San Francisco, California

Thank God the city lived up to my expectations!! :D.. I'd been hankering to visit SanFran for so long, and I finally got the opportunity last week. I was there for the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. So yes, work. But I did play too..

Did the usual tourist things.. Hangin out at Fisherman's Wharf, walking in Chinatown, cable cars, SFMOMA. Also watchin Tia Carroll at Biscuits and Blues, hanging out doing nothing at Haight-Ashbury. Lunch at Belden Place.. at Plouf. Lunch at Mt. Everest Restarant in Berkeley, which I strongly strongly recommend to anyone truly homesick for home kinda food. :D. The Golden Gate Park.. too bad I was too late to enter the Japanese Tea Garden. Well, there's always a next time. The best part was undoubtedly riding the Powell-Hyde Cable Car line (at night, multiple times).. AND biking across the Golden Gate bridge in the dusk. A hell of a ride (I totally underestimated the initial climb) but well worth the effort. Luckily it wasn't freezing or foggy ... Well, I wouldn't really have minded foggy I think. The weather was gloriously perfect the whole week.

Here are some photographs...

San Francisco

Pictures - Camping at Acadia National Park

There were a number of cameras out there in Maine.

So , I've collected the links to the various albums from the happy campers. :)
The photo below each link is only a sample.. click on the links for the full albums!

don's gallery -1 and don's gallery-2 (p/w acadians)

chris's chris' chrises christian's album

lisa's album

elena's flickr

and anuj's gallery

Enjoy!!!!

Freedom Of The Seas

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' Freedom of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world, just recently taking away that crown from Cunard's Queen Mary 2.

Lucky me... coz my uncle was assigned to this ship and hence I had the opportunity to check out this ship last weekend while it was docked in Boston for its "publicity cruises".

So last Sunday, 21st of May, Lava and I went aboard the ship and spent 5 glorious hours taking in the almost Disney-like luxury of the cruise ship.. The word huge does not even begin to describe the ship.. 15 decks of luxury! A boxing ring, and ice-skating rink, a rock climbing wall, a wave surfing pool, golf greens, full sized basket ball court, casino, night club, a 3-storied dining hall, a theatre, a promenade through the middle of the ship, a cantilevered whirlpool... well, we really did not have the time to explore all areas of this humongous floating resort.. And I think that might have been coz we were busy with the free (EXCELLENT) food and free booze from the numerous bars scattered all over the ship! :)

Here is a photograph of the ship..



and this link will take you to more (lots of) photographs...

http://www.anujpradhan.com/CruiseShip05-21-06

back from DC

Have been in Washinton DC since early Saturday for the TRB conference ..
Just got back last night, just in time for Tuesday night bowling. :)

My talk was pretty good.. was well received, with great interaction from the audience. And no, I didn't have sweaty palms this time. So maybe it helps preparing the slides a day before the presentation is due huh? :)

What else is new with me?? leseeee... hmmmm... reading a lot.. as you can see from my list. And that's about it. Nothing earth shattering to record. No pictures either..


Am kicking myself for leaving my camera behind at the hotel when I went up to the National Zoo in DC. Did get lucky and managed to see the Panda Baby.. Tai Shan, which means "peaceful mountain" in Chinese. (The pic is from the national zoo's website)

Also the regular exhibits.. lions and tigers and bears.. and reptiles.. hadn't been to a zoo in such a long time so t'was nice. And the weather was just beautiful. Lucky me .

New York City...

From across the river...