Harley Davidson – Milwaukee
Photographs from the temple of bikes, Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee….
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Photographs from the temple of bikes, Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee….
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The morning started cloudy outside, and very sleepy inside!!! Waking up around 8 and still being in bed when its almost 12 is an amazing experience! To be specific, I have not been sleeping on the bed at all… Have been camping on the floor after the terrible muscle pull last Friday, and now I do not feel like going back to sleeping on the bed!!!
Anyway, had seen a few leaves yesterday while walking back from the office and was determined to go back and take pictures of them irrespective of how the weather was going to behave! but to my luck, it behaved very very well! and what you see below is the result of a short walk around the neighborhood!
Its not just the maple leaves, but almost every single tree starts turning into beautiful bold pastel red, yellow and browns… A sight to see and remember! the Camera, if catches half of it, is doing just the introduction!!!
Enjoy the photographs below and do not forget to click the link at the end for a small slideshow of the Fall-Winter Collection from flickr!
And like I said before… here is the link. I would recommend press F11(Full Screen) as soon as you click the link for a better view.
This weekend was fun!!! Saw some really good movies..
Transformers (must be the 5th time I saw it)
Pineapple Express, and
Groundhog Day (loved it)
and spent a lot of time watching clips from old Hindi comedies and Amir’s Coke Ads kyonki kurta to shareer ke upraard ki lajjanivaran ke liye hota hai na sir !!!
Also finally gave two B/W rolls for developing and scanning… they should be back in a week’s time… really looking forward to the results!
Got two more rolls…
Bastille Days is a 4 day festival which was held at the Cathedral Square in Easttown Area of Downtown Milwaukee… This was essentially a festival focusing on three things, Good food, Good music, and take a guess, well! good Wine!
I am not a wine fan, but I did enjoy some brilliant performances, and some Egyptian and Greek food during the festival…
Over to visuals now…
Some images from the South Stage in the festival…
So this was all about Friday… The next morning I decided to walk over to the Lakefront where the Great Circus Parade was camping… Walked around the place looking at various wagons, watching people enjoying with family, this was a place to come to with kids… They really enjoying watching the horses, elephants, Jokers, Camels etc etc
After spending a few hours at the Circus Parade grounds I headed back home…
And decided to go to Bastille Days again in the evening ! Just the right time to enjoy some amazing live music….
What I really like about US is that people enjoy and dance irrespective of their age… Mostly people in their 40s and 50s were dancing around the south stage this time around… Teenagers and Youth apparently were not interested in this festival, as I did not see many !
I have developed a strong liking for country music here, and I was happy to hear it live too… The base guitarist was amazing!!!
And the next morning which was Sunday, I went to see the parade… People had reserved/blocked spaces on the street sides for days in advance, some kept their chairs, some had marked the spots with duct-tape, some had even pitched their tents and were staying there for a few days… The number of people I see in Milwaukee every weekend is probably equal to the number I see in 4-5 winter months together!
Ok, back to the Parade, enjoy!
Like I said, these were family events 🙂 Even the horses were not behind… Baby horses were a part of the parade with Mommy Horses…
Hope you enjoyed the parade and the festival… Will have more from other events from Milwaukee… Stay tuned!!!
I have purposefully not written the details about the festival or the parade assuming that if you are interested, you would google and read about it!
A good lens are the 4 wheels you drive on
Change any of these, and you do not improve as a driver
but change any of these, and your drive has a potential to improve
if you are a bad driver, does not matter you drive a Maruti 800 or a Mercedes SLK, you are going to fkk them up equally bad! SLK might just last a li’il longer though!
Enjoy some views from my test drive today!
It was our son’s 2nd visit and the 4th visit abroad.He had been to Britain twice.I always felt his presence around me as if he is talking, walking around me.It was easy to make up our minds to stay with him in America(Milwaukee,WI).
First step was to obtain NOC from our employers ,both being govt servants.I am working in the New Delhi Munciple Corp is a lecture and my wife as a Post Grad Teacher in Govt of National capital territory of Delhi. It was not merely routine matter.There were hiccups undone delays and the elections to lok sabha. I got the NOC in Feb 2009 but my wife had to struggle up to April 2009 and then got the permission from may 10 ti 28 June 2009.
Now applying for USA tickets and foreign exchange.My wife had been handling these affairs quiet actively with our son. His friend Aro – Arobindo Sinha, was quiet helpful with all that needed with the Internet and all the application filing. Now the wait for the date and Prashant sent an email to the American Embassy as well which was responded to quickly. The date and time of the interview was fixed and we both went to the embassy loaded with 5 files and a briefcase full of papers. The interview was quick and short, and the visa was sanctioned. Again the wait for collecting the VISA along with the passports. We got the message on the net and went to Nehru Place along with my Brother-in-Law Brij Bhushan Sharma who had come to see us off in the morning. Now that the Visas were obtained I contacted the agents and got the tickets. The one with whom we were in contact for over a month was disappointing. Others too contacted us. The agent from Shakarpur did the job. We wanted to travel by Air India but got the tickets for American Airlines. It was a win-win situation since the fare was a bit low and the travelling time was cut short by five hours.
When we reached the airport, though we had confirmed tickets, our names were not in the expected list of travellers. There was some goof up in the dates of the tickets. Aro was with us in NOIDA and dropped us off at the Indira Gandhi Airport. Aro is a very affectionate, soft-spoken, cooperative and diligent boy.
The young Indian employees of American Airlines were very cooperative, however it still took an hour to clear the mess. Delhi looked extremely beautiful from the plane window. Food was good. Prashant was waiting for us at the Chicago Airport along with Gaurav, in a rented Mazda6. It was sunny and I prayed to Surya Bhagwan and the journey to Milwaukee started. Drive was extremly smooth. Prashant has matured excellently in driving. We stopped at Gaurav’s house where we met Deepali, his wife. A house-wife for the time being. A good match !
Thank you Preet for helping to post this on Prashant’s blog, Chai Ki Dukaan ! there is more coming up, stay tuned !!!
1. This is a very very very long post (45+ photographs, loads of text) so have a good amount of time on hand when you start reading it
2. This is dedicated to two very important parts of my life… Bindiya and Tushar who started new chapters in their lives in April and May respectively
3. This trip was a celebration of the “sincerely hoped for, unexpected” success of 30on30 initiative… and to share the joy, I would do a random draw of lots of all the people who comment on this post and will send them a print (which they can select from this post) if they are in India or US. If the comments are too less for a decent lot, I would randomly add some random comments from friends and include them !
Now that the conditions are laid out well, lets start….
So it was finalized that I am going to Holland to see the Tulips… Gaurav agreed, Deepali agreed, Pritam, Lakhan, Golu, Sapna agreed, and Jyoti agreed ( she was visiting me that week on her way from the West Coast of the Amreeka to the East Coast of Amreeka)
They left from Minneapolis early evening and I left Milwaukee around 1830 hrs… it was a long drive ahead and I was so looking forward to it… a fantastic car good music system and a nice weather was all that I could ask for… and I had some Samosa’s and Kachauri’s with me for the drive too 🙂 what fun !!!!
As expected driving was a breeze through without any issues at all…Reached the Super 8 Motel around midnight and Pritam and the gang reached soon after ! We did not spend much time talking then, and called it a day with a promise to leave the motel by 0930 hrs the next morning !
Pritam was driving a JEEP and there was no way I would have let anyone else drive that now that I was around… He knew that, and asked Sunil to handover the keys to me before I created any fuss ! He like a gentleman took the navigator seat and Pritam, Jyoti and Golu happily acquired the passenger seats !!! Just about 20 minutes away was our first destination of the day…
The Veldheer’s Tulip Garden….
I would be lying if I tell you that I was very excited to see what I saw… My bad! I was expecting miles of tulips of various colors and variety, but this turned out to be a relatively smaller than what I had painted in my head… It was not entirely my mistake actually, it was the advertising that got the better of me here ! But nevertheless it was a sight to see… I had never seen so many tulips together, so in a way this was a happy moment !
Enjoy the pictures below for a while, before getting back to reading more 🙂
Just before getting out of the Tulips Garden, we decided to take a few pictures of each other 🙂
There was a small factory inside the shop itself where the shoes were being made(below)…
Seen below is the 1970 Dodge truck we went around for a drive in….
I really wanted to see the sun set, and really wanted to see it… so we waited… it was not the most comfortable evening as it was pretty chilly, but my dear friends decided to hang around till sunset and then move back….
So after this loooooooooooooong touristy day and a heavy Indian dinner, we called it a day around midnight !!!!
It was a nice place to just sit and chat as well… I did not care much for the wines, and came out to just sit in the field and take pictures, while Pritam, Golu, and Jyoti were enjoying the wine tasting experience….
Sunil also decided to come out and relax for a while before he started the long drive back to Minneapolis…
The pit-stop was at Fenneville somewhere between somewhere, where we enjoyed some Pizzas at a Pizza hut before saying the final good byes to each other, promising to meet again soon !!! Post that, Sunil drove a bit faster towards their destination and I enjoyed the music and the amazingly smooth Nissan Altima to Milwaukee….
All in all, this trip ended up with me having a nice big smile on my face, exactly like the road-map between Milwaukee and Holland 🙂
I am already looking forward to my next trip !!! Are you?
Oh and congratulations for reaching the end of this post 😛
And this weekend was a movie weekend… well almost..
Saw
I wanted to watch Fast and Furious, however I am not going to see it on the laptop… it needs a big screen.. for that matter almost all firangi action movies do.. and animations as well.. I am hoping to watch it next week and then Transformers-II is coming as well… need to find an iMAX for it.. not watching it on the regular cinema screen by any chance…
One fine Saturday afternoon I left for Gaurav’s place (which is more like a routine now for weekends) and was in the bus number 14 as usual to Southridge Mall…
I decided to get off the bus and figure out what was happening… and realised that it was the St. Patrick’s day Parade day… Disappointed that I was only carrying my walk-around lens and not the long one, and happy that I was at least carrying the camera, I decided to stick around and watch the parade…
It turned out to be a wonderful experience and the first such in the US for this visit… Enjoy the photographs below…
Was happy to see so many Harley’s on the road… Milwaukee has the HD Museum which is really one of its kind in the US being the only official HD Museum !
And this is me 🙂 on a different day but wanted to post this picture coz I love it so much !!! Thank you Preet for taking this picture !!!