memorial day weekend

And we spent two more glorious days in New York but it has been too long since then to write about that trip and so am going to tell you about our okie-dokie Memorial day weekend.

The initial plan was to drive to Niagara falls along with another couple- it is around 16 hours drive from here and I didn't find the idea too practical -so- convinced hubby to drop the plan. He did so half-heartedly and we instead took a route well known to us- we drove to Chica-gooooo! This change of plan happened at around 6 pm on Friday evening (crazy us!) and then we did our hotel reservations, packed our stuff hurriedly and started the journey.
The thing about staying in EP is that...it is all so beautiful, serene, blah and more blah but when it comes to travel, we have to add a good 30 minutes to the trip. This is not so bad when we travel out but...boy, does it get monotonous when we are returning back home. So we have nicknamed downtown Minneapolis as "the point zero". The number line for any journey starts and ends there for us.

For Friday night stay, we had made reservations at Janesville ( about 30 miles south of Madison). We planned to do some sightseeing around that area, but when morning came, it was raining badly and we could only head down south to Chicago.
We arrived at the Magnificient mile - walked by each and every fascinating shop and sipped a latte every hour. We were then off to Devon Ave - the South Asian shopping haven, for a "quiet" dinner. We only then realized that "quiet" canNOT be a word associated with Devon.
It competes straight-up with T Nagar Ranganathan street without losing any of the zing - whether it be the crowd or the noise or the merchandise. You can see hordes of women shopping gold like they do in Thanga maligai as if there is no tomorrow and the queue standing outside Saravana Bhavan is only more than what it is in T nagar. On this particular Saturday when we went, Patel was running special discounts like 4 maggies for 1 dollar and such- need I say anything about the rush now :)
We were totally beaten. We entered into one of the less crowded restaurants knowing that food was going to be bad (and yes, it was bad) but the items were priced less than half of what they are in Minneapolis and we didn't feel too bad about wasting.

The whole of second day we spent at Ohio street beach and Navy pier enjoying the sun.



We went around Chicago downtown and Millenium park a few times to check out the views and we were off to Palatine (where we stayed). The best part of our Chicago stay was having Caramel creme espresso at Oberweis . I did not know that having coffee made with organic milk was this heavenly.

Monday noon after having breakfast at Panera ( and coffee at Oberweis again :)) we left Chicago and reached Madison at around 3 pm.
It is a very small town famous for being the capital of the Dairyland state and of course for University of Wisconsin. We walked down the State street lined with restaurants,espresso bars and shops that reminded me of Dilli Haat and enjoyed the evening sun sitting by the shores of Lake Monona. We then headed back home and were in EP at 9:30 pm. This trip was tiring enough, I dont think we could have ever managed a 16 hr- 3day trip to Niagara. Now-back in sweet home!

New York nagaram: day 2

The second day started with us stepping out early to check out the Statue of Liberty. We went there, saw the HUGE queue of people waiting to get on to the ferry and realized that it we could never do it that day. We then said -"of course it a Sunday, what else do you expect. Let's do it tomorrow" and moved on to see the United Nations.

We took the guided tour to see the chambers of the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council and the Economic and Social Council.The guide explained to us the functions, composition and current actions undertaken by each council, as well as the activities of the United Nations and my husband was right behind me continuously contradicting everything she had to say. All the same, he was very excited to be there as he had followed every bit of news regarding UN actions since the time he was born. I hung around hoping there would be something more exciting to see later on in the day than just gifts China and Thailand to the UN.



The Security Council

We then decided to visit the Central park and have our lunch at Tom's Restaurant made famous on Seinfeld . But thanks to a Flea market distraction on the way and an argument about fultile waste of money on cheap knick knacks, we ended up on the other side of the street in Riverside park. This was much more beautiful than the famous Central park but we found out about that only later. We got into a bus to cool off a bit and at about 3 o clock we came finally came to Tom's Restaurant. We ordered sitting inside one of the booths were Jerry and his friends sit all the time, a couple of bagels and the waiter very "politely" told us that each person should have a minimum order for $10. Now, after having argued half a day with each other, one doesn't need a "courteous" waiter telling you how much your bill or tip should be. We walked out of this place and entered into a crowded Haagen Dazs ice cream parlor. I got a sticky toffee pudding ice cream and my hubby, a strawberry cheese cake ice cream and we sat on the chairs in the middle of Broadway to patiently savour our mouthwatering treats.



We travelled back to Times square, this time in a bus so that we could enjoy watching the hustle and bustle of New york city.
Here we visited Madame Tussauds, took snaps with a whole bunch of celebrities and we were off to enjoy Times Square in all its neon glory. We went around gawking at each tall building and lighted hoarding -Good Morning America, Toys "R" Us, Virgin Records, NASDAQ, Ernst and Young, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Reuters, Viacom, m&m's and Hersheys -they were all there calling us out to have a look at them.





a roadside artist working on Newyork skyline



at the m&m's

There was so much of crowd, so many cops around and so much happening on the streets-it was a surreal experience just being there.


I think we were there well past midnight and somehow convinced each other about getting back to the hotel. I think we just blanked out when we came back.

A blue sky holiday to New York- Day 1

And finally we saw New York - the most happening city in the United States. It has been two days now since we came back and I can still see the images of the tall buildings sharply cutting into the steel blue sky. I feel like I am constantly on the move either walking or am in a subway on my way to some place.
Whew! What a breathtaking city! It is worth a much longer visit...maybe a month would be sufficient ? Maybe...

We started on Friday evening from Minneapolis and reached at around 12 midnight in New York. We then took the lite-train to Jamaica and with the help of one nice Mr. Mazumdar, we found our way to the hotel. It was so scary and dirty and with so many odd people and noisy bars that we thought we made a mistake reserving a hotel in such a place. But of course, it later turned out that every place in New York is equally scary and dirty and you are not in New York if you don't hear a cop car siren or a NYPD helicopter buzzing above your head.

It was almost 2 by the time we hit the bed-after a small argument and changing the room allocated to us as it was way too noisy even to catch a wink of sleep.
We had too many places to see and did not dare to catch upon the lost sleep lest we lose time to see some place. We stepped out at 9:30 in the morning after a quick b.f. of cereal and juice and rushed to the closest subway to reach Manhattan.

At the Jamaica subway-line E

Our first stop was Times Square. Ther are no words to describe this place- it simpley leaves you STUNNED!


It is so intensely urban -there's people and cars wherever you look and multitude of buildings above you are gleaming at you all the time. It is so crowded that you just need to step on to the pavement and the city will take you around. Everyone of them is so well dressed (and yet there is filth everywhere) and each of the buildings has atleast ten neon lighted advertisements - fighting to grab your attention. There are flea markets and designer botiques, street performers around broadway theatres...
Whatever this place is - it is a landmark no one should miss.

Times Square


Street Performer in Time Square

So, after walking through this human maze we reached the garment district- the center of fashion filled with coture houses and showrooms. And it was time to see another place-The World Trade Center site- it was a humbling experience to see all the pictures of the collosal amount of debris, and removal workers fighting their way into the pile- you can be having it all good all of a sudden your life is snatched away from you. well...

World Trade Center

By now we were exhausted, but we still wanted more of the city- so we came to the financial district- saw New York Stock exchange, walked on Wall Street and Broad Street,stood with Washington (statue) in Federal Hall National Memorial for a photograph and of course the tamed the charging bull.
We walked down from Wall street to the South Street Seaport laced with lovely shops and food courts. There are, again many street performers here and you get a nice view of the brooklyn bridge.



We took a bus ride through Chinatown and Little Italy to reach Lexington and 28th for a delicious dinner at Saravana Bhavan. We somehow managed to get back to our hotel room to take some rest after which we would begin another day of hectic sight seeing.

A day at the zoo

Winter is closing in on us, threatening to come down cold and heavy any time, any day and each day of the week is a surprise blessing or ...
This Sunday too was one such day and we were blessed when we saw a ray of hope and the feeling of warmth to step out in our t-shirts. Armed with a free ticket to the zoo –parking inclusive (courtesy Neera and Mpls Library) we ventured out to Apple Valley to meet our neighbors of yesteryears :).Check out Minneapolis Public Library for further details on the free ticket offer by Macy's. They are offering quite a variety of entry tickets to the museums, art galleries and Arboretum and it might be worthwhile grabbing a few.

Coming back to our story, we hadn’t planned anything else and we decided to pamper the kids in us:).The last zoo I had seen was in Singapore in 2004 complete with Night Safari and Jurong bird park. I had so thoroughly enjoyed it that time ,I was sure that Minnesota wouldn’t let us down.
Well, the zoo here is sure a nice place to visit and the animals are well cared for but I think even Indian Zoos have much more to offer- at least many more animals to see. Probably because of the severe weather conditions, they are unable to flaunt as many species. One of the main highlights of the zoo was the Wells Fargo Family Farm where you get to see goats, pigs, hens and cows- but don't we watch them everyday on our roads in India? Of course, it is very exciting for kids as they get to feed them and pet them.

kid feeding goatiee

The Empress of Blandings

The bird show is right now closed for a month for training so I cannot comment on that but the dolphin show...I cannot even compare it to the one I saw in S'pore. I would just call it informative about dolphins and its nice to watch the them perform cute little tricks.

Some of the must see in this zoo are: the Prairie Dogs-they are just so adorable! the way they dig holes, collect grass and are constantly on watch- ready to jump in the mud and hide themselves; Moose and Caribou- I never knew they were this huge and this lazy :) , tigers- if they are not sleeping they look awesomely majestic prowling about.
the cute little Prairie dog

Worth a visit once if you have kids...

St Croix State Park

We have been consistently traveling long distances over the past few weekends and decided it was time to take it easy and travel closer home. So we picked out the 34,000 acre St Croix state park located in Hinckley. This also happens to be the largest state park in Minnesota.
If you want to rest your tired feet and yet see some place, this would be it.
We took the 12 mile drive along the rustic road inside the heavily wooded area to see the fall colors. It was past peak and many of the leaves had already fallen or had turned brown. The entrance to the park (which was a good 4 mile) displayed the best colors.

Thro' the forest green


autumn comes to a close

I wouldn’t say, it was even half as good as Lutsen, but we can’t crib, can we.
We got up the 136-stair steep Fire tower for a scenic overview of the forest around us. There is a small landing on top of the tower to observe the whole forest and can accomodate a maximum of six people. I was very scared to climb up initially but somehow managed and it was truly worth the effort.

View from Firetower

It was almost 5:30 pm by the time we completed the trail and we wanted to go canoeing down the St.Croix River but it was closed for the day.
You can take a canoe trip ranging from one to four hours through the National Scenic St croix riverway and it costs anywhere between $30-$40. Check this website for further details. We plan to do this sometime soon.:)

towards the evening

Sep 23:Day 1 of North shore drive

After a good amount of research, we had decided on Thursday that we will drive out on the last weekend of September along the North shore drive until Lutsen and booked a room and car accordingly. But on Friday afternoon, when I was lazing around surfing the web, I realized that fall colors had already reached the peak in Northern Minnesota due to dry summer and may not last another week!
My hubby, a great planner and stickler to details was not very happy with this piece of information but anyhow we reworked our plan and were off on Saturday morning to Lutsen.
We didn’t get accommodation to stay over on Saturday Night but decided it was going to be OK as it was only a 4 ½ hour drive and it wouldn’t kill us to get back home the same day.
We hit off 35 N in the morning at around 9 am after a light breakfast of peanut butter-bread and fruits.On reaching Duluth, temptation got the better of us and we strayed into Scenic 23 instead of choosing the expressway.After stopping over at every scenic byway to admire Mother Nature’s lavish display, we merged into 61 with more than an hour’s loss.

While on Scenic 23

It was almost 2 pm when we reached Two Harbours and hunger was the most prevailing thought in our minds.We headed to a Subway to grab a sandwich and were shocked by the crowd...there must have been atleast 25 people in the queue. So we pursued our next option- an unhealthy but a delectable one of eating doughnuts and chips. After a ten minute break at the gas station, we were back on track.

Our first stop was at Lutsen Mountain.. We took the Gondola ride (Tram/ cable car ride) that took us across a valley to the Moose Mountain from where we saw the breathtaking fall colors on Sawtooth Mountains and Lake Superior's remarkable coastline. We stayed on in Moose Mountain for another hour trekking along spellbound by the vivid colors of autumn where a rush of color paints each and every leaf with a stroke of a shimmering gold or a bright orange or a fiery red and the mountains and valleys are glowing to compete with sun shine.

The Gondola ride

A bird's eye view of Sawtooth Mountain

My photos cannot justify the beauty of this place

It was around 6pm by the time we got back to Lutsen Mountains and we headed off towards Tafte to check out Caribou trail and yes,search for accomodation- as one day was distinctly insufficient. We checked each motel on our way but "No vacancy" was prominently displayed in each place lest we had any hope of staying back.

So we set off on wooded Caribou trail to see the colors of sugar maples and moose maples and reached Cascade lake so serene and untouched by the hand of man. I dont know how long we sat there with our minds so quiet and hearts feeling elated- one with nature. We left it with a touch of sorrow wondering why we ever left behind all this wilderness.


Cascade Lake

We were back on 61 heading back home dissapointed that we couldn't get accomodation and yet hopelessly checking out each motel for a vacant room when we came to Beaver Bay. Surprise of surprises, one motel did have a room available and that too a non-smoking one! We were so thrilled!
It was almost 9 pm by this time and instead of tiring ourselves hunting for a restaurant, we decided by buy a box of cereals an milk from a wayside gas station.

The day finally came to an end with a walk down the streets in the night and a million stars were glimmering over us, hiding the secrets of the day to come.

Sep 8th : The drive from Minneapolis

This trip was a birthday treat from my husband. Since we both loved traveling so much, we decided that we should travel out somewhere outside to celebrate the day. We decided that we should do small road trip of about 5-7 hrs and we checked out all the places where we could visit. We finally decided on Chicago as we had heard so much about it and it was about 6 1/2 hr drive from Minneapolis which also suited us very well. He took a day off on Monday and we were all set to go on our trip. We rented a car from Enterprise and booked acco in Motel 6 and we were off on Friday evening 5:30 pm on 94W.
Since I am very new to driving, we decided that I should start first and then during the later part of the day, he would take over from me. By the time we were in Wisconsin it started raining heavily and it had gotten real dark. We were also in a heavy truck traffic area. To top all this, there was about 12 miles of road work and I should tell you -it was one of my scariest drives. :) We had initially decided to stop at Madison, WI for dinner but we reached there only by 10 pm and knew that all the restaurants would be closed. So we continued to drive and at around 11 pm, we took an exit and had veggie delites at Subway- From here it was my hubby's drive and after crossing a zillion (no, actually 3 tolls) we managed to enter Chicago at 12:15 am. But the most difficult part of the journey was yet to come. We did not have a map of Chicago and Map Quest had let us down with directions. And so after 3-4 calls to the motel and searching nearly 40 miles around Schaumburg, we managed to find our motel. It was around 1 am when we finally hit the bed that day. Scary, tiresome but thoroughly enjoyable drive that was!