Gateway To India

Sony SLT-A99V ■ f/4 ■ 1/320 ■ ISO 200

During the spring of last year, we went to India to celebrate a wedding between Ruchi and Sinjin. They already had their civil wedding early that year. They shared their wedding only with family and close friends. Ruchi’s parents were in attendance via live streaming, I am thankful for its invention because loved ones from far away can witness if there is internet access. After their civil wedding, they had their pictorial despite the rain and cold weather. Those pictures turned out great. We went to a restaurant for a small reception for those in attendance. They also threw another reception a week later for other family members, well my wife’s side of the family, and their closest friends. We went to a brewery afterward and I was told that I made a fool of myself, but none of that right now.

I would like to thank Girish, Artie, and Neil (Ruchi’s parents and brother), who planned and prepared the wedding celebrations down to the hotel where we stayed for the duration. I cannot express enough how hospitable they were for the entire week. They have planned tours and transportation to go around. We met their family and friends and we’re welcomed.

In the picture is the famous Gateway to India. We were fortunate that we went there early in the morning otherwise the picture would have had so many people in the background. Opposite this magnificent structure is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, where we ate dinner that same day after we toured Elephanta Caves.

I will tell you more about the places we toured in Mumbai during our short stay, but for now, I would like to extend my wishes to them on their first anniversary. As I said during the reception:

"There is no perfect marriage, you must make it perfect. Misunderstandings and arguments are inevitable, it is how you treat each other after. Love is shown through respect. Be careful to say things when angry because it is difficult to take it back when said. Lastly, it is nice to be forgetful. Let the past teach you but leave it in the past and not dig up every argument."

Happy Anniversary, please select link below for pictures.

Mehndi

Haldi And Sangeet

Wedding And Reception

Ancient Throwback

Grade 1 Class Picture

I had a scare last week when we had a power flicker at home due to some strong high winds. When I got home, I logged into my computer to continue processing pictures taken from our cruise to New England last October when I noticed that I was unable to access my NAS (Network Attached Storage).

I checked the NAS, and it was stuck on the boot. There was no status activity on the device just a blue light on blinking. I went to the vendor's website to check what it means, it stated that the board got messed up and may need replacement. I have tried suggestions from the community page but was unsuccessful. I have around 6 TB worth of data, mostly pictures, videos, and digital documents that I have hoarded for the past years.

I was fortunate that I have subscribed to an online backup. I logged in to the backup portal and found that my data was safely backed up. The only issue I have is downloading that much data over the web. Powered down the NAS and planned on unmounting the hard drives and wiping them for later use. However, I procrastinated and decided to do it on a long weekend when I had time to start downloading my data.

Fast forward, before I remove the hard drives from the NAS I decided to power it up one more time. For whatever reason it booted up and logged into the NAS and all the data are accessible. Now, I am thinking of getting an Uninterruptible Power Supply to protect sensitive equipment from power outages.

This is a long introduction to the picture posted here. I have been checking my NAS and came across my old elementary school picture that I have scanned. It has been so many years and there are only a couple of classmates that I can still remember, and only one by name. I am curious what has become of them. If I post this picture on social media, will I get a hit for some of them?

Can you guess where I am in this picture?

Crown Point Resort

Canon PowerShot A60 ■ f/3.2 ■ 1/1000

Another throwback images from 2003. This was taken in Crown Lake in Arkansas. Still using the Canon PowerShot A60 point-and-shoot camera, I don't think cell phones are not that smart back then.

We purchased a timeshare, I believe a year or so ago that time, and we decided to exchange ours to go to a resort that we only saw on their website.  We booked and reserved our vacation time in that resort.

Days before our travel, by land, I had to go through MapQuest and print our route on several sheets of paper. Mind you there was no GPS at that time. It will be our first long drive to a destination we do not know and directions using a map printout.

We rented a comfortable sedan and I planned on driving to the resort non-stop. Packed our stuff and kids at the back with my wife helping out with the directions. We planned to rest and gas up when my tank went half.

The drive was pretty much smooth, except when we were crossing Missouri during the night, and raining pretty hard. I decided to stop for coffee since we already had dinner then, I could not remember where.

I braved driving on a dark highway on a rainy night with my family. Seems like we were the only vehicle at that time. The kids were already asleep and my wife was dozing but was keeping an eye on me, I think. We were at the border of Arkansas and Missouri in the morning for breakfast and we stopped by a McDonald's. I was surprised that all the people, adults and children, stopped whatever they were doing at that time and just looked our way. An Asian family of four, probably they had never seen in their life, walked through the entrance. I was not aware of the place nor if there was any discrimination. We bought our breakfast to go since I felt uneasy eating inside the fast food restaurant.

After breakfast, we checked our map and called the resort to get assistance getting there.  On the way to the resort, we passed by a small airport for a single-engine plane, I think. The resort is in Horseshoe Bend, but there was a sign entering the small town stating population less than 2,000. The town is small and other than the resort itself there was nothing, well my opinion.

We checked in and got ourselves situated in our unit. Get some much-needed rest

Canon PowerShot A60 ■ f/3.2 ■ 1/1000

 before heading out to check out the resort surroundings. We had a lot of family time mostly enjoying water activities: riding the canoe across the lake and renting a pontoon with a floater. They rode the floater while being dragged by the pontoon, never have I driven any watercraft and did not know how to swim (until now). We also tried fishing and did not catch anything except my son caught a guppy, not sure, which we released back.

We tried walking around the town outside the resort and it was peaceful and quaint. We spent a week here and I think we did enjoy our time. It was indeed family time and no distractions, like the electronics that we have now. But after our stay, we had a realization of driving back home. Honestly, I prefer driving than flying. Sure you can get faster to your destination, but you have more things to do along the way. There was no rush going home and we stopped by places that seemed interesting.

Would I go back, most definitely! I would like to see how it is now. This time it will be easier with a GPS. Back then, I think timeshare is great but not today. You don't want to pay in advance for your vacation. You have options now and cheaper than paying for a yearly maintenance fee that increases each year. The upside if you can call it that, you are forced to take that vacation to not waste your maintenance fee.