A trip to 'The District' - Capital of the U.S.

'To go or to not go' - that was the question which haunted us in the most important of cold December weekends. Yes, the one right before Christmas. And you can guess what the decision was. Off we went on a fine Saturday morning to Washington D.C, the capital of United States, often referred to as "The District".

We reached the city in the pm and decided to start off with what else?, the White House. After walking along what seemed like a looot of miles and trying to guess which of the white buildings might be White House, we got to our destination at last. White House beamed at us amidst all Secret Service cars parked in the area. Ofcourse, we had not booked a tour months in advance, so had to be happy with seeing it from across a fence. The whole area is full of Government buildings like The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Department of Commerce, American Red Cross and the Department of the Treasury, to name a few.  Each of these buildings look magnificent. And my personal opinion is that some of them actually look better than White House, more white even ;)

One of the benefits of braving the weather at this time of the year was that we got to see the National Christmas Tree placed near the White House. The tree was all decked up and was indeed a pretty sight. There are smaller trees each representing U.S states all around the national tree, and altogether it makes a very bright Christmas Scene.

We set off the next day to Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum. To be completely honest,I should say that this was the very first time that I actually fell in love with a museum. Museums to me have always been places with a lot of things that might accumulate dust but never much interest. Boy, wasn't that about to change. This one was a refreshing change. It was amazing with a hanger inside displaying all sorts of planes, helicopters, space shuttles, missiles, transmission equipment and what not! We got to see the space shuttle Discovery(and mind you, this was the real one which went into space, not a model), Enola Gay - the aircraft to bomb Hiroshima in Japan(the atomic bomb - Little Boy), Nemesis - the racing champion and a lot others including the ones used in World War 2. And flights were not all. There were missiles, maneuvering equipment, a model of Pathfinder(yes, the one which went to Mars and we read about in newspapers) and even an air traffic control room where you could listen to real transmissions from Reagan airport. Trust me, a trip to D.C will not be complete unless you dedicate a fair amount of time to this awesome place.

We drove by Washington Memorial(entrances closed after a recent earthquake) and off we went to the U.S. capitol, which until then I would have recognized(wrongly) as White House. The dome looked inviting and as we walked around it, realized that it was indeed an architectural marvel. It was picture time what with tripod setup and everything there. Infact, most of these places were not much crowded, one for Christmas and one for near-freezing temperatures. By then, it was getting dark and we drove around the city for another closeup look at the White House. Ofcourse, we couldn't find any parking spots and had to be happy with driving all around the city(same can't be said for Renjith who was driving then, driving in D.C., the city, can be a real pain!). And before we knew, it was time to come back.

This was another trip where we had fun going to places together and talking and making fun and eating and seeing wonderful monuments. We might not have "covered" a lot of places, but it was definitely worth every minute. It was all about being in good company to enjoy good things. And all we wanted to do was make it last forever. Hoping for many more such trips. Me signing off ;)

New Hampshire in the Fall

We have been planning this trip to New Hampshire forever, but something or the other comes up and this plan gets dropped. But not the last weekend. On Thursday, we booked a hotel(one of the very few available) and set out on Friday evening for a 'colorful' weekend.

On the first day, we started our journey with a trip to Franconia Notch State Park. There are multiple attractions there, but the best of the whole lot were the roads. Nature presented a plethora of colors on both side and each side-road would take one to simply beautiful woods each of which looked like an award winning painting(not modern art, thou!).

We decided to check out The Flume Gorge as 'Gorge' was a word only familiar to us from Geography textbooks until then. It was a 2 mile hike each way along wooden steps/paths by the side of the waterfall and all the way up. It was like backtracing a waterfall in a blackbox manner ;) The view from the Sentinel Pinewood Covered bridge and other scenic views made the trail an even more memorable one.

Then off we went the route most traveled, Kancamagus Highway, and realized the reason for it. The place was at its fall peak and was amazing! Waterfalls, scenic overlooks, short hiking trails, path to the woods, bridges, you name it and you can find it here. A drive well worth the time we had to spend to get into this route from the interstate(that part is generally congested at this time of the year). The route took us eventually to Attitash, where we could choose from scenic chair rides and Alpine slides. And finally, we reached Conway where again there was a road trail that we followed but only until it started raining, that is. Moreover, days are indeed getting quite short. When it drizzles, the place looks even better with the water drops falling on multi-colored leaves, but when the rain picks up, that's the cue to get back home (well, it was for us!)

Sunday was indeed an on-road-day. We started off driving along Twin Mountains, White Mountains and Mt Washington Valley. The route has colorfully-clad tress on both sides welcoming you and beckoning you to just aimlessly drive even more, and that's exactly what we did.  And yeah, we even saw a moose on the road. Had been wondering what a moose was from the time I saw the many warning signals posted about it. I still do not know what it is, but know what it looks like :)




The road finally led us to Mount Washington Auto Road which in turn led us to the summit of Mt Washington. The drive along pretty steep and narrow road without any rails by the side took some daring from the part of hubby, especially towards the summit where it was all fog and frost. A chill went down my spike when I saw ice flakes around and thoughts about impending winter was, to be honest, a little scary! As we drove down, and stopped for another scenic overview, realized that it was time to get back to NJ. Oh yeah, I felt sad!!!

More than what we saw,  remains unseen and as we bid goodbye to New Hampshire, realized that this is a place we wouldn't mind coming, how-many-ever-more times! Live free or Die, says this state!!!

It was not all about them...

The girl turned around
Not in fury but in tears
'Am not asking for more
 But please hold me close,
 I know your love
 n I need to feel it now;
 It is not all for me...'

Her man looked away
His eyes blazing red
'How in the world
 Did things get so worse
 I love her so,
 And I need to tell her so;
 It is not all for me...'

It took just a second
To sweep away the pain,
With the smile that crept in
And played on their lips,
They held each other close
And it was not all about them...

An American Vishu

Vishu is around the corner and am about to get into a panic driven state. I am one who truly believes that the better the Vishukani, the better the year ahead. And this year, I have no clue about what is in store for me! And the fact that we are in the States does not help either.

I decided to start with a picture/statue of Lord Krishna. And on a rainy(and cold) Sunday evening dragged hubby darling through a bath and set off to ISKCON. It was nothing like what I had imagined(do you remember those rows and rows of shops in ISKCON Bangalore?) except for the kavi-clad 'sayips' and 'madammas'! I was really happy that we had a plan B in place and started off to Bridgewater temple. There, I could see a small store near the entrance and a super-duper-happy me rushed through the Darshan and dashed to the store(without even waiting for the Prasadam, which is otherwise a highlight!). But only to see a 'closed' board hung over it! I was kind of sure then that I will have to make do with the small pic I had carried with me. But hubby had a better plan. During our drive to Philly, he stopped at the temple again and this time we went straight to the store and it was indeed open, much to our delight.
And 'Krishna - Check' says our list :)

The next on the list was even more tricky - yellow flowers. After trying out a couple of stores, and after making 'completely' sure that hubby doesn't plan to stop the car by an interstate where I saw some yellow shrubs looking very much like 'kani-konna', I decided to invest in a disaster recovery plan immediately. Read, an artificial yellow bunch. After that came the real search for yellow flower bonquets. Afterall, nothing can beat the fragrance of fresh flowers, and nothing can beat determination too(talk about oil prices and we may have to rethink about this statement!). We found a dozen yellow roses :)
Flowers-Check

Incense stick(Agarbathi) time! This one wasn't all that difficult. Though selecting between cinnamon/vanilla/chocolate/strawberry flavored incense sticks was a new experience. Should say that I enjoyed it though :) Check.

And now for yellow fruits and veggies. A trip to Indian grocery store covered the whole part, and I even bought a couple of apples and a box of strawberries to liven up the occasion. The sad part was that while in the checkout line, I saw this big piece of jackfruit with this old uncle who was directly in front of me. I couldnt stop myself from asking where he found it. As I rushed to the stand he pointed, got to know that they had run out of it. A sulking me came back to the line and stole another look at the jackfruit this uncle had, wondering how close I had been to having a jackfruit for my kani. What I do not understand is why he immediately took it out of the basket and carried it like I might steal it and run away, or could I have???
Anyways-check.

And then it was time to arrange my precious finds, hoping that the fire alarm will not go off at 3 in the morning for all the incense sticks and the lamp. And lo, we got ready to open our eyes to a new year... One of happiness, prosperity and togetherness...

Wish you all a very happy Vishu...