A year in DC

Its been exactly a year now in DC, damn, time flew fast and I thought I was only gonna be here for 6 months. Since I moved to the east coast haven't been out much (exception being the St.Louis trip over new year's), partly this can be attributed to the fact that several ppl visited me over july 4th, labor day, thanksgiving, n even the folks visited last feb. So far so good. Am looking fwd to more friends coming over (prob. the Boston ppl) over this summer. May get out to Boston by myself over some summer long weekend. Probably spend a night in NY and drive on the following morning to Boston.

Sometime back made a trip to Rutgers,NJ which was good. I needed to get out of DC and also just go on a long drive by myself. Audiobooks are pretty neat. Last winter I didn't drive much and also had a colleague's Toyota RAV4 SUV at my disposal most of the time so put about 1k on the G's odometer thru the winter period. Have gotten the hang of rev matching now and it takes time to get used to it but it has its own share of fun. Got upto 130mph/210kmph on the NJ turnpike. Quite hairy, I assure you, especially in traffic.

Rediscovered swimming in DC and do about 2km/day on a regular basis thru the work week. Also thanks to another colleague have been going for tennis lessons on warmer weekends. There are several plans for this summer not restricted to just biking thru the DC trails or camping in the Shenandoah Valley. Figured that I might as well make some use of staying near a warmer place on the east coast and with a more relaxed work schedule compared to my days in Michigan. 

Hiking/Camping plans to Yellowstone/Yosemite/Alaska Glacier park don't seem feasible yet. Like the last post said I really need a vacation and time off.

The vacation

My last time off was Nov 2009 when I made the trip to India, since then haven't taken any time off, not even a short break from work. Its not that I can't take time off its just that before I moved to DC I had an entire tour of Italy all chalked out but had to scrap it right at the last moment for the big jump to DC. Also its been more about do I really need time off, I don't really feel burned out or anything that I need time off to "recharge my batteries" and "ease my troubled mind."

Infact I end up just hurrying along to every place I can on vacations. I have barely ever sat still on a vacation and its always been go-go-go. Also the photography bug means sitting still means losing some scenic vistas as well so all the more reason to snap click every little thing that catches my eye. My last trip was to St.Louis to meet the old gang, and it was just everything that I thought it would be and more. Just the feeling of seeing the same old Lambert International terminal again makes me nostalgic. I have spent New Year's eve at Times Square, & on a cruise in Miami but this last trip to St.Louis ranks right up there with the best of the parties.  That wasn't  a slow recharge rather it was more like a sudden jolt of energy to last me hopefully thru the entire year.

Winter is almost over now which does mean that driving season is comin up pretty quick. So far I have a few road-trips planned to the NYC area, maybe Pittsburgh (Rama's), and of course an annual trip to Boston and Quincy Market, the Harbor area. Last year I went to the Florida keys for some fantastic snorkeling, Mustang convertible action, camping on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the trip to Boston and New York. This year I should make a trip to Atlantic City, the Chesapeake Bay, and hopefully find someone to go camping/canoeing with thru the Shenandoah.

For now its back to my good routine since winter is over. My punishing swimming schedule.
Work-swim-work