Friday, June 20, 2014

Featured on a blogger friend's blog!

This is the first time I have ever been featured on a blog :) Yeppie!! And on the same friend's blog who is my only (read ONLY) source of inspiration and because of whom my blog came into existence :) I would love to capture this as one of the best moments in my journey of blogging !!

Thank you Aditi and love you so much! Agar hum nahi mile hote toh I would have missed something really BIG in my life. These days, I have been crazy for reading blogs and I enjoy them a lot. I did not realize until now that it could be so much fun (I really mean it). Moreover, I decided to start (re)collecting the memories in the form of few words/pictures so that I can go over them in future and re-live those moments again. I always thought that capturing pictures was the best way to capture memories, but how often do we dig into our hard disks and go over the old pictures (sigh! we have millions of them) How much do we remember what we did in the vacation/s that we went 2 years back? Here is where I realized the power of blogging! With blogging, I decided to write down all the best moments of my life like vacations, get togethers, date-nights, friends re-union, weddings, birthdays, barbecues, etc etc. I am sure I will come across various other reasons to blog along my journey. Its been a couple of weeks and I am already enjoying every bit of it.

To read the blog post by Aditi please visit:
So-Saree: So-Saree Readers Speak - Part 8: Our next Reader to share her love for So-Saree is Dhriti Harpalani.

Today!




Thursday, June 19, 2014

Pineapple Sheera

After our recent trip to Maui, both of us had a hard time to get over Hawaii fever for quite a long time. Recently, we tried to make pineapple sheera from the Pineapple which we got from Maui.

Have you even heard the name - Pineapple sheera? I had never - until this day.When Manoj asked me "Chal pineapple sheera banate hai", I was like "Aisa bhi kuch hota hai kya? It sounds weird, neh! I dont want it!" But he wanted to show me how tasty it was. So, he started following the recipe from vahrehvah.com. 

And to my surprise, it tasted amazing. I loved it. Apparently, it is a Maharashtrian sweet delicacy.. Waah reh waah! 

Here is the link from vahrehvah chef - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30emOVKAYyw



Everything Pineapple! The Hawaii effect!

Monday, June 16, 2014

First attempt at sketching!

Here is my first attempt at sketching Manoj. I am not sure how it is, but it's with love, for love :)
And the meaning of the name 'Manoj' is Love! :)

First attempt :)

Original photo from which I tried to sketch him.


Here are few other attempts to drawing/painting and being creative with/for him.

Trying out Calligraphy!

Thinking for ideas for save the date prop!

This is what finally we used as prop for our
Save the Date photoshoot :)

Drawing/s in my first letter to him!

Drawing/s in my first letter to him!

I painted this frame with Red and Gold :)

We painted this bird house in San-Juan together!

Practicing Calligraphy!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Dream Vacation to Maui ... Day Tooh - Snorkeling!

Day Two was the one we were excited about the most. Because it was my first experience at Snorkeling. I have always been very crazy for water sports although I have never tried most of them before. I have been excited to try them out. [Although I do not know swimming :(]

For our day 2 at maui, we woke up early in the morning at 5:30 as we were scheduled for snorkeling at 6:30. We left from our hotel at 6 am. And we were at the Pacific whale foundation (located in Wailuku/Ma'alaea) just in time at 6:30am. But the people seem to be very punctual. There were so many people who had already checked-in for snorkeling. But, I convinced myself and Manoj that we were not late. We were just in time. After we checked in, we headed towards our boat which was named Ocean Odyssey cruise. We had booked the Turtle Arches and Molokini crater snorkeling. On the boat we were served breakfast which included some banana breads, chocolate bread and juices/coffee.We went to see the turtles first at the Turtle arches. After they provided us the gears, I practiced as Manoj shared some tips and tricks from his past experience. I was very very nervous to get into the water. I remained clinged to our boat. Everyone around me even the cruise crew encouraged me to set myself free and leave the boat's handle. So, I made an attempt after a while and went inside the water accelerating very fast. Manoj was surprised to see me go so fast. Later when I realized I was in the middle of the water, I started panicing and shouted for some help. I saw a kayak coming closer to me and I again got clinged to the kayak even though the person on the kayak told me not to do so. I was not in a state to listen to anyone. I guess I was trying to self rescue myself using the kayak ;) I was finally able to reach our boat with the kayak's help. While I was heading back to the boat, Manoj kept insisting me "Babbu, please dont go! You will be fine. Hold me." Although I heard those words I was unable to act on them :( I felt really bad as I was unable to co-operate with Manoj and give him company to snorkel with him. I felt like a spoilsport. But, I had another chance to make it work. We were then heading towards Molokini crater where we were going to snorkel and this time I was firm that I have to do it. If not for myself, atleast to accompany Manoj. I was determined. I took the tips from Manoj again and decided to act upon them.

We reached Molokini. I was determined, but nervous. I decided to step in the water before everyone else does, so that I get enough time to practice before going inside water. And I did practice for a few minutes. But, the tour guide by then was ready to take people for the reef tour. I felt as if I wasnt too ready :( I insisted Manoj to go ahead and do the reef tour without me. He didn't want to go but I insisted him to go and not miss the best part because of me. I had to emotionally blackmail him to leave me near the boat and to go for the reef tour. I am glad he did. Meanwhile, I was practicing around the boat. And guess what I had build some will-power to get into water without taking any support other than the noodle and the life vest. And I was looking out for Manoj so that I can show him that I can do it !!! Yes, he was back from the reef tour and then he called me once inside the water and there I went after him. Words cant do any justice to how beautiful and serene it was under water. And the happiness that I saw on Manoj's face was something I could have died for. I had a feeling of accomplishment. Yayy! Finally I did it and enjoyed every second under water. Manoj swam like a fish under water and around me. He is really a very good swimmer.

After around 45 minutes, it was time to get back in the boat. But, I did not wish to go back in the boat :( as it was so much fun out there. But, I guess we had to get back. We went back to the boat. All happy and all relieved. We had chicken sandwiches on the boat. On the way back, we saw a hump back whale and its calf although it was off-season to watch whales in Molokini during this time of the year. Generally by april end all the whales from molokini are already migrated to Alaska. But, we were among the lucky ones to watch the last two of them still migrating and playing pranks inside the water. We also saw some dolphins playing inside the water while heading back.

Here are a few pictures from our Molokini snorkeling tour. The crew of our boat was fantastic and was very informative. They provided us with a lot of information about how,when, what about the crater. These guys also helped me rescue when I went into the water and started panic'ing. These guys also encouraged me to get into the water while I was nervous in the part-2 of snorkeling at Molokini.
  
This picture depicts how much fun we had at Molokini!



With the crew!


Few stunts by my trainer while I was busy taking his pictures!

After our return, we checked out some local shops which had local artists items like glass earrings, necklaces, stoles, bags, dresses all of hawaiian origin. Both of us bought a pair of hawaiian clothes from this local art store.

We returned back to our hotel by 12 as we were scheduled for a TimeShare presentation by Wyndham. We quickly freshened up and headed to the presentation. Guess what, whom did I meet there. It was totally unexpected but I met Priya Matai, one of my school friends who was also on her honeymoon. It was fun to meet her there. After the presentation, we were too tired to do anything so we did a small walk towards the Front street and to our surprise it was one of the best things that we loved about our hotel's location. There was a very old banyan tree there and there were a lot of local shops out there. One such stalls named "Tickets for less" attracted us to stop by as the hoarding said the tickets for various activities were available at almost 70% discounted rates. We knew it was one of the TimeShares but even though we were interested to stop by. We met Jeremy there, whom we spoke about our interests in parasailing and the dinner cruise activities. He promised to get us a free dinner cruise the next day only if we attend the TimeShare presentation of Diamond. It was a matter of 2 hours vs paying 200+ bucks that we had to pay for Dinner cruise. In addition, he promised to give us 25$ cash back and free dinner cruise if we attended the TS. It was a very good offer to deny for. We accepted it and scheduled our TS for 12:30, right after our sunrise tour and 28 miles bike ride tour the next day.

Later that night we planned to get back to sleep early as we were going to be picked up by the mountain biking guys at 2 am (yes 2 o clock at night!). So, we decided to grab some dinner and head back home. So, we went to "Indian Express" at the wharfs and headed back home around 9pm. We dozed of at 10:30 after talking to parents at home and getting ready for the next day of strenuous sunrise and bike ride tour. 

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Dream Vacation to Maui ... begins!

Hawaii is the dream honeymoon place for every couple! But, we purposely did not plan to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon as it is so close to California. Ideally we can go there anytime. It would hardly need a lot of planning. Btw, we went to Mauritius for our first honeymoon. More on that is coming soon on this blog. This post is dedicated to our (second ;) honeymoon and yes it was in Hawaii. Actually, until recently I was not planning to have any vacation till July, as lately we have been travelling a lot and the routine has been very busy. Not to say but Hawaii is also one of my dream vacation, but I didn't see it coming so soon (It was a jackpot!). One fine evening, Manoj was searching some deals on his laptop when he found a win-win deal for Maui. Maui is the second largest Hawaiian islands and the most beautiful of all (As of what I know;)) He came to me and told me that we are going to Maui next long weekend which is the Memorial day weekend. We will have to take leave for two days in addition to the long weekend break. Without even giving a second thought (What? Really? Yayy!!!) I was super excited and looked over the itinerary and started dreaming about the dream vacation.

The trip was planned from May 23rd (Fri) to May 27th (Tue). I was so excited that I took work from home on thursday and spent few hours deciding what nail art I am going to do for Hawaii. See what I ended up doing here. Late afternoon, I went out for shopping to finish my last moment shopping for the dream vacation at Maui :)

We packed up everything and were ready to leave at 8 am in the morning. On this day, we took our first lyft ride. It was a good experience. (I would recommend Lyft for sure). Surprisingly, on that day I had got a bad tooth ache. I dont know where it came from? All such things happen at the best times in my life! Anyways, I didnt let it suppress my excitement for the upcoming vacation. I thought that if it bothers me more, I will take an antibiotic. So, I didnt care much about it.

We had a 5 hour flight from SJC to OGG(Hawaii). The flight itself started giving us a feel of hawaii since the air hostess were dress in sort-of-hawaiian dresses. Primarily they were wearing the hawaiian Lei (which means a garland of flowers). During these five hours, I took several pictures of things around us.

Alaska Airlines giving a feel of Hawaii!


Also, I created a qwiki of my mother-in-laws recent visit to California which is posted here.
After landing we had our first lunch at Maui but because of my tooth ache, I was in no mood to try out anything local. Guess what, we ended up going to a Thai place close to the airport. (What? Thai food in Hawaii? Isnt that Insane?) We ordered our favorite dish "The panang curry and rice" with some fried chicken.

Panang curry and Fried Chicken

We checked-in the hotel at Lahaina Shores Beach Resort. We had planned to spend the rest of the day in our resort's Spa. So once we reached there, the first question I asked the receptionist was where is the Spa and to my surprise he said we do not have Spa in the resort but the expedia agent sitting right across will give you more information at where can u find the best Spa in Lahaina. So, we went to meet her and she gave us a few suggestions but we decided to book on our own. We called a bunch of Spa but either it went on VM or they did not have appointment for the same day. Finally we received a call back from Spa Lelle which had 5 stars and we decided to book them. We were scheduled for 5:30 in the evening. We chose the Apothecary therapy where Manoj chose to have the massage with chocolate and I chose for fresh vanilla bean. And the 90 min experience was just WOW!!

Later in the evening before going to the Spa, we had booked the next day 6:30 am Molokini and Turtle Arches snorkeling tour with Pacific Whale Foundation. Renee the expedia travel agent made our reservation. She booked us for the tour and for the Wyndham time share following the tour. She gave us large discounts just to attend the Wyndham time share. We were so excited to get the Snorkeling tour in such a discounted price! All set to go !

In the night we had been thinking to eat something light before we doze off to sleep. We went to the Front street, where we looked around for various local shops in Maui. I really loved the dresses that these stores had. Every dress I was seeing, I had to buy that! But, I had already overloaded my bag before coming so I tried to keep it calm and slow :D

We went to Star noodle where we had the Singaporian noodles along with the Malasadas - Chocolate and Butterscotch Caramel Sauces, Peanuts  desert. It was yumm!!

Malasadas - Chocolate and Butterscotch
 Caramel Sauces, Peanuts

We went back to hotel and were very tired and wanted to end the day so that we can have an early start the next day for our first adventure at Maui :)

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Love for baking

Here are a few pictures of my hands on baking. Recently, I have started to love baking cakes :)


This one I baked for my MIL's birthday 2014 :)

Take 2

Take 3

Scorpions birthday 2013

Manoj's birthday 2013 Celebration 1

Manoj's birthday 2013 Celebration 2

Cupcakes for Vihaa's birthday 2014 Jungle theme!

Jungle Monkey :)

Animalssss !

Animalssss !

Bhaiya's birthday Tiramisu cake 
Birthday cake for Sagar's birthday!

Sagar's birthday cake take - 2 

Princess theme birthday cake for Dhun!

Saina's Dora themed 2nd happy birthday cake! 

Saina's Dora themed 2nd happy birthday cake!  take 2