Miami Photos...

Check out the wonderful photos from Miami. Photos from Orlando will be available soon.



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Historic Time in Washington!

The mood in Washington, DC is festive and cheerful in preparation for Obama's inauguration. Why not? After all, Americans so overwhelmingly picked Obama and are celebrating the history-making inauguration of their new president.

There is no other place to be at this time, but Washington. I consider myself supremely lucky to be living in the Washington metro area! In fact, I was plain thrilled to be in downtown DC on the election night and be a part of the Obama victory celebrations. People were opening champagne bottles in the city squares and circles, drivers honking horns, strangers greeting and cheering - it is as if everybody, I mean everybody, was happy with the result.

As the big inauguration day approaches, crowds in millions are descending down on the town. TV and radio stations are busy guesstimating how many millions will be attending, advising on the
road and Metro closures, warning repeatedly about possible cellphone circuit jams, helping figure out best ways to get to the parade route...Washington is getting ready, eager with anticipation.

They say the weather is going to be in the low 30s for the inauguration. I'm not sure I'll be attending the inauguration...but, I must say that I'm having fun just being an audience to preparation for such a historic event. Being a resident of the Washington area, I feel like I'm one of the millions personally playing host to the new president and the millions coming to town.

As you can clearly see, I'm excited, excited, excited!

Time Flies....

Are we really in the year 2009? Wow! Time *DOES* fly by! As the new year dawned, I couldn't stop but think about how quickly years are passing by, how quickly things that seem to have happened not so long ago...ahem, actually happened a long time ago. You see my point? For example, it seems so surreal that it has been almost six years since I came to the USA. It has been 10 years since I finished my polytechnic (technical) school that prepped me for my undergrad! Work wise, it is quite hard to believe that it has been three years since I have obtained a full-time work visa, and four years since I started working! Oh gee, time surely is passing by real fast.

Beginning the New Year...Florida Style..

Shortly after the New Year's, I headed off to the sunny and warm Florida. We first flew in to Orlando, spent a day there and drove off to Miami. While in Miami, we visited the Florida Keys as a day trip, and a couple of days in Miami proper. We went to the beach, checked out the city, and overall had fun.

It was a welcome break from the cold winter weather in DC. Even though Washington's winters are not that harsh, it was still a wonderful welcome break from the cold. It was quite comforting to change over from coats and scarfs to shorts and beachwear, overnight! I must say, never before in my life did I enjoy/appreciate the tropical weather this much...part of it is because I was born and grew-up in tropical temperate climate in India. I especially loved being in the Florida Keys - we stopped at the last Key, Key West. Key West is the Southern-most land mass of the continental USA (the "lower 48"). And in the process, we saw and stood at the southern-most part of the USA.

After four days and three nights in Florida, I returned to Orlando for two more days. We visited Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral. It was a great experience for me as space science and rockets fascinated me ever since I was a child. While at the Kennedy Space Center, we checked out the simulated space shuttle launch experience. It was an OK experience, but worth trying it anyway. Wish I were a kid while trying it, so that I enjoyed it..instead of figuring out the the "physics" of simulation and how they created it. Oh well, the joys of being grown ups, and the joys of being a research scientist.

We haven't been to the Disney and Universal theme parks in Orlando, but walked around the parks in their specialized shopping areas. Disney has a "boardwalk" with shops and nice walking area. Universal has a bunch of shops and walking area, similar to Disney. Overall, the feeling I got was that these same theme parks in California were much more busier than those in Florida.

We stayed in a very upscale, 4-star hotel in a very cool neighborhood known as Coconut Grove. Most people tend to choose hotels near the beach, especially near South Beach but I stayed away since I found a better deal for this hotel, and also I felt the beach-front hotels are overly pricey, not worth their price. By the way, the picture on the right is a view of sunrise from my hotel room balcony. What say you, eh?!

I enjoyed Florida so much that I am even tempted to move there in the future. Perhaps California is a better choice, but hey, the Floridian tropical heaven is no less!

I will post photos from my Facebook albums soon. Keep checking this page.

Greetings from warm Miami, Florida!

I'm vacationing in Miami ...in the warm environs of Florida! Details and photos to follow...