Memorial travel

The travel was on Memorial Day so technically its memorial travel, it was good fun, good food and good memories too so it goes to the blog. It all started with no planning, no clue about the itinerary, all I knew was that I would be travelling with friends and acquaintances back from engineering days.
Places and people are an interesting combination. Some places are fun because of the people you are around with. How you discover a new place depends to an extent on the company you have around.
You sometimes see people in a whole new light when you are at a new place. ‘Holiday goggles’-looking at everything with a relaxed cheerful demeanor or the other variant ‘Graduation goggles’ –looking nostalgically at all the good memories of past years also play their own sweet role.

So post the initial philosophizing, I should now talk about the travel. It was Chicago-Madison-Wisconsin Dells. It’s a little difficult to comprehend how places change with season here. Under the summer sun you can never imagine the winter chill. Seeing the winter frost you can never imagine lush green trees and gurgling waters. I had little expectations from Wisconsin as I had seen it all frozen, cold and deserted in the winters. My imagination had not conceived beautiful lakes, drives through green trees, gently meandering green slopes and so many people around! So it was a pleasant surprise.

Starting from Champaign I had some known and some surprise company. Coming this far you are already far beyond your comfort zone so all you want is to have a good time with the people around.
The small town people from Champaign (i.e. me) need to refocus in the big city with the tall buildings, lights, traffic and the crowds. However it’s a quick reflex and you reconnect with the city almost in a blink! So it was a quick walk around the Chicago Lake, then off to Hardrock cafe, dinner at a fancy Indian place and then all the way up to Hancock towers. Chicago and the city lights every time I see I still love the sight.

The next day was a rendezvous with an old college friend. It was a good surprise to meet her after so many years and again it wasn’t planned it just happened. We walked and tried to talk loudly over the sound of the passing Memorial Day parade band. Had a Chinese lunch while remembering the awesome Chinese food places in CP, Delhi. I was again at the Chicago bean, taking the usual pictures. I wonder if I am ever going to see the day when I walk along the bean without having an impulse to take pictures. The interesting piece about the Chicago bean is that it was designed by an architect of Indian origin. We just take this vicarious pleasure in his accidental identity. The design is around the theme of what a building can give to the onlooker, so magnanimously it reflects back your own image with the entire Chicago skyline as the backdrop along with all the many people who flock to take their own pictures. It’s definitely an interesting concept. (Reference source: fellow traveler).
With this the Chicago lap came to an end and I started off for the Wisconsin sojourn.

I’ll post the Wisconsin travelogue in the next blog because I am done with my part time here, have got to meet a professor and then head for my internship. Just writing it down to remind myself that it a long day after an early morning and unfortunately life is not one happy vacation like the blog post above!