A little shelf in a back closet serves as a temporary bookshelf – for books borrowed from the library. And it so happened that one particular week last summer, between Manasi and me, we had – wait for it – a whopping total of 19 books checked out and waiting to be read!! I have…
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The original intention to come to the Smokies was to hike – like the hiking bootcamp we did in Colorado! And although we did get distracted by the charming Gatlinburg, we did manage to get in some good hiking! Crossing through Gatlinburg, and into the Great Smoky Mountains Natural Park – the contrast couldn’t be…
The Smokies – Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg
Anybody know where the Smokies are? Somewhere east of Illinois, the complementary bracket to the Rockies in the west? Really? Aren’t the Appalachians in the East? No, no, the Appalachians are in South America – wait, that doesn’t sound right, isn’t that the Andes? Ok, final answer now, ready to lock it – Alps in…
Travel in the times of Corona
How’s the travel going, folks? Until 2019 – 2 visits a year to India, a couple more domestic vacations, not to include the weekend getaways. Now? Now, I feel like a plane grounded due to a technical fault!! Luckily enough, earlier in the year, when it seemed like this nightmare was ending – my dad…
Memorial Day weekend getaway
It has been a long, long break from blogging for me. Several reasons – of course, the most obvious – no prizes for guessing this one – the Covid pandemic! Personally, too, for reasons not as obvious – this last year and a half has been debilitating – I literally had no words left at…
Tales of Ahmedabad
As much as we like to travel, once we land in India – it’s all about the family. And even when we do travel within India, it is usually to meet family. Our trip to Ahmedabad was no exception – we were headed there to spend a weekend with Ajey’s aunt and her family. So…
Munich & Salzburg
What we miss most of our expat life is all the traveling – and we have tried to keep the adventures going as much as possible. A couple of years ago, we took a 3 day stop-over in Amsterdam on our way to India – and it worked out so great, that this year we…
The road to New Orleans
In all of these years of living in Peoria, we must have driven the I-55 to go to Chicago countless times. Not quite as often, but the I-55 has also taken us down to St. Louis several times. And now, here we were, taking the I-55 all the way south, all the way to the…
A Madrigal Knight!!
At the end of 8th grade, Manasi told us she was auditioning for the Madrigals – and that is the first time ever that we had even heard of Madrigals. I gathered that this was an audition choir, and was mainly for juniors and seniors. Really, we weren’t expecting much out of the audition, except…
Grand Canyon!!!
Sunrise, sunset – the best times to see the Grand Canyon in all its glory! And our very first view was of the sunset – yes, we did make it – our drive ending with a mad dash from the parking lot to Mather Point. First impressions – stunned disbelief!! I have to admit –…
Flying to Phoenix
Even though options are limited, flying in and out of Peoria is a real timesaver – especially for a quick Spring Break vacation! Saves almost a day’s worth of travel to Chicago and back – not to mention the free parking at Peoria airport!! And this itinerary has been on my wish list for quite…
Canoe-O!!
Winter has set in with full force, coming early this year!! As I write this, a fierce November blizzard rages outside, and it is so pleasant to look back onto some warm summer memories – good thing I’m always so behind with my posts!! What else would I have to do during these long winter…
A place called home... 