So that's what I did for the last couple of weekends - a drive down to the Smoky mountains - I'm sorry... to the Great Smoky Mountains nearby. Some people tend to get a tad upset when I leave out the 'Great'. It's a trademark. There's a national park down there, which provides you ample opportunities to do the things you've always wanted to do - or at least pretend you wanted to do. So we went there and did some o' them touristy things - taking pictures, hiking of sorts... you get the idea.
The first weekend was when Vivek came down to return the Chicago visit. This was in the works over the course of 2 months... which basically meant that he would call every weekend to ask "Are the colors there yet?". He finally confirmed his visit the night before he left, after I assured him of seeing every color in the rainbow here.. including black and blue. I spent the next day searching for cabins nearby... what we finally got was eerily named 'Bear Skin Lodge'. I was fine with it as long it wasn't Bare skin lodge. I had my doubts though, since the cabin next to ours was named 'Romantic Retreat'. Wonder if they ever change the letters around and offer a package deal.
Anyway, the trip did go pretty smoothly after a bit of mish-mash at the beginning. Fall season is peak time in Gatlinburg... which means you'd probably find less people in our old filmi style 'Kumbh ki mela'. We did get to see the 'fall colors' and these pics prove it. We managed to get a bit of 'hiking' in there too.
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| Smokies Trip |
The next weekend saw us taking another trip to the Smokies (Great, of course). This was a pure 'fall colors' trip - which meant all people did was go around taking pictures of every leaf and twig they could find. This time, we did manage to take a drive on the Blue Ridge parkway, where you can see all the colors on the trees, except blue. Pics have been uploaded. Before you get in, I must say that the album looks like an ad for National Geographic.
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| Fall 2007 - Smokies & Blue Ridge Pkwy |
The weather's turned a bit cold as well... it's now in the single digit (celsius) range. I'm told this is good weather when it comes to winter here. Mental note: buy coat this weekend instead of next month as scheduled.
And now, it's almost the last day of the month, and tomorrow is Halloween. I plan to scare my colleagues tomorrow by going to office dressed as an employee. And of course, the kids will be at the doorsteps tomorrow night, trick or treating - which reminds me - I need to go get some candy. Or else I might just wake up on Thursday and see my windshield soaped up (which might not be such a bad thing after all - I do need my car washed anyway)... or worse. Adios.
