Dolce far niente.....

... because its a summer Friday....

          and pretty zinnias are in full bloom everywhere...

 

also.... we spotted a deer in our backyard....

 

which terrified little K to the core .....  

 So much from our end... Have a safe and fun weekend !

the fourth

Though Indians ourselves..... ....because it was a holiday and we have a cute little American boy... this year.. we decided to indulge in the spirit of the fourth of July. i had dreamt of greeting our friends Happy 4th with home-made choco-chip muffins in red-blue-white cupcake liners and some sparklers.

however not much of my dreams materialised... and what we really ended up doing was to drive to Pittsburgh-downtown wearing our American-flag tees...

 park our car somewhere in the 9th street and walk down three blocks ......

 

to Point State Park, where most of the locals had gathered for the final day of the 35th EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta  and the 4th of July fireworks. 
At the Regatta, amongst other things the Powerboat Championship caught our fancy...

 besides this intricate and massive sand sculpture which was an absolute centre of attraction.

most of the evening our boy was happy... shouting and cheering with the crowd.

but by the time the fireworks begun he was totally exhausted  and the last thing he probably wanted was the noise of the fire-crackers. so  half-way through the show we had to leave :(

 

  nevertheless we enjoyed the day and hope to plan the next fourth a little better than this one...

DC, 24.6.2012

as i have mentioned earlier we were in DC last Sunday... it was our first time in the Capitol... but the trip was more like 8 hours of driving and 8 hours at DC. so we did not really have the time to explore the city. we had gone there  to spend some time with our friend, Anupam who had come there to attend a workshop-conference. He had been put up in hotel Mariott Courtyard Chevy Chase at Wisconsin Avenue, Maryland. 

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since the hotel area was just a few metro stops away from the Capitol area of Washington DC, we decided to take a quick peek of the Capitol. so we took the metro to the Metro stop.... from where we walked a few blocks into the Capitol Area and saw the....

 Washington Momument...

rickshaws in USA (well in India these are common. but weren't really expecting them in DC)

    the Lincoln Memorial from a far...

the Jefferson Memorial from the other side of the Tidal Basin... where we also took a little break to feed Pradyot his dinner while he and Anupam chatted about.... i guess the weather and things like that :)

We then strolled down to the National World War II Memorial.. where we spent some time soaking our feet in the cool area and watching the ducks floating by.

 

 till it was time for us to take the road back.......

and then the most exciting and unexpected thing happened....  as we were walking by the White House zooming our cameras to get a good picture i suddenly spotted the President.....

and his family coming out of their abode for a walk in the White House Gardens... not sure if it was  really them i asked Nishi and Anupam to check.. but by then the activities of the security-officers had already confirmed that it WAS the President.... however since our cameras aren't the greatest so the only souvenirs we have of the day are these distant/blurry images of the President....

and the pleasant memories  of meeting a good old friend in a foreign land.......