A Lowcountry vacation

The last time we were in Savannah , it was during a washed-out Labor-day weekend. That was two years ago! This time around, it was pure sunshine that greeted us. I loved every minute of walking up and down the numerous squares of the town, this time. I had no idea how much I had missed those Oak trees with their Spanish moss till I saw them swaying again! Funny, how we haven't been to Florida since we graduated and left the place for good in 2007. We are glad though that we could introduce our parents to the charms and history of the Southern US, before they left for India. Scenes from Wormsloe Plantation and Bonaventure Cemetery

DC chalo! ;D

There's always so much to look forward to at the year-end. We got married on Christmas day 3 years ago, so while a lot of people are celebrating a lot of things, we celebrate our togetherness. And if we are not headed home, there's always a possibility of a road-trip, though much of that depends on weather conditions. 2009 year-end was extra special 'coz we had family from India joining us on our trip to South-east US. As we made our way to Georgia, Washington DC was our first pit-stop. A very wet DC.

Lush Life

"Men build too many walls and not enough bridges." - Isaac Newton
Here are a few scenes from our trip to the lush Finger lakes area in NY, last week.

I love, love, love covered bridges....and someday, I hope to cover all of Penn's. The one above was shot a few miles south of Ithaca, in Newfield, NY. Rolling green hills and farmlands, on our way to Ithaca.............

Oh, Summer!

Scenes from our trip to Lake Superior shore in Wisconsin (the town of Bayfield), last summer. The gallery "Stone's Throw" with all its cracks and crevices is a very pretty building and the owner's gentle lab (Sweet Georgia Brown) was an added attraction. It may have housed some interesting (read unaffordable) "pieces of art" but I really did not need to step inside..for me the most appealing bits were on the outside. And as if the gallery wasn't charming enough, a used-books shop stood adjacent to it and an "egg-itarian" cafe (where most of the menu was egg-based) called "The Egg Toss" stood right opposite to it :)

Standing Tall

I had been meaning to share the images of this brick-walled light earlier but then I got distracted by the daisies :)

Little Sable Point lighthouse in Mears, MI was closed by the time we reached so we missed out on the view from the tower but the glimmering Lake Michigan had us enchanted for the better half of the evening we spent at the beach.......the sun lingered deliciously over the lake for a long time and eventually dissolved into it.....As we reached the end of our time on the lake, we dipped our toes in the now-cold water for one last time and reluctantly left for dinner.

PS: Those are the famous dunes in the background in the final image.

A sun-soaked weekend

I know, Memorial day weekend is long past now but I could not find time earlier to share these images from our weekend getaway in Michigan. While I am still craving for a trip to the mountains, I had a great time scouting lighthouses on the western shoreline of the mitten and hope to share some of the images here soon. The only bummer: my burnt skin which is still healing from all that exposure to sun :((

June is calling!

No, these aren't the mountains in my backyard, though they may very well be but these were taken on our trip to Smoky Mountains last year. Is it time yet to start yearning for a summer vacation 'coz I am already itching to be on the road. Every June I start getting antsy about a summer trip..........Anyways, till such a time that we can afford to accommodate one in our schedules, I will revisit my old pics! And for now, I am happy looking forward to spending the next 3 days in Michigan :)

Time. Captured. And held on to.

My fingers still remember how they hurt as we walked on the frozen lake shore last evening while my heart smiles as it remembers the sight of the orange sherbet sun as it melted into the lake. Every time I have visited Michigan, I have been lucky to add atleast one lighthouse to my slowly-but-steadily growing collection of these sentries of time. And for that one reason alone I can claim that I lurrrrrrrrrve (that's one step beyond love :D) the Great Lakes State! This was shot at Benton Harbor in South West Michigan, yesterday. This weekend was good for the soul and I am happy about that too :)

Mother Road continues.........

As we drove further west on I40 towards Albuquerque, there was no way we could have avoided the very towns that were forgotten when the interstates came into place......see if you can spot the famed Blue Swallow Motel (Tucumcari, NM) in the background in the top shot :)

While some motels have been revived, others retain an air of abandonment around them (for the tourist value???)..... I had to smile at that colorful "COLOR TV " sign :)

And finally we took a pit-stop at Santa Rosa to eat at this Route 66 diner..the founding owners smiling from the menu (printed in the format of a local daily) were not easy to ignore, so they too made their way on to my memory card :)
PS: Is it me or does she remind you of Salma Hayek too????

Westward, ho! :)

Finally, the weekend's here!!!!! It's been tough to get into the work mode (or any mode, for that matter) after the break and our home right now is a passionate paean to chaos........don't they have a saying like no one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one? Tell me about it!!!! Hope you are managing post-holiday blues better than me.....

Going back to images from the trip, I haven't had a chance to upload most of them..These shots are from the car as we drove westward from Texas panhandle to New Mexico........Gradually, Texan fields and cattle ranches gave way to harsher and drier landscape and though my sun-phobic skin cringes at the mere thought of temperatures there in summer, Arka loved the big Western sky, the sun-baked land and the roads...........and when he's happy, I am happy too :)

Route 66 Quirks

Halo! We are back from our trip and first things first: thank you for the happy wishes for the new year and our anniversary on the earlier post.......here's wishing you all a very happy 2009 :)

Now back to the trip......it was a memorable one for us and now the mammoth task of uploading and sorting through the thousand odd images begins.......while I am dying to share the photos from New Mexico, for the sake of my own sanity I will try and go through the images in the chronological order (that is, if I can continue to follow my own rules :D)

These images from our second day on road are from Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. On this trip, we followed much of the Route 66 either on it or on the interstates running parallel to it and every quirky Route 66 photo-op was given the attention it deserved ;D

These ten, graffiti-adorned, half-buried nose-down, used Cadillacs supposedly represent the Golden Age of American Automobiles. Kinda ironical, don't you think, for the present times when the Big Three are in the state they are today. Since the site is open to public without any restriction, the painted graffiti is ever changing. Needless to add, I thoroughly enjoyed adding these to my collection :)

In search of Americana

There's having a well planned, well laid-out trip. And then there's the two of us. Heeding the call of the open road, we left home this morning on a 10-day trip. Destination? Somewhere west of Mississippi..........New Mexico, we intend to.....Arizona, if time allows......Utah, if weather cooperates........We celebrate our second wedding anniversary tomorrow on road and that's just the way we wanted it :) Wish you all a very happy holiday season....Stay safe and warm :)

Main Street, Galena

About 85% of the buildings in the city of Galena are on National Register of Historic Places. Brick buildings are always a welcome sight and Main Street had ample of well-preserved ones.........

Weekend Getaway

It's back to grey skies today here but this weekend was too beautiful to spend it indoors. So we decided to drive a coupla hours north, along the Mississippi river to Galena. Its cluster of rolling hills and farms looked like a patchwork quilt and reminded me of Z's Villigen.

Kayaks in crayon brights

Next day we went kayaking to the caves: a seven-mile trip that I won't forget ever. Those caves were quite a sight up, close, and personal. You paddle in one of these crayon-bright kayaks (we chose red) through an infinite blue and then chase the echo of your own voice inside the caves :) We even spotted a family of birds that had made the caves their home (no, we did not encounter any bats ;D) Waves crashing inside the caves make you realize how relentlessly they have been working like chisels over centuries to create these masterpieces. Since we made back to the shore without incident, I regret not taking my precious Nikon on water :(
And yes we found a feathered-friend, once back in the town :)

The caves at Devil's Island

These sea caves which undercut the shoreline at Devil's Island were the highlight of our trip. The waves and shifting ice have chiseled and sculpted these sandstone cliffs over millions of years to form red apertures of myriad shapes and sizes. And I found my lighthouse too (remember, I collect them!!!!) :)

Our travel-mates

He, like us, was a tourist paying his homage to the group of 22 islands in Lake Superior (Apostle Islands). They (he and his family) were visiting from Europe while we came from the neighboring state. They could barely speak English while that's the only foreign language we speak. But we bonded. Sometimes, the love for exploration proves stronger than the gulf of different cultures and languages :)

While this fellow li'l traveler was absorbed in his own world as we sailed to the sea caves, approachable only by water.

Man with a harp

We were lingering over our blueberry muffins and the morning cuppa in this cafe brimming with homespun charm, chatting with the owner who was eager to share her experiences of this trip she made to Himalayas in India .......when my muse here began to play his harp. Needless to add we sat back a while, soaked up the mood and as we left to walk around the town on the shore of Superior, his music wafted through the air, across the street..............till it faded into distance.