Texas Trip

Tweet

Texas. What can I say about our trip? It was disgustingly hot. That pretty much summarizes the trip for me.

While our five day stay earlier this month was a lot of month, the heat and humidity more than took over the trip.

My brother Faraz and I have been there once before a couple of years ago to visit our uncle and his family; last time we went, it was May so we didn't have to face the heat that time. Instead, we had to face their crazy, random, and unpredictable thunderstorms that year.

The night we got there, we had a BBQ. It was like 11 PM and it was around 100 degrees. If I lived in Texas (which would NEVER happen), I doubt I'd leave my air-conditioned house!

Last time my brother and I went, we went to the Sixth Floor Museum (from where JFK was shot). The musuem is really neat (for those interested in history and politics like we are), and I knew the rest of my family would like it too and so we made another trip. It was like the only tourist thing we got to do because everyday was packed with wedding festivities. I don't know what else there is to see in Dallas, Texas anyways. Anyhow, the museum was a neat experience even the second time around. They did make changes this time around and now it comes with an audio tour.

Highlight of the trip? My cousin's wedding.
Best food? Had the best bihari kababs (probably ever).
The downer? humidity.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Arlington National Cemetery

Tweet

Happy New Year's everyone!

I hope 2011 is filled with great things for you and your loved ones.

On our way back from Virginia yesterday, we took an impromptu trip back to Washington D.C. to visit the Arlington National Cemetery. We went to Washington D.C. this past summer as well, but because it started raining we couldn't do/see everything we had planned to do/see. Even now, we still haven't done everything but one of the places I've ALWAYS wanted to go to was the Arlington National Cemetery.

Here are a few of the pictures we took:

The eternal flame at JFK's grave site. It's located between JFK and Jackie Kennedy. 

View of the Washington Monument

Not sure if you can make it out, but this is the grave site for Edward Kennedy

The Tomb of the Unknowns

There is a guard present 24 hours a day, every single day with no exceptions at The Tomb of the Unknowns... and there is a 'changing of the guard' ceremony at the top of the hour that takes about 12 minutes (which continues to happen after the visiting hours are over as well). 

I remember the day this happened I was at the Liberty Science Center with my family.

View of Washington D.C.

I was surprised (and amused) that they sell this at the gift shop there.

By the way, did you know that Washington D.C. doesn't have any fireworks for New Year's? We also went there the night before with our extended family from Virginia and my grandfather (13 people) and there were none! Apparently they only have them for the 4th of July. Who would have thought?

I would have never guessed that the nation's capital wouldn't do fireworks for New Years! I guess the no traffic along the way (when we left after 11 PM) and the fact that we found parking relatively easily should have been a hint, but there were so many other people waiting there expecting the fireworks too... very odd.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Touring Washington D.C.

Tweet

While we travel to Virginia occasionally to visit family, we never set time aside to actually go visit places and see things.

For the longest time I have wanted to go and tour D.C. since the last time I did so, I was pretty young and a) I don't remember much of it and b) I wasn't interested in that stuff like I am now. So on the first thursday of June, we took a family trip to D.C. for the day (and to prove our dedication... we left at 6 AM!).

We visited the Air and Space Museum, toured the Capitol and the Library of Congress, and saw the Monument amongst other things. One thing that we didn't get a chance to do that I really wanted to go see was visit the Arlington National Cemetery. I've always wanted to go and see the eternal flame at JFK's grave site. But on our way there, it started raining and thunder-storming a lot, so we ended up heading back home instead.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.