2009 in Pictures

After a gap of almost 2 months I am getting back to posting the rest of 2009 In Pictures now… This time around lets see how July was in 2009… It was full of loads of excitement, summers had arrived, festivals were on the charts, flowers were blooming, and traveling to new places was planned…

Let’s go to July 2009 then!!!! Enjoy! (pssst…this post has a lot of photographs… be patient while scrolling down! I would not like it if you miss some pictures!)

July started with a flight to Atlanta! Aditya was there from India on a project and I felt this was just the right opportunity to fly down south and enjoy some mountains. I was really excited because this was the first time I was going to see mountains in the US… Did I say I love mountains? I do!!!

Smokies! here I come!

Reached Atlanta late in the evening and the Sun Gods were still waiting to welcome me at the airport!

Adi was driving a Pontiac G6! and I had another reason to celebrate because of this fact! I had been trying to rent out a G6 for a long time now, and it happened when I was least expecting 🙂 lovely!

The GPS I was carrying was giving a lot of trouble, it used to get lost, or take us to places where we not really were going to! but we still managed to drive all the way to Smokies with some help from the road signs! Figured that if you keep your eyes, open you might not need a GPS afterall!

The first pit stop was creekside after we crossed the small town of Cherokee in the state of North Carolina! Amazing beautiful road, covered with greenest of green trees, with a small creek flowing next to the road! Perfect mood for an amazing drive!

And needless to say there were a whole lot of bikers enjoying the warm weather on their Harleys on that road!

Below is the east side view from Chingman’s dome, the highest point in the Smokies… Its an artificially built cement view point to give visitors a 360 degree view of the Smokies. I can only imagine how crowded it would get if it was India, more because of the smalltime shopkeepers, of which all I missed was a Chai-Wala… Sigh!

The western view has the state boundary of NC and Tennessee, like you see in the picture below…

The access to Clingman’s Dome below!

And finally the beautiful Smokies!!!! Pictures can capture only a part of how beautiful these were… but to be honest, nothing in this world is as beautiful as the Himalayas!!! Call be prejudiced! but that’s how it is! simple!

It was the 4th of July when I was in Atlanta and all towns, big or small on our way had fireworks going on… We drove past two, but decided to stop at the third one and enjoy the show…

And did not do much the other two days I was in Atlanta… the most eventful thing being, that I saw Transformers2 on IMAX (huge is an understatement for that screen) and ICE Age 3 back to back!

Back in Milwaukee, it was time for Festivals and Fairs…

Bestille Days and Great Circus Parade were scheduled over the next few weeks… This is when staying in the heart of downtown, and next to the lake was making more sense than anything else 🙂

Bastille days is a 4 day french festival which is celebrated every year in Milwaukee downtown at the Cathedral Square lawns! Perfect time to enjoy some exotic wine and food… Me being a vegetarian and a non-wine drinker, made myself happy with elaborate helpings of Egyptian Rice, Greek salads and fresh lemonade while walking around and enjoying some brilliant music performances in the evenings!

The photographs below are a mix of Great Circus Parade and Bastille Days!

Beautiful father son combo 🙂 Saw many dads wearing the same stuff as their boys! sweet!

Family planning is something that has not been introduced to some in the US I guess…

And I am sure this horse’s mom had an affair with some Dalmatian!

Fairs and festivals are one place where I see some family values being displayed in the US… most of my time otherwise was spent noticing the teenagers and youth, which did not seem to be moving in any direction but everywhere! It was a very nice refreshing change to see families together at these festivals… but it was mostly kids and parents, or old people.. the young guns were not many in number around these… Considered boring I guess, by them!

There was an actual circus happening too! and it was really interesting to see how kids in the US react to Camels and Elephants 😛

India still means something very different when it comes to Circus.. check out the face and India… I would love to look for someone who looks like this in India now 🙂

Another good thing about social gathering’s in the US is that people of all age (minus the ones I mentioned) fully enjoy themselves!!! They drink, they dance, they laugh!!! it was fun to observe!!

My favorite couple in the US… Deepali and Gaurav…

My parking lot and collectibles I acquired over time…

Bindiya had handed over Ganeshji to me when I went to UK for the first time in 2007… they have been with me since! I am sure he is enjoying the mid-western weather in summers!