Lake George visit on June 23

I have been trying to drive myself to write about the memorable Lake George visit for the last 3 days. Just did not want the detailed memories to fade with time. Next week, Devaki's parents are visiting us. So there will be many more interesting things to write too.

The day of Lake George (may sound too historical) was June 23. All 4 of us (you have to read the earlier post first to understand who is 'us' ) did not wake up before 8 am. We hit the road at around 9:30 as we had expected. It was veg toast sandwich for breakfast. And the same was packed for lunch. But we made sure we carried some snacks too. The drive was good. We headed northwards from our place on I87 towards Montreal (Canada). For those who don't know, you can actually drive in to Canada from US without any hassle. Many Canadian cars are seen on this road. And the funny thing is Buffalo, which is in US is farther from our place as compared to Montreal. Anyways, as we moved north on to this highway, we saw a lot of forest parks and a lot more tree cover. The terrain too was much more mountainous. This large area is called Catskill Forests just like say Sahayadris in India. Lake George is a part of Catskill . On the way, we stopped at the service area for 5 minutes. Devaki was thrilled with the display of plants there. Btw, she is always thrilled after seeing all those flower plants in Stop n shop,Walmart, Sams club and every place we go. And she always buys at least one. :-) In our balcony we have around 10-15 flower plants of different variety.

The new GPS fitted in the car made our life very easy. I do not miss those days when we carried printouts of the directions every time we visited any new place. As we entered Lake George, the place seemed to be more and more lively. We had entered the Lake George village which is like the downtown for Lake George, where you will find most of the restaurants and activities. We parked our car in one of the parking lots in this area, probably the most costly one. The sad part is that we realized that only 2 hours after we parked. Devaki and Sumel were eager to get down and enter many of the small shopping outlets. Jatinder and I promised them that we will do it later towards the end of the day and now we must do what we had planned earlier i.e. Para sailing.

We climbed down from the parking lot which was on the shores of the lake. The lake is situated in a small valley surrounded by mountains on almost all sides. It's roughly 20 miles long and 2 miles wide. Reminded me of Nainital lake from what pictures I have seen of it. For some time, we walked on the small walking track along the lake. There were very small beaches on the way, where many people were sun bathing, swimming or reading a book. We saw some folks with their fishing gear too. Next thing to do was to have lunch as our stomachs were demanding it. So we sat on a tiny grassy patch of land slightly elevated and overlooking the lake. We were given company by a bold duck which seemed to have joined us from the middle of nowhere. It was highly attracted to Devaki or Devaki's sandwich and moved so close to her that she got up and started running helter skelter. All of us were laughing aloud at that point of time. But definitely Devaki was not enjoying much so I helped her to scare the duck. Surprisingly, the duck took off in the air and landed in the lake. For those e of you who are interested, I even have a picture of that bold duck in the photo album in my earlier post.

Post lunch, we walked further on the walking track passing some lake view restaurants and many docking stations for the private boats. We saw someone para sailing from a distance and immediately, all of us were excited and wanted to be in the air asap. We asked some passerby for the directions for the base area of para sailing and reached there in minutes. The lady at the small para sailing office made us sign an agreement, which said something like, If i die while doing this , none other than I am responsible for it. The usual disclaimer when you do any adventure activity. We came to know that this can be done singles as well as doubles. Devaki and Sumel quickly bought the doubles idea and that gave them some more mental strength.

We boarded a medium sized boat with a flat surface to facilitate take off and landing of the parachute. Devaki and Sumel were to go first. When they came down, Devaki was not talking and Sumel had enjoyed every bit of it. Devaki surprisingly felt giddy. It was least expected as she had thoroughly enjoyed paragliding in Manali. Next to go was Paape and he really enjoyed. He was worried about his Pagadi getting blown away by the air flow but I noticed that it was in its place when he landed. Not sure what happened in between though. I was the last to go from the whole group. And what an experience it was. The flight was quite long. Around 10 minutes in the air at an altitude of around 300 feet. It felt so isolated from the world. There were interim strong wind currents to give some sudden n jerks but overall the flight was smooth. Tiny islands in the lake could be seen clearly from up there. In 2 minutes, I pretty much got used to the altitude and later I was waving to the people travelling on the local cruise.

We proceeded to the car park and moved out our car, determined not to park there any longer, at such exorbitant rates. We then drove northwards along the east side of the lake. And it was a nice drive with small resorts on the way. We saw several camping grounds on the way just like our colleague Andrew had mentioned. The camping grounds were packed with people. After driving for around 10 miles, we decided to head back home and we were home by 8:30 pm.

We thought of spending at least a night in Lake George, the next time we go there. That place was definitely not worth going for a day trip. Such was its beauty !

Times Sqaure Visit June 22

One of my acquaintances told me yesterday that he knew about my recent Cape cod trip as he had read my blog. And how in the world did he know about my blog ? Well, the not so intelligent guess is that I have posted my blog URL on my Orkut profile :-), which is public. Anyway, I was glad to know that my blog has some viewers. So I decided today that I must get my act together and scribble about our last weekend when our friends Jatinder and Sumel from Richmond, VA visited us and make sure that the details of such a memorable time dont just evaporate.
This was quite a planned trip as Jatinder alias Paappey (you will realize when you see the snaps above) had booked their Amtrak tickets to New York last month itself. Yes, Paapey prefers a train journey more than driving. From our end, Devaki's preparation in terms of cooking and getting ready for their visit gathered ground 2 day before they reached on Thursday (21st). Pav bhaaji, delicious Sambar were ready and bulk cooked in advance so that we get maximum time with our friends. House was vacuumed none other than by yours truly. Uhh, vacuuming a house more that 1000 sq feet is indeed tiring. Not that I didn't know it, but I like to say that again.
The weekend started when Devaki and I fled early from office on Friday afternoon 3:30. That felt great to get a head start for the weekend. Plan was to receive our friends from Edison, a 90 mile drive from our place. It was great to see them once again and within minutes all 4 of us were busy in our conversations. Since we met them on Oak Tree road, how could we not go and eat in Sarvana Bhavan. I just ate a Vada Sambar, Devaki had a Rava dosa and all of us sipped the special Madras Coffee. With some food in our tummies, we were all set to go to Times Square. So got in the NJ Transit train and got down at New York Penn Station. Felt great to be in the city after around a gap of 3 months. Till 30th March, when we used to work for Infy, we used to be there everyday in freezing cold. Gone were those days and also the cold. City, as usual seemed to be full of life. We walked down to Times Square. Was just a quick 15 minute thing. Our friends were admiring the dazzling lights of Times Square, clicking photos all the while. Guess the first place we went to after finishing our photography sessions. We entered Toys R Us. Sumel wanted to go in, I know for sure, but how could Devaki resist with all those thousands of soft toys inside waiting to be cuddled. Spent around 30 mins inside, admired the Dino's roar, and came out.
Once out of the store, we had a small brain storm session on what to eat and where. Those sessions are always interesting. So the final decision was to eat in Khasiyat which is on Oak tree road. That place is well known for its excellent Chat and tikkis. I should say we hogged there. Papdi chat, Alu tikki, Sev batata puri, chole Bhature, Paratha, Pista Kulfi, Falooda were some of the few items that we pounced on. Once done, we drove back home and the drive was pleasant. Once back home, we didnt spend too much time chatting as next day was going to be packed one. Early morning we were going to drive to Lake George, the place that we wanted to go since such a long time, the place with one of the most beautiful lake and the place that did not let us down in any way. Hang on !

We are back

Heya...This is rather late in saying that we are back from the Cape. It was a memorable trip. The highlight of the trip was cycling which we did only on the first day. But its effects were there for the next many days. And we remembered them every time we sat on a hard wood chair :-) I hope you got what I am saying. But seriously, I must have cycled atleast 20 miles on the first day. Devaki may have done half of that. It was fun though but only when we were doing it :-).