Boston Trip

The Chinese ( mandarin ) word for happiness is Xing Fu. And most of us are always looking for this feeling. The thing to remember is that this feeling is indescribable. You can describe what brought you the happiness but not the moment when you were experiencing it. That is because in that moment you transcend the ego and are one with the supreme being experiencing bliss. Well, I did not experience that kind of Xing Fu but I still had a very happy vacation. We drove to Boston which was a 3-1/2 hr drive extended to 7 hrs because of inclement weather and Christmas eve traffic :-D One of my dear friends, Madhu, lives there with her husband. We reached there on Christmas eve and had a very laid-back relaxing Christmas with them. She had told me that she'd decorated a small Tree and that we could keep all our presents under it just like a regular tree. But turned out that some of our presents were bigger than the "small tree". Here, you take a look. But as always, her spirit more than made up for the tree's height :-D. And our family had a very lovely Christmas day. Xing Fu for VC was seeing a telugu movie on Siva's 46" Sony Bravia tv. The movie being Superstar Rajnikanth's recent movie 'Shivaji'. I've rarely seen him laugh so much ( no offense meant against the superstar). We also saw a Jackie Chan - Jet Li movie called 'Forbidden Kingdom'. It was one of those martial arts movies with very simple storyline but the locales were beautiful and the 46" TV did justice to it. On the whole a very nice day.

The next day, we woke up, had a leisurely lunch and hit the nearby Wrentham Outlet Mall. About a mile away from the mall we got stuck in the after Christmas rush- traffic and it took us a good 45 mins. to cover the last mile and get into the mall. But it was worth it - haven't seen Sony, Banana Republic and couple other outlet stores since we moved from MI. And most of them had good deals.

After the mall, we went to the Frog Pond Skating Rink in downtown Boston. Despite the temperature being below freezing, the rink was packed and we had a 40 min wait in line before it was our turn on the ice. Take a look, the rink is located in a beautiful surrounding made even better by the season.

The pictures we took in night mode were all really hazy :-D So I'm adjusting with the above shots. The upper one shows the frog sitting and fishing beside the pond, which probably at this point is the skating rink itself. A good first time on the ice.

On Saturday, we were able to meet another good friend and his lovely wife on the eve of their first marriage anniversary. Kudos, Vik and Ani. And thanks too, for the lovely pink kitchen set for the Princess. She loves it and makes hot soup for us all the time. When asked for the recipe she says that " It has hot chocolate, Veggies and Miso in it." :-O!!! Boy! Am I glad that the kitchen is make believe and so is the soup in our cups! Hot chocolate and Miso ? I think Princess has all the makings of an Iron Chef :-D

Oh! I almost forgot the highlight of Princess' vacation. The Disney on Ice Show - Mickey and Minnie's magical journey. We were an hour late for the 2 hr show ;-) But it was just spectacular. Princess would have preferred to see more of Mickey, Minnie and friends. But she didn't mind seeing Tinker Bell and Michael (Wendy's bro) that much ( she has a classmate called Michael). Thanks to M&S for getting us the tickets. Take another look, and go see it if it comes to your town.

And that was our lovely Boston trip. We had the opportunity to eat at two nice restaurants - Minerva (local) and PF Chang's (chain). Both were good but nothing compared to M's home made dishes. Thanks again M&S.

And that's another thing we do in search of happiness - travel. Travel in the hope that a place, a face or some new taste may bring us that which we seek relentlessly. Xing Fu.