Christmas Lights!!

So check this out...it was snowing inches a week before christmas. After our house warming party, while cleaning up, almost on a reflex, I just decided to take a walk. Took my camera with me and captured decorations of our house and best ones in our community.

Here is our house....

From Christmas Lights 2008

Here is the bestof our community

From Christmas Lights 2008

House Warming Partyyyy!!!

So after spending 6 months after buying the house, in making it invitable ad so on, we had to do a house warming party. The good day was 19 Dec' 08. We made some new friends this year and we decided to invite them instead of our friends of old (most of em have kids now), so that we can have a bang.

Against a tough schedule, Garima prepared all the food herself, including 4 types of a appetizers. The menu included Chicken masala, rajmah chawal, shimla mirch paneer, nan and so on. I was of course in charge the drinks, but the guys were mostly helping themselves unless it came to a Mojito, my fav drink.

We gave a tour of our small house, roamed around and talked endlessly. Champagne was in order and after that drinking didn't stop. We settled down for 2 rounds of Bingo right after that. and

Then we got down to dancing, yes dancing! See most of our friends live in apartments and it is difficult to have a loud and late night party. Bringing our advantage of having a single family house and a 1000 watt sound system to use, everyone had a blast. It was a liberating experience.

A wonderful experience. But more to come, we intend to invite our other good friends soon. Of course the environment will be different with kids and babies all around, but all we care is that we make our friends happy and looked after when they come to our place.

Newburyport Day Trip

Well, Garima was upset that we could not go anywhere after buying our new house in June. I did my research and we ended up going to Newburyport on Aug 17 '08, which is an hour long drive from our place.

The drive is beautiful once we get to the basin near the town. The view is very flat and different-good from rest of New England.

The three major attractions are sea-shell laden beaches on Plum Island, downtown Newburyport and the harbour.

Getting to Plum Island needs to be a quick and early in the morning because there are only so many parking spots and the line can become really long. The island is a six mile stretch of natural habitat for migratory bird's egg laying season. One can see schools and swarms of these if you just pause at Hellcat Observation area. Waterfowl hunting season falls between bird's presence. The coolest spot is Stage Island Area where we parked and spent quite a bit of time on the beach. Garima collected some fine shells. Emerson rocks area is awesome for some fine pics.

Getting back in the town was easy but slow. The first noticeable thing about the town is the consistency of color on the buildings and sign boards. We were there on a Sunday, hence a lot of shops were closed, but some good ones were still open.

Tannery is the city mall, converted from a shoe tannery back in old times. There is a cool flea market for antiquities where we saw some awesome old stuff. Lunch at Not Your Average Joe's is a great specially when you have a seat in the back with harborside view.

Walking along the harborside is a very relaxing, more so when the day is as clear and crisp as it was that Sunday. Boy it was crowded! But we checked out the town in about hour and a half and it was good fun.

On the way back, if you are lucky, the harbor bridge will open to give clearance to boats and its a good site. Definitely a day trip worth repeating, especially when summer is winding down.

Wet in Water Country...

So after Marthas Vineyard, we just wanted to take it easy and do a day trip. What better than Water Country in Portsmouth, NH.

Nothing much to mention....We didn't click a lot of snaps coz the rides were too many and too much fun. The place was crowded as people stayed away from other vacations involving costly road trips as price of gas is touching $4.

We went with Satish and Haritha and spent almost the whole day there. As expected, by the end of the day my beard was all open and needless to say, I gave a very ungentlemanly appearance.

Well, a good day trip though.

Martha's Vineyard

Well, we had been thinking about it. We finally decided to book the ferry and the campground in MV and headed out on the July 4 long weekend. The ferry was an experience and we got to take our car with us. It was about a 45 min trip from Woods hole to Vineyard Haven pier.

Once off the boat, we first checked out the locality. High point was the beach, was not crowded but, hey the only beach on MV, so we had to see it! We started at 5 am to get the ferry, so we had to eat at Black Dog Tavern a very famous chain in MV. We then roamed about the market and Garima was all but behaving like a little girl once we got to Beadnicks, where you can choose your beads and make your own jewellery.

The next day we watched 4th of July parade. It was long and very colorful.

There are some local lighthouses that are a good to see. We also got to see the fireworks at night from the famous Harbor View Hotel.

Our trip was cut short by rain and our campsite was flooded. So we decided to go back and we were lucky enough to get a spot on the ferry. Overall a good trip, but would come again to try more activities like water sports etc.

Miami!! - A break from the New England Snows

If you want to skip the blah blah and just see the pics, go here

Well!..I and Garima were tired..really tired of the snow here and we decided to escape. Not seeing the sun in weeks and gasping for warm weather, South Florida was the obvious choice. I took two days off from work and Garima also got weary of searching for a job. The chosen days were 27 Feb - March 3. Yes I know March 3 was a working day, but that's what I do for mini vacations. I try and take the red eye flight on the day of work for obvious reasons.

Feb 27, 28: Reached Ft Lauderdale on 27th night. Took our car, a blue PT Cruiser and drove to the hotel. Garima wanted the convertible, but those babies cost a lot and we were not going to drive around a lot anyways. The hotel was good enough to crash at night. The small Argentine joint in the hotel was great for breakfast next morning with the beach in sight and that priceless breeze.

28th was cool but it was still warm for people who were going around in freezing temperatures a day before. We checked out the North Miami beach, 10 steps from our hotel. We wanted to absorb all the goodies the first day itself but we knew we had to move on. The happening places in Miami were just 10 min from where we were.

We checked out the Lincoln Rd, which is a mall cum road and a great place for dining and shopping in Miami. It was a bit pricey but it was too early in the day to buy anything anyway. Next stop was South Beach, a 5 block walk from Lincoln Rd. The beach is awesome and very shallow for the better part and hence popular. It was less crowded on 28th, due to the cold. But we were just amazed.

At night, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino baby!. Its a great place with fabulous eateries. Live music and fun things to do. At the Casino, Garima started with $20 on 5c Mr. Cashman machine, was down to $4 and then she won $104!!! The restaurants become night clubs after 10:30pm

Feb 29: The day started with a great breakfast again and we found ourselves headed for the Miami zoo, one of the top ten in US. We had to shoot down other ideas due to the lack of time. The bike rental was helpful as we covered the whole zoo in 2 hours. They had African, Asia and American sectors...a huge place. The Giraffe feeding was very rewarding and boy it was getting warm!

We couldn't get enough of the beach and so we went back to the South Beach. This time we got our feet wet and sun bathed for a great 4 hours. Garima had good tan and some skin burns. Of course this time the beach was crowded.

We changed back at the hotel and it was time to check out the night life. What place better to start than Ocean Blvd. I took Garima to Mango which is a very famous cabaret bar famous for its Mojitos and wings and ofcourse salsa cabaret. Here is a video we shot. We shopped and walked and shopped. The sunset was the best we have seen after being atop on Mt. Cadillac in Maine.

March 1-2: Well, we went to my colleague's gorgeous place Gurmeet in Ft Lauderdale. His wife, Manjeet was great fun to be with. We were off to the Keys. Half way through we stopped at "Whale Harbor" a seafood buffet at Islamorada key. Where else can you have unlimited clams and crab legs and much more in $30. Best place to do windsurfing as the water is just 3 ft.

We were in a bit of panic when we reached Key West as hotel rooms were not a plenty. The nest thing was of course the Southernmost point of US. The night life is unbelievable. We walked while gushing booze down our throats, an activity banned and punishable in most other corners of the civilized world. Great bars, shopping and night clubs. Its as if all people do here is drink and have fun.

Water sports were great fun. Lunch was amazing at the Harbour. I bought great Hawaiian shirts which are hard to find in New England shops unless its designer stuff. Before we know it, its 5 pm and time to head back. In all it was a great get away and a very needed break.