western view, just on the border of North Caroline and Tennessee...

On our way down we wanted to take this trail, but did not because it looked too deserted and we were afraid that there would be bears waiting for us :P

A picture from behind the glass door of the rest room :)

After a .5 mile hike up to the peak from the parking lot, and back, we were understandably hungry and we had home made Gobhi Aalu, and Shahi Tofu with brown bread for our dinner ! Yumm!

Read more about the Smokies on this board... that half a mile of climb is good enough to remind you of the fact that you have not been working out :P

A few other not so high peaks...

The view from the parking lot after were returned...

We left the dome peak around 1930 hours and this time around the GPS decide to give up on us, the good part, however, was that we remembered the roads we had taken and were ok without driving the entire distance without directions from the GPS and we did! sweet !

Took two breaks, one in Cherokee where we went to a shop to see if there was some memoir that I could carry... I like this name Cherokee, probably because this Jeep brand has been something that I have been admiring for a very long time... I have said this to myself many times in the past, I am going to be in a Cherokee one day... did not realize that it was going to be, Cherokee the town, and not the jeep :)

The man on the left is ready for a small performance near the shop in Cherokee that sells Indian memorabilia... Indian has a different meaning here... not us Indians :) Moccasins if you were wondering are shoes made of leather which were originally worn by hunters. They are super soft and super quiet and helped the hunters walk long distances very quietly...

Our second stop was around 2130 hours, when we were passing through a town and realised that the Independence Day fireworks had started... just parked the car at the curb and enjoyed the fireworks for about 30 minutes before we took the road again... and reached Alpharetta around 2330 hours... 5 hours from Clingmans Dome to Alpharetta with two 30 minute breaks, a distance of about 180 miles, and atleast 60 miles in the hills... Not bad at all... oh, and not getting lost :) The Pontiac GT ran very very well on the entire trip as well, though I felt that the breaking was not as smooth as it should be downhill.

Fireworks in a small town on our way back!!! I can only imagine how the fireworks would have been in large cities around the US if they were so grand in a small town...

Total distance about 360 miles, total trip time about 11 hours, driving time close to about 8 hours, good car, good weather... what a day!

Today is another day and its already about 1030 hours, no plans nothing. And looks like its going to be another journey that matters!

Like I said, Sunday was a lazy day...The first half of the day was spent watching RF struggle against Andy Roddick... Poor Andy was playing to keep RF from winning the match and was not playing to win it.

The view from the flight window... This is Chicago! Did I mention that I upgraded my ticket to a Business Class... enjoyed the seat and the view both...

p.s. this post was written on Sunday, 5th of July.

And one highlight of the trip was this video... I think this is very funny... Have heard it many times now, and I am still laughing about it...