Beyond Here

A new love affair is underway these days... with the Japanese maple outside our living room window. It has changed colors in preparation for fall - a bright crimson red. And every time I come down the stairs in the morning it makes me smile.

Fall is here and trees all around are changing color. Outside my bedroom window I see a crimson leafed tree in a neighbor's backyard and another ochre colored one up the hill. I am thinking of my time in Buffalo where fall came with so many hues that it was difficult to count... I am thinking of Letchworth State Park near Rochester where I was first introduced to the colors a maple tree can take ... And I am thinking of our trip to Yosemite a couple of years ago, when I had fallen in love yet again with this golden yellow valley.

A mini-vacation happened after a long time... we made a trip to Lake Tahoe over the labor day weekend. Slow and relaxing trip for the most part, a lot of time was spent just sightseeing and spending time at the beach. There was a wind advisory so it meant no water activities, which was a bummer. But the sunset, the beach and the gem colored water of the lake more than made up for it. Emerald Bay Lake Tahoe from the South Lake Recreation Area Found these clouds particularly interesting Sunset at the beach And finally here is the honest reason for the blog being inactive for such a long time. This was Shaurya's first road trip - he is 5 months old and our new "boss".

Sunit and I were visiting San Francisco and were we surprised to come across someone familiar - Mahatma Gandhi. I believe it was in the backyard of the Ferry building but i am not sure since this was a while ago. We were filled with pride for those brief few moments. Took a number of pictures but this one with the bay bridge in the background was my favorite.

Happy new year everyone!! Last year was especially good for travel. S and I were finally living together and that gave us a lot of opportunity for weekend trips and vacations. There was the trip to Yosemite, another one in search for wildflowers, wine tasting in Livermore, a hiking trip to Zion and Bryce, a short rendevouz in Vegas, a week long vacation in Alaska, another week in Canada's Banff and Jasper National parks - all in all lots of meadows, bends in rivers, waterfalls, colorful flowers, snow covered mountains, gem-colored lakes, glaciers and icefields and last but not the least loads of bear sightings. This was definitely the summer when we saw more bears than any other wildlife - the season started with seeing a sow and 2 cubs in Yosemite, and ended with seeing another sow with her cubs in Canada. In between was an exhillarating trip to Katmai to see the grizzlies. In addition to all this were the day-long trips to San Francisco and the towns nearby - an effort on our par...