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Twin Lakes - a trip filled with pleasant surprises and nature’s best moments

  A drive with friends to a place called Twin Lakes (located in Bridgeport, CA), ~300 miles away from the Bay Area was a pleasant and relaxing venture I was able to get into after a long time. This trip was both enjoyable and filled with few lack luster moments. I had the company of many great friends but missed my wife’s and daughter’s during the entire trip. We stayed in a cabin named Twin Lakes resort that is a stone’s throw away from the beautiful and serene lake. Twin lakes is a combination of two lakes that are separated by a small patch of rocks. This beautiful lake is surrounded by the Sierra Nevada’s unmistakable and wonderful mountains on all the sides. During our visit we got to see the snow capped mountains which will slowly turn into a snow blanketed region in a month’s time. I took time to enjoy the scenic views of this lake by running, walking and meditating in the surroundings. I also spent time to listen to the sounds of the waves that the water in the lake made accomp
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The "Point Arena"

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It's been a long time and especially after a great sabbatical from a pleasant experience of taking pictures, I was able to adventure and drive up to the North side of California all the way on 1 North and it was a fantabulous experience. A drive to Point Arena was very relaxing. It was about 3.5 hrs away from the East Bay and was pretty much in the country side of the state. Great part was the plenty of vista points and many places to just chill & relax. Though the entire stretch is meant to be a great place for whale watching, I couldn't get too see any due to the foggy weather when I reached Point Arena. On the way to Point Arena I learnt that this place is very inaccessible to grocery stores and emergency services. So, one needs to be well equipped for any emergencies for their trip to toss part of the state. Here are few beautiful pictures I got to take on the way to Point Arena, As I drove further to Point Arena - a 150 year old Ligh
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Ant"elope" Canyon

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You know why I call this Ant"elope" canyon? There's absolutely a stunning reason why I believe the name sets well for this place (keep reading until the end to find why). I visited Antelope canyon amidst a weekend that was a trip meant for a grand occasion to celebrate an event with my work colleagues at Las Vegas. One of my colleagues on the project whom I closely work with expressed interest to explore the places close by to Vegas. Though we planned to visit many places we ended up visiting few but the most memorable ones. It was about 7 AM in the morning when we arrived Page,AZ to start out our trip to the Antelope Canyon. Our day began pretty early (as early as 4 AM) as we had to drive from Maswik Lodge (a wonderful lodge maintained by Xanterra group) located on the South Rim of Grand Canyon (two and half hours away from Page, Arizona). The beautiful sunrise was the first thing I got to view as we entered Page, We chose to visit Upper Antelope Canyon at 8AM
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A ship load of memories ... (New Orleans, LA)

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This was the busiest period of my life I believe - at work I mean. It was straight 10 days away from home away & from my wife, felt really tiring and boring at times as I had no company for such a long time. I had an option either to fly back home or stay at my clients place. Well, after having worked for about two years in Baton Rouge I had visited New Orleans downtown only for couple of hours just to feel the vibe but never experienced it in total. Both the times I’ve been to this city it was only Bourbon street that I explored. This time I had decided it’s no longer going to be Bourbon but everything else. The most special things of all I've done in the trip was to visit many hotels in the area. Surprised??? Yes, I make my trips random and I usually don't have a long list of places that I choose to visit. That's how it's been for sometime now and this is how usually I enhance my trips by visiting random places that are less spoken or less visited by tourists.
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Location: New Orleans, LA, USA
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Another city to love!! So does SF stand for SanFrancisco or SalesForce?

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It was a beautiful afternoon in the bay area. One of my colleague at work planned an architectural tour of San Francisco. I have been to a similar one in Chicago and wondered how well thought the city was beautifully constructed. These architectural tours usually leave anyone to deeply think about the stories of the day (century or few decades from today) that lead to the construction of the then skyscrapers.  We began our tour at the very historic Galleria Park Hotel  at around 2.15PM when our group begins to fill the lobby. Our guide for the day was the best architectural historian I've met, i.e., Rick Evans . So, let me begin with this part and expand into what we've seen during the tour.  Most of us walk around the downtown just gazing at the beautiful structures around us but would have never noticed the public spaces. Yes, Rick calls them PoPOS (privately owned Public Open Spaces) . There's a very interesting story behind it, use the link to explore them and make sur
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A journey in a taxi

Off-late when I arrive into Chicago I always am undecided if I have to take a taxi or an Uber ride back home. Today I was just so driven towards the taxi stand. There wasn't any one waiting for a taxi when I reached there so I jump into the first one that's available. On a normal day the airport guys would just direct me towards the taxi I need to get into but it was so unoccupied that one opened the trunk and the other was ready with the door open. Couldn't ask for more . So, the moment I get into this taxi, as usual I tell the address and pause for a moment. It was an old guy driving the taxi and he confirmed if the address was in downtown. We start our ride with the usual greetings and lead into a conversation about how his day was and then he reciprocates with how my flights was and the weather in the city I was flying in from. Then driver (Luis) begins to tell me about his family. I was abacked when he began talking about his family without notice but I  slowly sta
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Location: Chicago, IL, USA
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Pokemon Go and our first road trip to the music city

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​ Bunch of bad a**es on a random road trip for 10 hours each way, that's the best I can shortly describe about out trip. The Blackkeys, Paul McCartney, Joe Rogan, Aziz Ansari and Bill Burr (that's the music and stand up we heard our way). Well, most intriguing part was the instances when we lost our ways and kept adding couple hours to the trip each way was a funny moment when both of us tried to find whom to point the fingers at. We tried so hard that we gave up and continued to drive each time it happened. Jays hard attempt to get the Pokemon Go's on the highways was a little frustrating as he couldn't get what he expected out of the long drive, the game would only show him few tiny and trivial things which he had already gotten. But he wouldn't give up and kept trying though. Our unintended route through Evansville helped us go by Henderson and on our return trip we got to drive by Bowling green (both are places where Jays grandparents lived and where his mom
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