The summer of '07

Believe it or not; I had to move my cursor over to the lower right corner of the screen to complete that title!!

Staring at the Fall semester tomorrow on, still about half an hour to go before I take the bus to the tennis courts one last time this summer, I thought I'd recap. This summer has been long.

It started off with me swearing to improve my serve. Something I have been working of for what seems like forever. Its really a pain to have about six to ten balls stuffed in your shorts, trying to serve. Focus gets shifted to keeping the pants on rather than get the ball in.. So I looked up ball hoopers - had always seen serious players get them to Deccan Gymkhana and I always wanted my own, since. It wasn't to pricy after all and so began my serving nights out.

I have been playing almost every night, over the past three months and it makes me feel good about myself for just that. That my serve isn't too different from what it was, is really beside the point.

I guess it was early summer, when we just drove up to Apache Lake, Canyon Lake. We have been here before, but we drove upto Roosevelt Dam this time. I saw a jukebox for the first time at Superstation Saloon - a crazy place where the walls have dollars bills for wallpaper. People coming here have it nailed onto the wall, writing something that identifies them on the bill. A pic that catches them both-

Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

Since few of my friends from Persistent Systems, were onsite at Redmond, I thought I'd meet 'em and see a bit of Washington. I got my driver's license about a week or two before I was to be in Washington. It was a 3 day thingy.

Day one - we went to Mt. Rainier National Park - awesome place, very scenic. Getting back was fun too, we lost our way, and without the maps that give an overview of different highways, which I always forget to carry, it took a great deal of time and gas to get back onto a highway into Seattle.

San Juan Islands, Washington

Day Two - After much indecision, we decided to go through with it. San Juan Islands. The reason for the indecision was - there were too many things we thought were beyond our control to get the most out of the day - there was a waiting time for the ferry onto the islands, the cost of the the ferry seemed a bit too much, mistakenly so, and of course doubts on seeing any whales - which was the key attraction for Sandeep.

All but the last one of the fears turned out to be just a scare. But the whales did desert us. But we did enjoy the nice cold 3-4hrs on the ferry. Learnt a bit about the islands, saw the Bald Eagle, sea gulls too I think and the highlight of the ride was of course the lone sea-lion trying to protect its hunt, desparately trying to fight off the birds..

By the end of it, it had gotten pretty cold and we did crave for those onion pakoras. Here however french fries are a more common substitute and I settled for a hot chocolate, others had a round of beers!

San Juan Islands is a very relaxing place. I would not recommend it for a one-day stop though. Going there over the weekend should be nice. Get yourself some bikes for rent, cycle around to the sculpture park, the wineries, the whale museum is recommended but whale watching? I think not:P

Space Needle, Seattle

Day three of the trip was spent, not too far from Bellevue as I had to make it out of the place that night. So, Snoqualmie waterfalls it was. Before the trip, going to the Space Needle was on my agenda, but it kept getting pushed for later and we decided if nothing, we'd at least drive past by it. But when we did, I had to go up there. It was nice to see the city from up there - nice, nothing spectacular though.

Snoqualmie Waterfalls

This was very awesome. I would put this before Mt. Rainier too. Very good view of the top of the fall, the fall itself and the river/stream that it becomes later on. There are wooden boards that get you fairly close to the fall, but if you are willing to take a chance and violate the rules there, as most do, you can get really close to the fall. Be just a few feet from it.

Indianapolis, Formula 1, US Grand Prix

Raceday was sensational - It one thing to hear the cars go past you one after the other during qualifying, but when they all roar and scream together, its surreal. And to top that, at the start, right as the US national Anthem concluded, two monstrous fighter jet, flew overhead real close, real fast. Seeing the two Ferrari's battle it out -battle each other; they lost to Hamilton, even before the race started perhaps.

Didn't expect to run into Madhu out there - a chance encounter!

Sedona, 4th of July

This was my first time here for the American Independence Day. The fireworks have always been hyped a lot and was keen to seeing them light up the sky. It was long - 45 minutes is really an overkill. But it was great and ended in style. Such things are done quite well here.

Acura Classic, Carlsbad, California

822 Miles - That is what it took to get to this match and back. It was fun. I have a history of getting lost since I have been driving myself in new cities. Thankfully it did not happen on the way to the match. Our timing could not have been any better. We got the last parking spot - its wasn't really meant to be a parking spot; it was behind this huge truck. The lot had just been all taken and we were asked to put it there. We get to the seating area and find out the national anthem had just ended and players were warming up. Not a point missed. Kewl!

The pace with which Sharapova plays seemed unreal.. was great to see her in action. Patty Schynder too, but she was kindda over powered all along..

The rest of the summer was all movies. Netflix is real cool... The movies I've induged myself with this summer include, but not limited to ;):

Live free or Die Hard
Mr. Brooks
Oceans 13
About Schmidt
Killing Me Softly
Freejack
Failure to launch
The juror
Sleepers
Blood Diamond
Welcome to Mooseport
Hotel Rwanda
Traffic
The morning after
The sum of all fears
Babel
Human Nature
Lost in translation
The Rainmaker
Thank you for smoking
The Mothman Prophecies
Meet Joe Black
Deep Rising
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Blind Dating
Fantastic Four
Its a boy girl thing
The January Man
The pursuit of happyness
Kohsla ka ghosla
Stranger than Fiction
Run Lola Run
The Full Monty
Casino Royale
Zero effect
Ghost Rider
Schindler's List
Finding North
Bourne Ultimatum
The Legend of Ron Burgandy
The Matrix

All of the movies are good and recommended, except Casino Royale - hated that movie; 3 hours of my life absolutely wasted!!