Trip to Seattle

I had some work in Seattle, It was first time I was suppose to visit Microsoft office in Redmond for giving a presentation on SAMSys RFID readers. Swati has a close friend Uttara in Seattle so she insisted on coming along. So I left on tuesday morning and reached around 10:30.. You should read my post "A Week where everything started wrong but ended right...".




Swati come that day evening actually mid night and then for next 4 days I was so busy that I had no time to spend with Swati. Only thing we did was go out for dinner some some good places including at space needle. That is a beautiful revolving restaurant. Also we met Uttara and Ashwin for dinner and also visited there house on friday evening. Swati had a ball of a time. Me being busy she enjoyed like anything. Whole day she was shopping and going out with her friend for lunch, cofee what not...:)... She loved it...

On Saturday we did get some time to go around the city we saw the famous Pike place market, we took a ferry to a near by casino(I love casinos.... won some money there) and took evening flight back to raleigh. It was a short and Sweet visit we had....:):)

New years at New york(Dec 2004)

We arrived at Newark airport on 31st Dec Morning. Sadh and Shobha came to pick us up. We then went to pick up Kdia. Then we went to Sadh's house. It was great fun. We played games, chatted a lot... Then in the evening we went for a new years party...:) DJ was Magic mike...:) It was fun... We never saw these many indians together at one place in US....:):)

Next day we went to Kau's place. Kau is Swati's best friend. Swati met her after 2 years. Last time they met was in Kau's marriage and that too it was running visit.:) We had a great time. We saw Munna bhai MBBS it is such a funny movie. Kau and Meenanath had made very good food. :)
[Swati]
Kau is my best friend from college ,our friendship is almost10 years old now!!!she is one person who can share my thoughts and understand me and always stood by me come whatever may!! am lucky to have a friend like her. Meena nath and kau are a fantastic couple together,they complement each other very well:):)we had a great time with them , hope we could stay near and meet ever so often. Meeting them is a rejuvinating affair.

Surprise Visit to India...(Nov 2004)

We got our GC around 2nd week of Nov 2004. Same day we decided to go to India and surprise everyone at home... We did not inform anybody at home. Just took a flight to India and reached Mumbai airport. We booked a private taxi and arrived at Swati's house in CBD around 5:30 am. I went in alone and knocked the door. Everyone was surprised.. I told them I had some official work so came alone to India... After 2 minutes Swati entered. No one could believe it.. Swati's Dad was just sitting and staring at her for 10 minutes. He just could not believe it...:):)

From there we went to my house at Panvel... There the reaction was exactly opposite. Mom opened the door and just said.... Good you came. Come in.... That is it...:):) We enjoyed a lot in India did lot of shopping and eat like mad.. We came back in 1 week. So the time was too short....:(

Chimney Rock and Blue Ridge pkwy (Oct 2004)

On 28th Oct 2004 evening we went to Charlotte as we had an appointment for our GC. We stayed at Rajesh and Vandana's place that evening. Next day morning we went for the appointment and from there we drove to Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock is a small place in between the mountains. We had reserved a log cabin in the mountains. It was called Water fall cabin. It was very well located between the mountains and fall colors gave it a perfect look.

Then we visited the Chimney Rock national park. Where we climbed to the top of the montain to see Chimney which is at 2280ft above sea level. The visibility normaly is upto 75 miles but due to fog we could hardly see our own hands.:) Next day we drove to blue ridge parkway but that was also closed due to a hurricane damage so finally we returned on Saturday itself... But overall was a short and sweet road trip...

Biltmore Estate (May 2004)

I had to leave in 1 week for India on a project. So we decided to take a weekend off at Biltmore estate... It is a nice beautifull estate near Asheville. It is the countries largest home. It has more than 4 acres under 1 roof.. It also has beautifull garden around the estate and there is a great winery too. We visited the winery and also bought 2 bottles of wine. One red and another white. We never drink wine but...:):)

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon(May 2004)

For my birthday which is on 7th May we decided to go to my favourite vacation spot, which is Las Vegas. I just love the city. This time we decided to also visit Grand Canyon. We reached Las vegas and were going around travel agents to get tickets to Grand Canyon and HP called. He kept talking to me about general the surrounding and guess whatt...... He and Mansi actually gave us a surprise and arrived in vegas and also tracked us down on the strip...:) So sweet of them.. That moment made our trip the best ever.

We took a flight to Grand Canyon. The flight was a very small one and Swati was really uncomfortable in the smal plane. We have lunch at a small indian place and return in the flight back to vegas. We enjoyed there for another day or so and returned back... Did I tell u we travelled in first class that too on a free ticket...:) I don't think till date I have paid for any of my vacation travel. It has always been free tickets....:):)

Road Trip... Cary-DC-NY-Atlantic City-Norfolk-Cary Contd...(Nov 2003)

After going to various places in NY like statue of liberty and all we left in our Mustang for Atlantic city. We checked in our hotel and went to various casino for some gambling. As I had mentioned I like gambling..:):) Next day morning we started from Atlantic city and drove to Cape May where we took a ferry to Delaware. From there we took Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel. .





This was the best drive I have ever taken in my life. This is One thing you should never miss in you life..:) Next we stayed over night at Norfolk and returned back to Cary next day morning that was sunday... This was a great trip.