Days with my inlaws

From the day my in-laws landed in Chicago, me and my husband trying our best to keep them engaged and entertained. Making them not to feel bored or to miss any reality shows which featuring almost in all channels now a days.

Daily we go to a lake near by our place for a walk, couple of days we enjoyed a moon lite walk also. They are enjoying a noise less, pollution less, fresh air here.

First weekend, we took them to a Balaji temple in Lemont, which is 50 miles away from our place. We planned our drive to the temple in such a way that we just touch the Downtown loop. They were so happy and amazed to see the sky lines. Since I always like Sears tower, I was overwhelmed and started telling many incidents we enjoyed near the tower and all places. Shhhh.... secret, we are planning to take them for 102nd Floor in sears tower, we didn't tell them yet.

Sears tower in the background, A nice click from my father in-law.

One evening we took them to another beautiful small lake. Along with them we enjoyed a superb sunset in the lake front.

Another weekend, Guru poornima day, we all went to Chinmaya mission and attended a Pooja and went to a temple.

Apart from the outing in the evening and weekends, we are having a good time at home in the day time. Daily we all watch Mahabaratham in YouTube. We talk about our Swamiji and His preachings.

Also I am cooking different new dishes at home and entertaining them with healthy and tasty foods. Want to know what I am doing ?, pls visit Preethibhojan where I am updating all the new recipes which I am trying and surprising my in-laws.

We are not taking only to the temples in the weekend, will update you more in my nest post.

Summer Holidays - First long weekend trip

After a very long break I am continuing my long day trip...

Past couple of weeks myself and Karthik are so busy... Went to many shops in search of furniture and some kutti, kutti things for our home. Spent many nights in booking the flight tickets.
Do you like to know the reason, why ?
Its because my in-laws are in Chicago. After a great compulsion from our end, they accepted to come, that too on a condition. Only in summer as you all know winter is so bad here, specially in Chicago. They safely arrived day before yesterday and still recovering from jet lag :))

OK, let we go back to our trip. After having a very good time in Hershey's we went to a Hotel in Lancaster, PA. Its a pathetic hotel we ever stayed. Poor thing is its run by our people. No words to explain about that hotel. Nothing was good... stained chairs, bed with full of dust, a small frozen fridge, I am not joking the whole fridge was frozen and looked so fishy. Fact is we payed twice the normal amount for that room. It was a very bad experience in the whole trip. Since there is no other go we stayed there without touching anything.

Next day morning we rushed out from there and enjoyed a beautiful drive, it was very pleasant. It made us to forget about the nightmare at the hotel. On our way to Philadelphia we went to Dutch farmland, Lancaster Amish county.

The farmlands of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country are among the most productive in the nation. But many of the farmers here are different from most Americans; different by choice. These people trace their heritage back hundreds of years, and yet, despite all the time that has passed and the many changes that have taken place in society, they still live and work much as their forefathers did. Their families and their farms are their top priorities, second only to God.

Our Amish neighbors have been employing horse-drawn power since the days when horsepower had a whole different meaning! In comparison to our fast-paced society, the simpler, family-centered. The Amish have long preferred farming as a way of life. They feel their lifestyle and their families can best be maintained in a rural environment.While they do not permit the use of tractors in their fields, these old order Amish groups do use modern farm equipment pulled by teams of horses or mules.

The Amish are generally private people and often find all the attention and curiosity about their lifestyle disturbing. They believe that the taking of photographs where someone is recognizable is forbidden by the Biblical prohibition against making any 'graven image'. (From amish website)

The whole county was looking green, full farmland. If we cross a farm, atleast we can see minimum 15 horses, herd of grazing cows, 10 sheep, some cock and hens in there backyard of a small house. And the house will be midst of a big land.

Amish people use Buggies, a cart driven by a Horse to travel. We saw so many buggies going on the road. Without knowing our self we respected them and didn't took any pictures.

We pulled our car near a stream and had our brunch under a big tree. Felt as if we were in Tanjore farm field. The whole area was calm, clean, green. Just fantastic.

After few hours journey we reached Philadelphia. Went to all historic places like Declaration of Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin's house, first Congress Hall, Liberty bell and remembered 'National Treasure' movie. Crossed the Franklin bridge that links Pennsylvania with New Jersey. The highlight was  the ride around town in a horse drawn carriage under the hot sun.

Philadelphia, very small town. Since it was a first long weekend the whole place flooded with many people from different countries. Since we could not stand the heat we started early and went to a place called 'Valley Forge' a forest preserve park. This is the same place where George Washington stayed along with his army in Winter during the Revolutionary War period.

Had our lunch cum dinner in the forest, relaxed ourself for some minutes in the nice breezy forest and started our drive back.
Successfully 2 days ran off...

Weekend Hikes - Fort Sheridan, Half Day park

A couple of week ago, me and my husband went for hiking trial.
Hurray, back on track !

Saturday --It was nice sunny day. We both woke up early morning 9 o' clock and planned to go for a walk. Went to a forest preserve park, few miles away from our place. The place is called 'Halfday preserve'.

Its one of the wonderful place which we saw near our place. We both walked in the midst of tall dense  trees, sun rays were peeking in between the leaves and branches. On top of it, the trail path had many short curves on its way. The scenery was beautiful. It looked like a picture painting on the wall with wonderful colors.

Though the temperature was 82 + Fahrenheit we didn't felt the heat inside the forest. But lots and lots of mosquitoes. Unfortunately we didn't have any mosquito repellent, so some of them took our blood samples.
I Forgot to take the camera, so photos are missing. Wish I will go once again and take the pictures.

Sunday evening we went to Fort Sheridan, it was former army base which was established in 1800 and was officially closed in 1993.
When we started my husband didn't tell me much about the geography of this place, as usual he was talking the history only. Once we parked the car I saw a nice view and started jumping and running. Wait wait let me show you what i saw there.

Tell me who will not excited to go to beach :) This place has a small 0.75 mile beach

Enjoyed a lot :) After clicking some nice photos I put the camera in my pocket, within a second it fell into the water : ( Oh yeah, its a sad part. Luckily nothing big damage occured to my camera. Somehow managed and took few more clicks.
Apart from the beach this place also have hiking trails. On our way we saw the old parade ground, fort and a big bird's nest, etc.

We both had a great time. Enjoyed the weekend nicely :)
Share your experience with me... Bye

Weekend Hikes -- Chain Of Lakes

Summer Season வந்தாலும் வந்தது, நாங்க நல்லா நடக்க (ஊர் சுத்த)  ஆரம்பிச்சிட்டோம். ரெண்டு வாரம் முன்னாடி Chain of Lakes -ன்னு ஒரு இடத்துக்கு (park) போனோம். As the name says, இந்த இடத்த சுத்தி ஏழு Lake இருக்கு. இந்த எல்லா lake-யும் Fox river-ன்னு ஒரு ஆறு connect பண்றது.
இந்த Map பார்த்தா உங்களுக்கு புரியும்

இந்த இடத்துல நிறைய Lake இருக்கறதால நிறைய Boat shops இருந்துத்து. Boat மேல பறக்கறது பார்க்க அழகா இருக்குல்ல!!!

நாங்க பார்த்த மத்த இடத்தை விட இந்த  Chain of lakes, Park ரொம்ப different-ஆ இருந்துத்து. திடிருன்னு ஒரு இடத்ல அடர்த்தியா மரம், கொஞ்சம் நடந்தா பக்கத்ல sudden-ஆ planes. தூரத்தல பார்த்தா அழகான River, Mind blowing scenery .

இந்த இடத்ல என்னோட 'Paper plant' செயர்துக்கு குச்சி தேடி தேடி கடைசில எடுக்கவேயில்லை. நல்லா ஒரு 4 மைல் நடந்துட்டு இங்கேருந்து கிளம்பிட்டோம்.

Weekend Hikes - Starved Rock State park

Food Mela முடிச்ச அடுத்த நாள் நாங்க Starved Rock State park-க்கு போனோம். என்னதான் நான் பயங்கர tired -ஆ இருந்தாலும் (முன்னாள் சமைச்ச tiredness) இங்க போறர்துக்கு உடனே ஊம் சொன்னேன். Oh, come On, 6 மாசத்துக்கு அப்புறம் இப்பதான் வெளியே போறேன் :))

இத பார்த்தா நம்ம ஊர்ல ஒரு பெரிய காடுன்னு சொல்லுவா, அவ்ளோ பெரிசு, 2630 acres.இதுல நிறைய Hiking Trails, Water falls, Canyon எல்லாம் இருக்கு. இன்னொரு அழகான விஷயம் இந்த park, Illinois River கரைல இருக்கு. சரி வாங்க எல்லோருக்கும் இந்த இடத்தை காட்டறேன்.

ஊ... இந்த மாதிரி செடிய பார்த்தா தொடக்கூடாது.

நாங்க முதல்ல Starved rock-க்கு போனோம். இந்த Rock-க்கு மேலே தான் முதல் முதல்ல French ஒரு Fort கட்டினாங்க. இப்போ அந்த Fort இல்லை, ஆனா இங்கேருந்து பார்த்தா Illinois River அது மேல கட்டிருக்க பெரிய Dam -மும் தெரியும்.

அங்கேருந்து நாங்க நடந்தோம் நடந்தோம் நடந்து இன்னொரு cliff மேல ஏறினோம்.

இம்... ஒரு வழியா ஏறிட்டோம். இங்கேருந்தும் top view அழகாயிருக்கு, மொத்தம் காடா தெரியுது. இந்த பாறைலேருந்து பார்த்தா 'Starved Rock' தெரியும். இந்த இடத்துல 8000 BC -ல Native Americans இருந்தாங்க.

 அங்கேருந்து இன்னொரு சூப்பரான எடுத்ததுக்கு போனோம். அந்த அடர்ந்த காட்ல ஒரு ஒத்தடி பாதைல நாங்க மட்டும் நடந்து போனோம். I am  so excited :)  பயங்கர Cinematic, Romantic -அ இருந்துத்து

இந்த சின்ன Stream -ல தான் நடந்து போகணும். போனா என்ன வரும் ???நீங்களே பாருங்க No words to describe it ! Its French Canyon

ரொம்ப ரொம்ப அழகா இருந்துத்து... சில பல photos எடுந்துண்டு பொறுமையா கிளம்பி வெளியே வந்தோம். வெளிய வரர்சே என்னை யாரோ குப்டா, யாருன்னு பார்த்தா என் cousin. கிட்ட கிட்ட அவளை பார்த்து ஆறு, ஏழு வருஷம் ஆயிருக்கும். 
கொஞ்ச நேரம் (நிமிஷம்) அவக்கிட்ட பேசிட்டு, Illinois river கரைல உட்கார்ந்து நல்ல தயிர்சாதம் சாப்ட்டு வீட்டுக்கு கிளம்பிட்டோம்


One more Hiking Trail... நல்லா enjoy பண்ணினோம்