Boston
12 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Around You, Place Information Tags: Boston, Duck Tour, Quince Market, Street Shows
Time is just flying lost track of how busy I have been these weekends, finally stopped time for some writing and here I am 
How have you guys been all this time.. hope you all must be enjoying the season of colors. I Love Fall, U.S. is one place where we can enjoy all the seasons of life from summer, spring, fall to winter its amazing..
This weekend we had our best friend over. It was fun and we were so happy to have him visit us. We decided to show him around, and so we took him to Boston. Boston a city of Art, Institutions and Culture…Being here for so long , we ourselves had visited Boston just once. And at that moment I thought Boston is so boring place. This time we took a different league. We took the famous Duck Tour which showed us all around Boston, and visited Quince Market.
When I first visited Boston, I was not interested in taking the Duck Tour, I thought why spend money on a tour when
I can see ducks at the garden near my place. But I was so wrong , I realized it when I visited Boston this weekend.
After completing the Duck Tour we visited the Quince Market. Quince Market is altogether a different place of its own. Its so lively filled with different kinds of street shops,Street shows and and so much more.. Its the happening place of Boston.
You must be thinking What is Duck Tour all about?
Well as the name says it is about ducks, but in this case it is about Duck Shaped Vehicles a modified version of DUKW war vehicles built during World War II,which travels both on land and sea. Now used as a cruise for tourist like us to tour all the different places in Boston, which makes it more interesting and happening. We have a conductor in the duck who is wonderful and charming, as soon as we hop on to the Duck he makes it interesting and fun giving out the different facts about Boston showing all around.
After the wonderful Boston Land tour, the conductor splashes the duck into the Charles river for a beautiful view of Boston from water. Its totally a different experience. I enjoyed it very much. When on water the conductor allows little children to steer the Duck giving a chance for every kid on the Duck, it was so cool at that moment I wished I was a kid .
The total tour time was 80mins, we had a wonderful time.
From where we can take a Duck Tour?
You can book Duck Tour tickets online from http://www.bostonducktours.com/about_main.aspx, just that it would cost you extra $3 (convenience charge)per ticket, where as the original price is $31 per ticket. Advantage is that you will have your tickets in hand if the duck tour is full. For a detail on tickets check here http://www.bostonducktours.com/tickets_main.aspx .
The other option is you can pick the tickets from the place you are taking the duck tour. Duck tours are run from various places in Boston. The different locations are
1. The Museum of Science
Physical Address – 1 Science Park, Boston, MA 02114
Directions to the Museum of Science
Click Here for Bus Parking at the Museum of Science
2.The Prudential Center in Boston’s Back Bay
Physical Address – 53 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116
On Huntington Avenue in front of Shaw’s Supermarket
Directions to the Prudential Center
3.The New England Aquarium
Physical Address – 1 Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110
Directions & Parking information for The New England Aquarium
For Operating Hours you can check here http://www.bostonducktours.com/about_pofd.aspx .
As a beautiful day came to an end so did the wonderful visit, this tour totally changed my view about Boston and about the famous duck tour. I am in love with the place and waiting to visit it again. I have already decided what I will be doing in my next visit- check the Museum of Science and the Harvard University which I missed in this tour of mine What a Life !!!…
Until next time … Keep smiling
Crazy heart…Crazy Idea…Crazy Dream…
07 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Adventure, Around You, Entertainment, Fun, Place Information Tags: Adventure, Sky Diving, Thrill
Where shall i start to tell this crazy story… An Awesome free fall twisted ride once in a life time experience. Never in my my life time I thought I would dare to try this. Every time Manish spoke about it , I said are you crazy your life is very precious to me and stopped him from thinking about it.He always wanted me to try it with him, and with a hope that some day I will waited so long.
Just the previous night at a get-together , we were discussing about this with our friends. Next day morning I was just browsing through online, and came across a video of my friend trying this crazy fall. After seeing that I said to Manish, Lets go for it. First he thought I was joking, when I said what now you don’t want to try when I am ready, he was like stop kidding (with a surprised face). I said I no kidding, you better check for the place before I change my mind
It was Monday morning, as it was a labor day holiday we had long weekend. Hoping we could find some place close by, searched on Google and we found this amazing place. Called up to find if we can book for two. On the other side of the phone she said we are running full, but I can try to squeeze you in , how about 1. We said cool we will be there. Best part was we planned, decided and found out everything within an hour (this is called instant planning 
). It was an hour drive from our place luckily we had some time in our hand (with all excitement we missed out minute details hehehe )…
We reached there by 12:30, the drive to the place was awesome. When we reached there we could see people waiting at the picnic area, next to it was a small shed where they were organizing the bag pack for the next flyer. My heart racing fast and butterflies flying in my stomach we entered the office. She asked us to weight as their was already someone taking the video training. Every time we asked her for the details she said first you take the video training and than we shall talk about everything.
After 15mins of wait, we were watching the training video, the video was educational, it spoke about our safety, what to do when we are up their how to stretch our hands, legs, and smile it was a 15 min video.
Ooops I spoke about everything but I forgot to mention what it is all about im talking about sky diving yup you heard it right skydiving from 7000ft , sounds crazy haaaa !! it was..;)
After the training video we filled in all the forms, signed witness for each other , when I was filling out the form, it had so many legal entities stating like I’m taking this at my own risk and will not held responsible for any loss of life or death. I was like OMG I am not doing it… Manish was like come on we have come all this way and see all these people are falling from the sky they look so happy and sound safe lets do it…. hmmm sounded so funny hehehe.. some how I signed all the forms and we were set. She asked us what would you like to do today, 10,000 ft ,7000 ft, 4000ft. It was like what would you like have today vanilla, strawberry or banana heheheheh..Without any pause we said 7000ft . After a wait of 45 mins our turn came.
We got suits to wear, and the staff their geared us up with all the equipments. At that moment I dint feel anything. I was like ok lets try and see how it goes.. Once we were ready they took us in a truck to nearby airport, from where we boarded a small jet which caries 4 people. I and Manish had instructor’s of our own who were tied to us, so that when we fall, we have our life guard with us , well that made us feel a little safe but still the heart was saying you crazy idiot what are you doing hehehe….
The jet was so small, the plane started when we reached at around 4000 ft I looked around it was so beautiful, but when 7000 ft came up and the pilot opened the door, I was like O……….. !!! what the H?…!!! Manish was the first one to try, just as he took his steps out, my instructor said you are next, i said no way, he said Oops you are too late for that.. My first steps out side the plane wow heavy wind, my instructor kept saying keep your legs on the board I’m like I cannot , he is like you got to.. some how i managed and just before i could blink I am out. Those 15 secs of free fall Wow I couldn’t feel my heart beat all I could hear was Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!! it was crazy… Once the parachute was out we were a little stable and that was fun. Could see all around , and I should tell you it looks awesome,just one song coming into my mind- “I believe I can Fly, I believe I can touch the sky…..” wow amazing view better than the one you see from an airplane. Felt like a bird.
I also tried gearing the parachute my trainer showed me a few moves it was fun, after a swirl in the sky, time for landing. Funny part was for landing we have to bring our legs up to the knees and straighten them, when my instructor asked me to do that I shouted O shoot I’m not able to do it now what.. hehehe.. he was like no no you can try try .. luckily had a safe landing, as soon as we got to land i kissed the grass and said I am safe
Always heard sky is falling sky is falling in the movies , this time I was falling from the sky it was amazing… I am glad my sweet heart pulled me into trying this crazy Wild Ride. A Transcending Reality Awesome… Love it The best moment of life… and i got my certificate too Thrilling Dream Came true…
Info – Place we did it from http://www.funskydiving.com
Cost per person – 195 for the jump + (your choice of video)
Tip – Do not eat much before the jump, give a gap of atleast 2 hours.
Just enjoy and keep smiling
Fun Filled Weekend – Hershey’s Park
30 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in Fun, Place Information Tags: Amusement Park, Hersheys Park, Thrill
Needed some thrill in life, what more can be thrilling and fun than a visit to the amusement park. It was the last weekend of August we planned up to spend it with little thrill and fun by visiting the famous Hershey’s Park.
Heard lot about the park located near the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania which was once the capital of America in 1787. Hershey’s park is huge along with amusement park it has water park and adjacent to park we have Zoo America and Hershey’s Chocolate World. The park area covers over 110 acres of land and has more than 60 rides and attractions in it.
Admissions to Hershey Park includes entry to Zoo America. The admission ticket at the counter is $52. But we bought the tickets from Giant Food stores located near the Park,we got it for $41 cool isn’t it
The park opens at 10:00 A.M and closes by 10:00 P.M, we were there by 10:30 
a.m. We were expecting since its early morning there would not be much crowd. But it turned out to be opposite so many people on a regular weekend what would be the scene when its a long weekend. Wow, seeing the crowd we knew it, long lines for the rides. But who cares we just wanted to have fun so be it with the long lines .
As soon as we entered the park we could smell the pop corn,lemonade, feel the fun, excitement all around. We have rides for all ages, from a toddler to an adult, everyone can enjoy their share of fun. We picked up the map and started planning which rides to start with. The rides are rated from 1 to 5, higher the number aggressive thrilling the ride will be.
For the day we could manage to complete just few thrilled rides. I could 
manage just one high rated ride the Storm Runner, wow what a ride. Those 60 secs my heart rate went so high ,I could feel butterflies flying in my stomach. Awesome ride it was(reason why i could do just one ride ) ..For rest of the day I enjoyed the Mild thrill ride and my dear hubby along with our friends enjoyed all the thrilled rides.
Since we planned just for a day , we could manage to do just the amusement park. Hershey’s water park has wonderful water rides different from the other parks. We missed the water park, by the time we reached there, it was closed for the day. Guess the water park closes early by 6:00 p.m. At that moment we were thinking we should have done the water park first hmmm.. missed it. Well next time 
As we had a long drive back we had to start early so we opted to visit the chocolate factory along with water park in our next visit:).
A Fun filled thrilling day came to an end. Wow what a day !!! A Day to remember. All exhausted with good thrilling memories we headed back home
Tips : Buy the tickets from Giant Food Store works out cheap.
Plan ahead. You need at least two days to enjoy the park completely.
Carry an extra pair of clothes. Carry Swim suit for water park.
You can carry any food items inside the park. If you are a vegetarian we have many options inside the park , we have subway, taco bell, pizzeria and many more.
Finally don’t forget to enjoy and have loads of fun
Drive in Theatre in CT
07 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Around You, Entertainment, Movie, Place Information Tags: Drive-in, movie theatre
Last week we were dinning at Margarita, that’s when we over heard some one say about drive-in theatre. It sounded interesting. So this weekend we checked it out. This being the first time we were not sure how it would be , just had an idea that we can watch the movie from our car.
After some research found that we can carry chairs, eatables but cannot do barbeque. We thought why not lets give a try.
We went to the Mansfield Drive-In Theatre, there we saw the movie Toy story-3 and Grown-ups. The movie we saw started at around 9:25 pm followed by the second movie which went on till 1:30 am.
In Mansfield drive-in only few parking places have speakers, the rest you are asked to tune into the respective radio station which transmits the sound for that particular screen. If your car has good speaker system than its good, luckily we could find a nice place with speakers on the sides where we parked our car.
There are three screens on this field, all showing different movies. We can watch any movie once we are in.
It was so much fun. In the open field, under the dark sky, with stars twinkling and a big screen in front of you just amazing.
Best part of drive-in is we watch two movies at one price:), along with the comfort of watching it from our car, or sit out. And also we can bring our own eatables what else can one ask for a perfect movie night
We had a lovely time, waiting to go next time too
Details-
Location – Mansfield Drive-In Theatre
228 Stafford Road, Mansfield Center, CT 06250 (860) 423-4441
Screens – 3
Price – Adult – $9 , Child – $5
Timings – http://www.mansfielddrivein.com/default.aspx
Stuff you can carry – Chairs, Throw or Jacket( it tends to get chilly as the night gets darker), Eatables and rest all you like.
Trip to Block Island
06 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Around You, Entertainment, Place Information Tags: Beach, Block Island, Rhode Island
Everyone around were planning for the July 4th weekend. This time for a change we had no plans. One night before we planned for a day tour to visit Block Island. Its a 950 year old with 3×7 mile jewel of an island.
Block Island is part of U.S state Rhode Island located in the Atlantic Ocean. To visit Block Island one must have to take a ferry ride from Point Judith in Rhode Island, which approximately takes 1hr to reach the shore. We can take our cars if we like on the ferry else we have parking lots for the ferry ride, where we can park our cars for a day or two depending on your choice. The minimum parking fees is $15 for a day.
We took the morning 9:00 am ferry to block island. As the ferry took us into the ocean, the feel of cold breeze was so relaxing and chilling. The Ferry was headed by the U.S Coast Guard till it crosses the border, clearing way for the ferry from the small fishing boats.It was a lovely view from the deck, we could see people standing on the border fishing and having a nice time.
After 1 hr of ferry ride we reached the Block Island shore. As we walked out of the ferry we could see people driving on their mopeds, and bicycles. Just to the opposite of the shore we have visitors centre where we found all the information about the places to see on the island.
On the island we can rent bi-cycles and mopeds based on hourly rates. Assuming we could visit the whole island in an hour we rented a 
moped. There are two light houses on the island one is Southeast Light house and the other is North Light House. We planned to visit both so we started our tour by visiting Southeast Light House, unfortunately it was closed on that day , but the view was awesome and the ride was so much fun.
Riding a moped on the roads of the island was awesome. Open roads no traffic, just bi-cycles and mopeds all around with few cars.
The next tour was North-west light house, beautiful view from the light house. We could see the ocean all around and it was just so amazing. After that we went to Mohegan Bluffs, which has 140 stairs to go down to the beach. Just one problem while coming back you loose all your energy phewww that was one heck of a walk. Just these three places took 2hrs and it was time for us to return our mopeds, thank god we dint rent bi-cycles we would have lost all our energy in that .
We had pizza at papa’s pizza it was so tasty. Good place for vegetarians. And than we headed to the beach ,time to relax. Spent some quality time, had a nice time. Just close the beach was Ballard’s restaurant. To go to the beach you have to go through the restaurant. The restaurant was pretty big, we had bar, live band playing and good food.
A wonderful day came to an end , it was time for us to head back home, we took the last ferry back to Point Judith with wonderful memories of a relaxing and fun filled day.
Some useful suggestions –Ferry leaves at different timings you can check out at http://www.blockislandferry.com/.
While on ferry don’t forget to carry a jacket, it can be chilling if you are standing on the deck.
Checkout for Water Sports, there are different sports you can enjoy.
You can get a free map from the place where you hire your mopeds and bi-cycles.
Moped is better option than bi-cycles if you are planning to visit far off place. Cycling is also fun if you can handle it
Carry some food (if you are vegetarian as there are not much options on the island for vegans).
Lastly have loads of Fun
Your thoughts On Mine :)