A week out in a Farm

Back into my world... HGTV and Food Network. Shows are running back to back in TV and I m with my laptop. What to say friends, past two months I had a very good time with my in-laws. After having our lunch we three used to sit and watch our great epics Mahabaratham, Ramayanam aired in our great Doordharshan. Celebrated few festivals, cooked lot new dishes...Oh, those days were memorable good days. Now, me and my husband are little bored in weekends. Since the weather is changing dramatically, we dropped our weekend trail plans which we were doing earlier in the summer.

A week ago, one of my friend suggested about Apple picking. So we planned our trip to a farm on a nice warm Sunday. After many days we went out for a drive about 50 miles from our place. Excitement caught both of us, I was asking many questions to my husband. I was dreaming me picking apples from the trees. On our way we enjoyed the fall colours in small towns.

When we reached the farm, we were utterly disappointed to see the information board. 'Corn maze, fun activities for children, Pumpkin patch are open. Sorry, No apple picking'. Yet, we had a great time there. Come, let me show you how we enjoyed.

Took a maze challenge and entered inside a corn maze. It was a real challenge to us. Though we had a map of the corn maze, it was confusing a lot. First time inside corn field. Had good fun.

Also went to Pumpkin patch and plugged a nice big butter squash fresh from the field.

Had a fresh caramel apple at their cute little store and came home happily with a bag of fresh honey crisp apples. How these apples turned into a more edible form my husband is the story for another day.

Weekend outing after a long gap

We spent the weekend visiting Chicago downtown with our in-laws. This trip was special for us as we were unable to go out anywhere for the past 20 days. My mother in-law has the arthritis in her knees, so we decided not to strain her much. It was for this reason that she initially refused to come US and it was only after great persuasion that my in-laws accepted to come here. That too under some conditions, only to be with us and not to go much outing or sight seeing.

Remember, I mentioned in my earlier post that we are going to give them a surprise by taking them to the one of the tallest buildings in the world, 'Willis Tower'. While we were going I was telling them about the skyscrapers, difference between the suburbs and the cities, about the great Michigan lake and its Lake shore. That time she was only nodding, but understood the fact, once we entered the city loop.

My mother in-law was speechless seeing the high skyscrapers. We parked the car few blocks away from the Willis Tower and we walked down the streets towards it. At last, reached the 103 floor in a minute, my in-laws were so happy, to see the breath taking view of the city. The city looked full of lights, as if somebody sprinkled thousands of the lights from above.  

  

After seeing this spectacular view, the very first thing she told me was "You both enjoy the life here many more years and come India later" She couldn't believe that we were in 103rd floor. After few minutes, I took them to the glass balcony, extending 4 feet out from the main building, giving an illusion as if we are in the mid air 1353 feet above from the ground level.  They were so thrilled to see the city from the mid air.

After spending an hours time in the Willis Tower we started back to home.

Varalakshmi Pooja and Avani Avittam

Last Friday, we celebrated Varalakshmi pooja here in Chicago. This is the first pooja after my wedding, last year I did Varalakshmi Pooja but didn't have Amman face with me. This time, my in-laws brought all the things required for the Nombu and Avani Avittam.

At my home, we all like this Pooja a lot. Maybe because this marks the start of the festival season.
My sister and Mom make Garlands for Devi using all kind of flowers. Also they will stitch 'Jadai' with flowers, specially with Thazham poo for Amman. My sister's kolams would light up our home. My active part in all these things was very minimal, I don't like to spoil their good work.

Here me and my mother in-law did everything. Though I missed my home a little, still everything was good. We did the pooja in a grand way.

Didn't miss out anything for Prasadam. Initially I struggled a little to complete this whole menu, after a while by Swamiji's blessing and Devi's Grace everything turned out well. In the evening we invited some of our neighbours to take Thambulam.

On Tuesday, we celebrated Avani Avittam also.

My husband's friend Sudharshan also joined us. My father in-law recited the slogam and they both followed him, since both were in hurry to go office, they both misspelled the slogams. It was hilarious to see both. They both were like school kiddos, copied each other actions. Somehow they managed and hurried to office.

Month of Fun

For the past one month I am enjoying a lot with my in-laws. Daily cooking and eating a lot :)) If I step on a weighing machine hope the pointer will show the extreme point in its scale.
In my earlier post I have been telling you the places which I visited along with my in-laws. This is also a continuation of it.

One Saturday we went to Lake Geneva, a small resort town in Wisconsin, exactly an hours drive from our place. The day before the picnic, I did my all time favorite oats cookies for the trip. Luckily, the weather was on our side and it was a nice sunny day. After going around the town a couple of times we managed to find a parking near a park. After having our lunch in the car, we went to lake shore for a Boat ride.

My in-laws enjoyed every moment.

After an hour boat ride, we both played a while in the park and started back to home.

On Sunday, we went to a park nearby our place, called Busse Woods forest preserve. A surprise awaited their for them. We took them for a short hike in one of the park's hiking trails. My mother in-law  

As you can see below in the photo the trail runs through some pretty dense woods. It took some convincing to get my mother in-law on to the trails

More things are there to share with you all. Will meet you in my next post.

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

I didn't update this for quite long time... Fact is, I was not busy but my Laptop was very busy. Now we bought one more Laptop at home for our in-laws :)) I am using the new one. LOL !!!

Let me brief you about our third day trip and finish this looooooooooooong story. Even I am also feeling bit bored to write so obviously you people also think the same. Third Day, we went to Pittsburgh.
First went to the famous Venkateshwara Temple, as you all know it is one of the earliest temples built in US. After having good darshanam, had nice prasadam there, Pulisadam, Thayir sadam, Pongal, Sambar etc...

From there, we went to another downtown and Enjoyed the famous Duquesne Incline.

The Duquesne Incline is a inclined plane railroad, or funicular, located near Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood and scaling Mt. Washington. It was completed in 1877 and is 800 ft long, 400 ft in height, and is inclined at a 30 degree angle. It is an unusual gauge.

Originally steam powered, the Duquesne Incline was built to carry cargo up and down Mt. Washington in the late 1800s. It later carried passengers, particularly Mt. Washington residents who were tired of walking up footpaths to the top. Inclines were then being built all over Mt. Washington (From Wikipedia)

Thats all... Our trip ended nicely. Around 11 AM CST we started from there and reached Chicago at night 10'clock. On our way back, varuna bagavan started to pour without a break. So we took a break for around 45 min from the rain on the highway itself. Almost everybody pulled off to the shoulder.Still the drive was enjoyable and we reached safely, happily.

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