Cambridge Reservoir in Waltham is very well preserved. Since there are no vehicle stops or parking spots near this reservoir, its not easy to shoot or any pictures of it. Most people know Cambridge reservoir from its view by I-95. Its lot more prettier when you go around it and walk in a bit to get its beautiful view.
Its breath taking beauty unfolds in autumn. I visited this place multiple times to get near to the location i wanted to get a great view.
Cambridge Reservoir looks mostly dark green for most parts of the year but gets the best possible colors only in Autumn, towards end of September during peak fall season.
These days my favorite time pass is to walk with Rishab and my new Canon T3i exploring nature. We are never disappointed and we either meet some cat, some bugs or something else.
Rishab gets to learn and see something new and i get to show him and i get some great snaps along with something to fill his blog :)
Chevron's XYZ network is working with Rebuilding together NGO to rebuild houses that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was a category 5 (speeds up to 175 miles per hour) and killed close to 2000 people and left thousands homeless. Before.... After...
I have never done any painting or labor work in my life before. India has labour that does all such work for a very affordable price, so i never had to work on any such tasks. Now was a chance to learn that and it was fun.
Our assignment was to continue working on an unfinished house. I learnt painting and also to cut plywood accurately to fit them on the exterior walls. Check out the photos above.
Although its quite a physical work, contributing like this once in a while makes us feel good that you are doing something for the society. The homeless family will remember. Chevron also donated a large sum to rebuilding together foundation.
We see lot of Canadian Geese in Covington. Canadian Geese start nesting during spring time. Our office has few small ponds and few Geese nest here. Canadian Geese defend their nests very aggressively from humans dogs and any other animals. This pond is one of the many ponds in Covington, Louisiana
Many employees jog along these ponds and since some of these Geese were nesting in our office premises, there were some incidents where these Geese chased any one who wanted to jog or walk around these ponds. Our nature friendly Management issued a notice to block all walkways that lead to the nesting area to avoid any further and posted signboards to educate everyone and also sent out a notice to all employees.
I remember we had nominated an employee as a egg monitor and use to check the health of eggs. They even tried to have a live web camera fitted so that everyone could watch them live. Because of firewall and other issues that idea was dropped. But it feels good to be working with an organization that is sensitive to nature.
Yet another Mardi Gras season. This year we attended Mardi Gras in New orleans, Slidell, Mandeville & Covington. Undoubtedly New orleans hosts the biggest Mardi gras parades.
We attended Endemiyon in Mid-city. Indeed, its at much larger scale compared to Covington or Madeville. Whole new orleans gets filled with flood of cars during Mardi Gras. We attended following parades this year.
Eve in Madeville
Olympia in Covington
Dionysus of Slidell
Orpheus in Mandeville
Endymion in Mid-City
Lions in Covington
As always its a wonderful time to be in Louisiana during Mardi Gras season. Dont miss it if you happen to be in Southern part of America during February.
New orleans Saints are NFL Champions. Saints won the by 31 - 17 against Colts. Whole of Bourbon street is crowded with Saints fans in festive mood. This Mardi gras is going to be very special and crazy.
Driving in USA was much different from driving in Canada But mostly that earlier experience made me feel more confident about my driving.
Getting driving license from Louisiana (where i am living now) was hassle free. With our indian driving experience lets us get american driving license easily. All we have to do is first clear a written test and then take a drive test. thats it we get a license with no restrictions.
Previous driving experience in any country counts specially international driving permit. Indian or any other country driving license will also do.
Canada and US driving rules are mostly same. Biggest difference is all the numbers are in miles in USA and Canada and most of the world uses Kilometers. Its cautiously driving for a few days is whats important and eventually you will get used to it.
A recent scary incident.
Recently tried my hand on a 12 seater van while driving to Miami. At first it all seemed same as a car, real trouble started when i was overtaking a huge lorry at 70+ miles an hour speed. It could be just one of the defective van steering that we hired or may be all of them are like that. You need to constantly keep adjusting the steering wheel to keep it accurately on the road where you want. I was overtaking the lorry in on a bent road and hardly had enough room to. Van was shaking and i was literally scared & scared everyone to before taking good control of it. Also it always rained when i drove, which made it all more difficult to drive.
You can checkout this van and all other cars i drove on my wikipedia page of My & the cars i drove But soon i was one of the very confident drivers who drove that van in the night at 75+ miles constantly for hours together crossing 4 US states Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Diving had never been so pleasurable, I love US highways.
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest bridge in the world. Its built on lake Pontchartrain thats between New Orleans(South shore) and covington(North shore). Some facts
spanning 23.9 miles from Metairie on the South Shore.
Speed limit 70 miles per hour.
We did not notice the first time we crossed it in the midnight. But now its a feast to the eyes every time we cross it. At the same time its a bridge where we have to drive very carefully as only 2 high speed lanes are the on each side.
Although Mardi gras is celebrated worldwide in various forms, Louisiana is famous (and notorious!!) for Mardi gras carnival.
Fun part of this carnival is lots of beads, soft toys, plastic glasses are thrown from the floats. Families with kids await eagerly for this carnival and come prepared with huge bags and ladders. Kids sit on those ladders along the roads(path of the floats). They catch everything thrown at them and almost fill multiple bags of beads and other stuff collected.
This take place for almost two weeks and almost everyday some part of Louisiana will have some mardi gras celebration. We attended Mardi gras in Slidell, Mandeville and Metairie.
