December 25, 2016 – New York City, NY, USA

Third day – new city to explore and this time, it was THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS!

When I was studying at UConn, Hartford, I was always fond of NYC. I used to feel different and exciting energy whenever I visited NYC. I think that was one of the reasons, I visited NYC almost 10 times when I was living at Hartford. Plus, being a student, I was less worried about the logistics – I used to catch the cheapest bus ride I could find and used to stay at the cheapest Airbnb – everything under $50, which doesn’t seem true now. I *am* glad that I told myself during this time that being a student is one of the best things that could happen for traveling thirst, so I promised myself to travel as much as possible when I have enough time on my hand and could travel alone and cheaply.

Anyway, let us come back to this trip.

So, when I was planning for the different destinations to visit during her USA trip, I knew, NYC would certainly make the cut for a simple reason that it is frowned upon not to visit NYC & Times Square when you visit the East Coast. I know it sounds silly, but I think you get my point. Cheap Bus Tickets were the reason we chose to visit NYC after Boston. Plus, it worked in our favor. As she was exploring the US for the first time, it was good for me that she saw Boston first and then look at the grandeur of NYC – you know, building up to it (if you wanna call it that).

Yesterday, we were in Boston, so we had to catch an early morning bus ride to NYC. The plan was to arrive in NYC before Noon so that we could check into our Airbnb during that time. Once refreshed, we wanted to head to explore the city a little bit.
As I was looking at the Airbnb prices, I could find the cheapest Airbnb almost 7-8 miles away from Times Square. I wasn’t aware of the area at first, but after talking to some of my friends, I found out it was not that safe to live there; I couldn’t cancel the booking as it was too late, so went ahead with it. The moment I stepped out of the subway to the area where my Airbnb was, I knew we shouldn’t be strolling here during the late night. But, I didn’t show that fear on my face so that she would be comfortable. It was a good 5 minutes walk from the subway station to the Airbnb.

Airbnb wasn’t that great. As we were going to spend only a night there, we hardly cared about the state of the apartment and started prepping for the day. We had Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square on our list to visit. I knew it would take roughly 3-4 hours to visit both these places and anticipated the kind of rush it would have given that we were visiting both crowded places on the day of the Christmas – December 25th. We got ready and took only the required things with us before heading out. The subway ride was quite smoother, but since it was well past our lunchtime, both of us were craving for some good food.

When we were on the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, I was at the same time, looking for some cool place to hang out and eat some good food. That’s when I came across a local bar/pub, which was offering food during the day time. It was a shot in the dark and I was pumped to see it worked. I ordered fish & chips for me and she went for a burger. I don’t remember the taste of her burger, but certainly, remember how much I enjoyed that plate of fish & chips. Before this day, I had just heard about it, but when I tasted it, I was *almost* in heaven, partly because of how hungry we were (maybe). The ranch and ketchup took this dish to the next level, coupled with cold drinks.

One thing that I remember during this lunch date was how much she hated me for giving the tip. I know it doesn’t come across good but she got her point. I was a student, I was not earning, so giving away money when you yourself are not earning didn’t sound like a good idea to her; I, for one, hardly care about money, so was generous enough to tip my server whenever I dined out even when I was a student.

After spending almost 30 minutes for lunch, it was time to continue our day of exploration. This is where I screwed up the most. If you know me, you would know that I am not *that great* with the directions. Even after trying really hard on my navigation skills, I have failed miserably in the past and this trip was no exception. When I put the directions to Brooklyn Bridge in my Google Maps, we were just 2-3 minutes away from the starting point of the bridge, when yours truly (super confident of my navigation skills) decided to stop the navigation to save some mobile data. This was a grave mistake. Having never been to Brooklyn Bridge, I overestimated the entrance to the bridge. I thought, it is a world-famous bridge and should be easily visible from the far – boy, I was wrong. The one thing that I didn’t know was there was one more bridge called Manhattan Bridge. As I didn’t turn the navigation on, instead of Brooklyn Bridge, we went to the Manhattan Bridge and I suddenly realized it doesn’t look like in pictures and that’s when I saw right on the other side of the river – Brooklyn Bridge. I was so pissed at myself for this screw-up, but she was considerate enough to not show her disappointment so that I don’t feel worse. Man, it was such a 🤦🏽‍♂️ moment.

Having walked a lot today, we had to put some more steps in to get to the actual Brooklyn Bridge and we both were at least a little bit happy with the grandeur of the bridge. We ended up clicking countless pictures and walking on the bridge as the Sun was about to set in the west. I must tell you about the crowd. During my high school holidays, I visited Mumbai and really hated it just because of the number of people – it was just too much to handle. NYC is exactly like Mumbai, but for some reason, I didn’t hate it. I loved it, maybe because I had this thing called “The Personal Space” whenever I visited NYC, so didn’t mind the crowd though. Brooklyn Bridge was no exception. There were countless people on the bridge but never anyone bumped shoulders with us and came in our way – which I really appreciated and liked about the city.

I had not many opportunities to express how lucky I was because she visited me during this holiday season. Brooklyn Bridge was an exception. I remember holding her hand and telling her how happy I was that she was here with me. Having her visit me during the holidays was the best thing that could happen to me and I really appreciated her spending her time with me during what a few people call it the lonely time of the year. I am not sure what her response was, but must be something nice.

Anyway, getting back to the trip – after the Brooklyn Bridge, it was time to head to the most famous square in the world – Times Square. We had to go to the subway station one more time to get to the Times Square. The moment we arrived at Times Square, man, the crowd was tenfold if you compare it to Brooklyn Bridge. My mind sent me to Mumbai one more time and this time, I really regretted coming to the Times Square on the Christmas Day. By the time we reached our destination, it was time for dinner, so before exploring the spot, we headed to the McDonalds (yes, that’s right) for our dinner. The rush was so palpable that I had to wait almost 20 minutes for the food to come to our plate. You must know, late food and hungry girlfriend is not a good combination for you, so she *definitely* wasn’t happy with it. When the food finally arrived, we devoured it like it was the last sandwich on the planet and that’s when we both felt a little happy and satiated.

Post dinner – it was time to stroll and click pictures with everything that Times Square had to offer. It took us about 30-40 minutes to go through the entire Times Square and avoiding suspicious people was my first priority.

When we were about to leave as her feet were super tired, we saw the sign for Grand Slam New York. Like every girl, she loved to shop and when we saw this souvenir shop, I knew that she would love to buy some items from here for her friends and family back home. The moment we stepped inside this store, her feet didn’t pain that much and she had her energy back. Going from one isle to another, she filled up her shopping cart with everything that she could find and we ended up spending close to an hour at this store. I didn’t get anything as I didn’t have any plans of going back home anything soon, but was glad to see her old bubbly side because of this thing she loved – shopping.

By the time we were done with it, it was around 9PM and it took us almost an hour to get to our Airbnb. It was dark and scary, but we managed to reach safely. After this night’s day, one more day of NYC exploration awaited us!

Check out the pictures!

Let’s see what we check out on the second day of NYC exploration.

Week 35 (August 30 – September 05) – Running 1,000 miles in 2020

After an amazing week number 34, it is time to review this week and bring a more precise perspective on my running journey. This week’s goal is to accomplish 636.8 miles of running, let us see whether I will be able to achieve it or not.

Day 1 – Sunday, August 30, 2020 – Quarantine Day 167
The first day of the running week was spent moving my stuff from my old apartment. Today was my official moving day, so I knew it would take the entire day for me as I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the past three years here in Michigan.

I rented a van from the Home Depot and had to fetch my stuff twice before setting it up at my friend’s place. Due to all the moving and driving, my back was in some pain, but I could bear it. I spent the evening resting and relaxing my body.

Day 2 – Monday, August 31, 2020 – Quarantine Day 168
That brings us to Monday. This week is pretty short for me as we are planning for camping and hiking in UP. UP is my most favorite place on the planet Earth and I don’t miss any chance to visit it. This would be our second visit to UP and I couldn’t be more excited to do that.

Having conveyed my plans, I needed to get some miles in before heading to UP. That’s why I decided to go out for a long run. I spent almost 8 hours in front of my laptop, so definitely needed to get away with my thoughts. Plus, it was Zoom’s quarterly earnings and I just needed to get away from the stock news to give me a little breather.

The run turned out to be more difficult than I thought. It had been a while I ran on the normal road, so my legs definitely took some time to recognize the super-hard surface, which affected my overall pace. However, I am okay with pace, as long as I complete the distance. This was a special run as it was the 10th Half Marathon for me and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. I remember my friends messaging me to let me know the stock price, so I had to stop for a moment and digest in the profit that I was making on my investments. It was a fun day!

My run was followed by some soccer practice with the kids, for which I was super tired but still went ahead and played some soccer with them.

Day 3 – Tuesday, September 01, 2020 – Quarantine Day 169
The 10th Half Marathon was followed by a quick 5k at the NHS’ Tartan Track. Kids insisted that they had this new grown appreciation for running after watching several soccer videos and us adults explaining to them how important running is for soccer.
They love soccer and after knowing how important running is, they really wanted to go out for a run and we ended up going to NHS and the kids could finish 5 laps of the track, which amounts to roughly 1.5 miles of distance.

After they had enough run for the day and adults finishing up their respective 5Ks, it was time to pass a soccer ball around and they had fun doing that!

Day 4 – Wednesday, September 02, 2020– Quarantine Day 170
This was the official rest day for the week. I was so excited for the long weekend that I woke up earlier than usual today. I knew we had so much stuff to take care and whenever that happens, I get up early in the morning just to get some headstart on the pile of work.

Anyway, two days of consecutive running made today as the rest day and for good reasons too. I finished the work at a regular time and headed out to shop for some last-minute supplies. As we were camping in UP, we wanted to be prepared for every possible scenario, as it is an 8-hour drive from our place. We cooked, packed, and made sure everything was planned.

It was such a good relief to look at the car stuffed with camping stuff. It was a feeling with 1000 goosebumps. We leave at 8 AM tomorrow morning.

Day 5 – Thursday, September 03, 2020– Quarantine Day 171
What a feeling! Man, why didn’t we do this before?

I didn’t know camping was going to be this much fun. The location was AuTrain Lake Campground. The 8-hour drive didn’t seem to have any effect on us when we reached the campground. I would like to thank the host of the campground because we got the best surprise on our arrival – our name written on the board outside our camping site. I cannot tell you how special and happy we were. That was a small thing to do but had such a major happiness impact on me.

After enjoying the campsite for a few minutes, it was time to set camps, which took roughly about 20 minutes. After the camps were set, we purchased the wooden blocks from our camp host and started the campfire. We emptied the car with all the supplies and then started prepping for dinner.

We decided to cook Indian Khichdi for dinner, which was super easy and quick to make. The Propane Stove from Coleman is so easy to use and carry that we hardly had any issues while cooking food. People, place, and delicious food were the highlights for the dinner for me. It was such an amazing feeling to sit under the trees and eating warm food in the company of people you love. Such an awesome feeling, I tell you!

Once the dinner was done, it was time to head out to the nearby grocery store to get some fresh supplies such as milk and eggs for some evening hot chocolate and stories around the campfire.

The kids loved the hot chocolate and they couldn’t be happier experiencing camping at such a young age. The most fun we had when the kids started telling us haunted stories. Those were cute and the kids loved it when we were scared hearing their haunted stories.

Man, too many beautiful moments from this day to capture in just 10 photos.

Day 6 – Friday, September 04, 2020– Quarantine Day 172
The morning of the camping was equally pleasant if you leave the cold night aside. The temperatures dropped to almost 10F during the night and good that we had both the sleeping bags and some layers to avoid the cold. It was an amazing feeling to sleep in the tent under the stars.

When we woke up in the morning, it was time to feed our hungry souls with some bread omelet. We cooked it together and had it while sitting around the campfire. The breakfast was followed by some coffee, which I had some hard time making in the woods. But, still managed to take a few sips before we started packing our camping stuff and move out to our next destination – Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

The packing was more difficult than we initially thought. It drizzled a little bit yesterday evening and night, so we had to deal with some water while packing our camping stuff. Also, it is not easy to pack sleeping bags once they were open. We spent almost an hour loading everything in the car so that we have a comfortable journey back home later in the day.

The last time we were at Pictured Rocks, we hiked for 12 miles. Today, we didn’t want to stretch us that much, so ended up hiking only 7-8 miles. The kids had fun hiking initially but as time passed, they started tiring out, so I had to pick up the younger one 3-4 times. We were welcomed by Lake Superior with high tides and so much wind, dropping the temperatures down. As it was the Laber Day weekend, they were many people at the spot, so we had to park at least half a mile from the trailhead, which added to our hiking distance. The kids were overjoyed to see our car in the parking lot, which meant the end of the hike to them.

After finishing up the hike, it was time to have some food and head home, finally! We made it home at around 11 PM, and went straight to the bed, tired and sleepy! It was a good day to be around people you love!

Day 7 – Saturday, September 05, 2020– Quarantine Day 173
& that brings us to the end of the week. I couldn’t run as much as I wanted due to the long weekend and our travel plans, but, that didn’t deter me from having a good time. I had a plan to run in the evening, but I couldn’t do that since we headed to Ann Arbor in the afternoon to explore the city and have some good time.

I didn’t mind skipping the run for the day as we were enjoying the long weekend and that’s what it is about – lazying around and sometimes doing nothing, am I right? Check out some pictures from that day from the beautiful city of Ann Arbor.

I couldn’t finish 22 miles for the week, it was just 16 miles. But, the goal of 636.8 miles by the end of this week was certainly achieved.

Before you go, check out the weekly highlights below.

See you next week!

Week 34 (August 23 – August 29) – Running 1,000 miles in 2020

Hush! After a good week number 33, let us dive into this week. With less than 20 weeks to go for the year, I am more than focused on achieving my yearly goal of running 1,000 miles in the year 2020.

Day 1 – Sunday, August 23, 2020 – Quarantine Day 160
The first day of the week wasn’t that great for me. I spent most of the time moving stuff out from my old apartment. I spent the entire day doing that – renting out a van and making two trips as I had a lot of stuff that I had accumulated over the last three years. It feels great to finally move out of the apartment into a house, or should I call it a home!

No running for me today! I got a sore back to deal with.

Day 2 – Monday, August 24, 2020 – Quarantine Day 161
Not running for a single day into two days in a row. The back is still in pain, so I didn’t want to risk it by going out for a run and put more pressure on it. If you are wondering, not only your legs but, your back also suffers when you run a lot, so to avoid some serious injury, I skipped the run for the day with a promise that I would achieve the weekly target of running 22 miles.

Day 3 – Tuesday, August 25, 2020 – Quarantine Day 162
& I started the run for the week with a bang. The first run of the week came as an HM. This was my Half Marathon Number 9. I don’t know what I was thinking when I started the run!

What made it more special was that it was an early morning run. I started the run in the dark and wasn’t sure how far I wanted to go. Based on my previous experience, I didn’t leave any stone unturned and got enough water and food just in case I try to go for more distance, which I did. The run turned out to be super difficult than I originally thought. I had been running at NHS quite consistently and got used to their Tartan Track. This was the first time I was running on a real concrete road, so that was a surprising factor for me. I had to deal with elevation and traffic as well, which reduced the overall pace, which I am not concerned about at all – as my goal was to finish the Half Marathon.

This run also helped me achieve 600 miles of running in 2020. Just 400 miles to go more, hope I would be able to achieve it. Let’s see. 🤞🏽

Day 4 – Wednesday, August 26, 2020– Quarantine Day 163
The first run of the week, followed by two more. This day was absolutely long and hard.

The work was, as usual, busy and I really needed to blow off some steam. The first of the day came when I shut my laptop down and asked kids to accompany me while I run. They gracefully agreed and biked for almost 7 miles whereas I could finish a 10K. It was hot and windy at the same time, which is both good and bad, depending on how you take it. It turned out good for me as I didn’t need water or any break, but had to carry the liquids as you never know what they would need. The kids wanted to try out some tricks with their bikes, so we ended up spending a good 10-15 minutes at the Community Park, which was both fun and relaxing.

Once we reached home after the run, I refueled myself with some sugar and went to NHS. Monika & Anupam wanted to run, which I couldn’t and didn’t want to refuse. Who would turn down an opportunity for one more run? Am I right? So, this 5K turned out to be quicker than I initially thought. The kids could manage 5 rounds of the track, which is roughly 1.5 miles, which is great for their age. I wanted to finish the 5K under 30 minutes, but couldn’t do it, which is okay!

Running so much for two days in a row, made me a little sleepy while cooking dinner. I was constantly yawning and just wanted to hit the bed.

Day 5 – Thursday, August 27, 2020– Quarantine Day 164
And that made Thursday the official rest day of the week. I really needed to take some rest and give my body enough time to recover and heal before I go out for one more run and achieve my weekly running target.

Day 6 – Friday, August 28, 2020– Quarantine Day 165
& I did it. I achieved my weekly running target. I knew, I just needed a mile or so to do that, so when I started the run at NHS track, I had only a small goal of a 5K in mind, to accomplish both weekly running target and getting myself a little closer to the yearly target.

It was a special day too! It was my sister’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Minu Tai! ❤️

Day 7 – Saturday, August 29, 2020– Quarantine Day 166
That brings us to the last of the week. Keeping the tradition alive, we went on a hike and this time, we chose a new destination/hiking trail – Clinton River Trail.

Before, I talk about the hike. It was a devastating day to know that Raja was no longer with us. He was our family member for almost a decade and left us with a big void in our lives.

The hike turned out to be a good distraction for me. The trail was so stunning and beautiful, I was dumbfounded to realize the surprises Michigan throw at me every once in a while. After every couple minutes, we were greeted with beautiful scenery by the Clinton River. All the trees in the river, the bridges on top of the river, and beautifully curated resting spots for the hikers were only a few things to talk about. The hike led us to the heart of Downtown Rochester, which turned out to be a lovely affair. After months, we went to a restaurant to order food. There was ample seating available outside, and we dined outside. Delicious food was followed by some soul appeasing coffee and some more hiking.

The day turned out to be an absolute stunner, especially with people. This hike was a cherry on top for my running week & an ideal way to conclude it.

Before you go, please check out the weekly highlight. 18 weeks and 380 more miles to go!

Grieving Raja!

Where do I start?

It has taken every muscle in my ten fingers to type how sad it feels to *actually* lose someone. I knew it was going to happen one day, I just didn’t know I wouldn’t have an inkling that it would happen this soon and quickly!

Backing up a little bit – Raja has been a part of our family for as long as I can remember. I still remember my Mom telling me that they got a pet dog as I left home for my high school education (we call it Junior College in India). I was not sure about the feeling. I was glad that my Mom had a company but at the same time, I thought her love was going to be shared – which I didn’t like. Anyway, I was a much different person a decade ago, so I don’t blame the old Milind to feel like that. Very fondly, my Mom named him Raja, which she used to call me with love. That might be the other reason for the “jealousy”.

I have come a long way in dealing with this feeling in the last few years. All these years, Raja has been a constant companion to my Mom and the rest of the family members through all times. Me and my sisters – all left home at some point in time, but Raja was always there by my parents’ side. When my parents visited relatives in another town or state, Raja used to patiently wait for their return right by the doorstep. Whenever there used to be guests at our house, Raja used to either shower them with love or bark at them (livery all dogs do) 😆

If you have been to India or know anyone there, you would know that there is a huge problem with stray dogs. My town is no exception. But, with Raja at our doorstep, we never had to face any hassle due to stray dogs as they stopped coming to our neighborhood, especially our house, as Raja used to sit at our doorstep all the times.

All these years, whenever I visited home, I grew closer to Raja and realized him as an integral part of the family. I still remember those evenings when Raja used to come home running to our house whenever he used to hear the sound of my Dad’s moped returning from work. That was both sweet and hilarious how Raja used to figure out the sound of my Dad’s moped even though there were many vehicles like that in our neighborhood. More often than not, both my Dad and Raja used to arrive at our house together and Raja used to jump on my Dad in excitement.

When my parents were in the US for a couple months, I didn’t realize what Raja might have gone through not seeing them for so long. That is why when my parents returned home, Raja was simply overjoyed. He couldn’t keep calm and started immensely jumping up & down for a good 5 minutes. He didn’t leave my parents for those 5 minutes, telling them not to leave him again! After that incident, he never (& I repeat, never) left my parents alone for more than one day, to make sure they don’t leave him again for a long time like that.

All these memories definitely brought tears to my eyes, thinking about Raja and our life without him. When my family broke the news to me, I was absolutely heartbroken. I wasn’t prepared for this at all and wished there was one more chance to see his smiling face, just one more time. Not having a chance to say one last goodbye is what I regretted the most!

When I broke the news to my friends, everyone was so supportive and their kind words helped me soothe. I knew it would take me some time to come to reality and it really did! Even though it has been a couple weeks now, it doesn’t seem like that and whenever I see a dog, that reminds me of Raja! Raja has left a void in our lives, which is hard to fulfill.

Hope you had a good life, buddy! I will hold onto your memories tightly. We will miss you, Raja!

View this post on Instagram

We’ll miss you, Raja! ❤️💔

A post shared by Milind Jagre (@milindjagre) on

December 24, 2016 – Boston, MA, USA

Welcome to the second day of Boston Exploration.

Boy, what an amazing first day it was. The cruise, the walk, the evening shopping, the donut, and some Indian food, and most importantly awesome company – loved every single bit of it.

After spending the first day randomly roaming on the streets of Boston, it was time to roam Boston in a more planned and organized way. To do this, last night, I had already made a list of places that I wanted to check out and thought she would love too.

I knew the must visit place for us was Harvard, MIT, and Quincy Market. Learning from yesterday’s mistakes, I made sure we had a plan before we leave our hotel and start exploring the other parts of Boston.
Unfortunately, the rain Gods weren’t happy and it was drizzling throughout the day, keeping the weather cloudy and rainy, and temperatures down.

Anyway, the day started with a complimentary breakfast at the hotel. This was the first time I was eating at a hotel and everything was so brand new for me. At first, I didn’t know what to expect as I haven’t had a chance to taste the “English breakfast”. At my apartment, the farthest I went to cooking breakfast was to make an omelet and have a couple bread with it, that’s about it. But, here, there were so many options and choices, too many to count. I glanced over the entire aisle of the breakfast buffet and quickly filled up my plate with whatever I thought I could eat. I didn’t realize how much food I had until I took a photo of it. Though it was too much, I made sure I finished the entire thing and don’t have any leftovers.

After the breakfast, it was time to check out and head out for one more day of exploration. I liked this feeling. I wasn’t worried about studies. I wasn’t thinking about life back in Connecticut and UConn. I was in the moment with her and liking her company. We were talking, laughing, reminiscing past, and creating memories for future.

After checking out, the first stop was Quincy Market. I had heard about it from my fellow huskies (UConn classmates) and was impressed with the history and legacy behind it. At that time, I wasn’t good with navigation, so I had a hard time to locate this spot and had to ask many people where the actual building is. Plus, the constant rain wasn’t helping. I remember, it took us almost an hour to get to this place, but, it was so worth it.

As soon as we entered the building, we were greeted with the fresh smell of all the delicious food that was being cooked inside. Apart from the food, she was interested in checking out the Christmas lights and shopping for some souvenirs. As it was only 11AM, we decided to check out some Christmas decorations and spots nearby before heading to the food section at the market. She was so excited to shop for all the Boston themed magnets and we shopped for some Boston themed magnets – for family and friends back home. We walked on the street outside with our umbrellas on and then finally headed inside again to taste some of that delicious food.

Inside the market, we saw lobsters, some “Thanksgiving” turkey (off course, I didn’t know it was a turkey – I thought it was some big chicken 😆). We had some relaxed lunch as it was a rush hour and people were flocking in and out of the food court. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for our seats and got to enjoy some delicious food with the beautiful company.

After the Quincy market, it was time to head to the world-renowned Educational Institutions – Harvard and MIT. We joked, but was true that we were the visitors here and not the students. Anyway, it was a metro ride away from the Quincy Market, which I loved about Boston. I think, any big city must have a metro, so that the tourists and visitors can explore it cheaply and get to see the entire city without much hassle.

The visit to Harvard and MIT was pretty uneventful as it was raining heavily and there was hardly anyone out there. We didn’t see many students or tourists in this area because of the weather. After spending an hour or so around this area, she was tired of the weather and wanted to head to the bus station and relax there as we were supposed to catch a bus to our next destination – New York City.

Even I was tired of the weather, so complied immediately.

The plan was to catch an evening bus from Boston to NYC and then start NYC exploration the next day.

& just like that, we were off to the city that never sleeps – NYC! 🗽🌃

December 23, 2016 – Boston, MA, USA

What a day!

When I was planning for her 2-week long trip to the US, I knew I would need visiting spots which are famous and Boston was one of the cities that stood out for that very reason. Growing up in India, we had a chapter in history books talking about Boston tea party, since then, the name stuck with me and I remember promising myself to visit this spot, even not knowing where that spot was (part of the reason I was bad at History 🤪)

Anyway, the reason I chose Boston to be the first city to visit during her tour was because of the bus tickets were cheap for this date. This is the hard truth of the student life in the US, where you have to decide everything around how much money you can “afford” to pay! Living in Hartford, we had Boston on the right hand side and New York City on the left. It made our life easier to roam these big cities with just a couple of hours of bus ride. I loved it and couldn’t get enough of it.

So, the plan was to head to Boston on the morning on December 22nd. Roam around for a few hours with our bags (which I wouldn’t do now, but Student Life 😆) and then head to our hotel. This plan looked really good on paper and in my head, but didn’t turn out to be that well received when we were actually implementing it.

The moment we got out of our bus, we started roaming around randomly to different spots. This was the first time I was exploring a big city, outside Hartford. Those tall buildings surrounding the bus station were intimidating as hell to me and I got a big city sweats. You have to remember the fact that it was the first time a. I was exploring US, b. I had a company & c. I wanted to make sure she was having a good time, because if she is unhappy, I knew we wouldn’t have a good time!

When we were walking randomly with a few hours to kill, we suddenly saw a boat/cruise tour. She was interested in doing that, so who was I to say No to that. I got the tickets and before I knew it, we were on a small cruise with other tourists. Believe it or not, even though it was December and we were on the water, it didn’t feel that much cold. It was a sunny and beautiful day and before today, I didn’t know what to expect of Boston, so turned out just fine for me.

Remember I talked about the Boston Tea Party above? Out of nowhere, the tour guide announced that the spot that we were seeing in the sixth picture of the Instagram gallery below is where they had the “Boston Tea Party”. All my brain cells got super alert and active. I remember picturing the specific page from my History lesson and tried comparing it with the ship that you see in the picture. I could instantly recognize it and couldn’t contain my excitement. She, on the other hand having not that much interest in the history lesson during the vacation, yawned at all the details that I or the tour guide threw at her. Gosh, that brings chuckles to me!

The tour last for almost an hour, which was the perfect time for food. I don’t remember what specifically we ate that day, but there is a better chance that it must have been something from the street stall, as we didn’t have enough time to choose food places. Not deciding on which place to go for food, saved us a lot of time and we could head to our hotel to check-in in time. The room looked really good and better than I expected or saw in the pictures when I was booking. I remember her face lit up when she saw the room. Before telling her about the details of the hotel, I told her it is not a great room as I had to find some cheap deals. Basically, I undersold myself to level set the expectations.

We got some rest and freshen up a little bit. The moment it started to get dark, we know we were hungry and I had just a place for her in mind. I knew how happy she used to get when used to shop, so I had to research a bunch of places which offered cheap but good stuff she could buy. Newberry Street stood out of all places. The reason I chose Newberry street was because it was closer to our hotel and the prudential tower too, which I wanted to check out. Off course, there were stores inside the tower, but, I couldn’t afford those stores and glad that we stayed away.

As you can see in the Instagram Gallery, the Prudential Tower stood tall and looked magnificent, especially during the night. I remember myself gazing at its beauty and just being stunned by it.

The first thing we did after visiting Newberry Street was to have the Boston famous Boston Creme Dunkin Donut. When I used to attend lectures at UConn during my first semester, I used to order a Boston Creme Donut and a Dunkachino. I know its sugar, but, hey, I used to love that in the past. I wanted her to try the Boston Creme Donut and she did and she loved it too.

After the donut, she shopped a few stores, buying mostly souvenirs for herself, friends, and family. That 1-2 hour window was enough for her to be happy and be like herself again. I knew shopping was sort of a therapy for her, so I was glad to see her talking more than I was, an indication that she was having fun!

When we were done with the shopping and roaming for places to eat, that’s when we stumbled at Kashmir Indian Restaurant. Unfortunately, it is temporarily closed now, but when we saw the place, her face lit up more than mine. Part of the reason was – she was living in Europe and she had to spend more when she used to go out for Indian food. In the US, we have Indian food available in more quantity and at more places than Europe, so she seized the opportunity and told me that she wanted to try Indian food. For me, I am not a big fan of eating Indian food outside, for a simple reason that if I can cook it, why would I pay someone to eat the same food. But, I didn’t want to curb her excitement, so we went ahead and ordered food that she was craving for.

The first thing we had was a Vada Pav, followed by Panipuri. Once we were done with the appetizers, it was time to have some butter chicken with Naan. In summary, the food was really good and we had an awesome time together. It reminded me of our Bangalore dates when we used to go out for dinners. Good old times.

With our tummy full, we took a metro to our hotel and called it a night.

The day started with not so good planning and killing time, but ended with some delicious food and one happy girlfriend!

& we are on to the next day in Boston!

Week 33 (August 16 – August 22) – Running 1,000 miles in 2020

Looking forward to this week as I crushed the last week. Will I crush it? Will I not? Let’s find out.

Day 1 – Sunday, August 16, 2020 – Quarantine Day 153
Sunday was an awesome day to start the week with.

I knew we had a plan for a long bike ride, so I wanted to get some run before we head out to bike. Keeping that in mind, I got up at my usual time & had to take care of some stuff, as I am about to move out of my current apartment. That took the entire morning, and it was 2PM when I got a chance to go out for a quick run, before our bike ride.

The run was quite normal given the temperature and weather for Sunday. I enjoyed the laziness of the run and didn’t mind the time for a 5K.
Once I was back, I refueled quickly and took a shower, before heading out for a bike ride. I haven’t gotten a chance to spend that much time with Jinx for the last few weeks, so I was really waiting for it & I had ordered a set of handlebars to give it an upgrade, but, unfortunately, haven’t received those yet. Once I do, my Jinx will definitely have an upgrade and look better than right now.
The bike ride didn’t feel that much, though it was 26 miles. The good thing about Jinx is that even though I ride more than 25 miles, I hardly feel tired and it makes me realize the money was well spent.

Day 2 – Monday, August 17, 2020 – Quarantine Day 154
I wanted to repeat the 5K routine like yesterday, but an early morning meeting and some procrastination didn’t let me go out for a run. Missing the run in the morning made the entire day pass by without running as the evening was spent with kids playing soccer and some bike ride.

You can say it was a REST DAY for me!

Day 3 – Tuesday, August 18, 2020 – Quarantine Day 155
One Rest Day is followed by one more. The work has been a little bit more than usual and that contributes to me being lazier these days and skipping runs.
If you have been following my journey, I need to get in a 5K every single day to accomplish my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2020. That goal is taking a serious hit and I must focus.

Hoping the rest of the week goes smoothly.

Day 4 – Wednesday, August 19, 2020– Quarantine Day 156
I am on the fourth day of the week and nowhere closer to my goal of running at least 22-23 miles a week. I try to track my runs almost every day but due to one reason or another tend to neglect it. Today was the day when I sat down and calculated the number of miles I needed to run before the end of the week – Saturday. I wasn’t happy with my procrastination and told myself to put some more efforts if I wanted to accomplish the weekly running target.

Well, what do I say? I could finish only a 5K before heading home. I wasn’t happy, but thought its better than skipping the entire day, right? I am hopeful I will come back stronger and better. I will try to put more efforts to finish my weekly target of 23 miles.

Day 5 – Thursday, August 20, 2020– Quarantine Day 157
One more week before the weekends. The work and other stuff is taking over life these days and I ended up skipping the run for the day today too.

Having said that, I spent the evening working out with friends using different YouTube videos. Today, we went ahead with the below video and I must say I was tired at the end of it. The instructor in the video is really good and the types of exercises make me sweat more than other videos.

Day 6 – Friday, August 21, 2020– Quarantine Day 158
Ah! The last workday of the week and I couldn’t be more excited. For a change, I had a little easy Friday and the last four days contributed to that.

I managed to squeeze in a quick 5K before lunch. I was sweaty at the end as the temperatures were in the highs of 80s. A quick shower helped and I could enjoy the rest of the day and lunch. It was around 4.30PM when I called it a day. We had plans to go out for dinner, which we were doing almost after 6 months, so I wanted to go out for a run and I am glad that I could do that.

The second run was more tiring, but it got me to closer to my weekly target. One more day to go and I couldn’t be more excited for Saturday.

Day 7 – Saturday, August 22, 2020– Quarantine Day 159
The last day of the week.

When I started the run in the morning, I had only one goal in mind – complete the weekly quota and I didn’t care how I was going to achieve that.

Things didn’t start correctly for me. It was 56F, so I was wearing a T-shirt, which in the past has troubled me with messing the Apple Watch and switching the workouts. This time, it was no different. When I was at the second lap of the NHS track and field, I heard a beep from the Apple Watch, but didn’t pay attention. Things looked weird to me when I was at the fourth lap of the track and still the Apple Watch didn’t notify me the 1 mile completion ringtone. I wanted to check what really was going on and found out that the workout was paused. I cursed my Apple Watch so much at that time, but given the target I had in mind, I resumed the watch, took off my T-shirt and continued with my run.
As I was about to finish the 3rd mile, my Apple Watch beeped again, this time, it was a 10% Battery reminder. This was the second time I cursed and the recipient was yours truly this time. I remember putting my watch on charger, not sure if it was properly kept. This low battery caused me to finish the run sooner than I expected.

Here’s when the real magic happened. The old Milind would have quit and gone home and have reasoned to finish the remaining miles tomorrow or someday next week. But, as I have been running for almost 9 months now, it was a NEVER GIVE UP attitude that triggered me to use STRAVA MOBILE APP to record my run. It was an epiphany, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. Thank goodness, I had my phone with me, which I usually don’t carry when I run. Today, it came to the rescue.

When I started the second run, the morning events caused NHS track to look boring, so I thought of going a mile outside the track and later come back to finish my run. That’s when I got the RUNNERS’ HIGH. I saw myself crossing many barriers and heading to my favorite road in Wayne County – Hines Drive. I hadn’t run on Hines Drive in months, so today was an awesome day to do that and I was happy that I could see myself go through it. By the time I was finished with the Hines Drive section of the run, I had already surpassed my weekly goal and was accumulating additional miles, which is always a good feeling. By the time I reached my car, it was a total of 12.5 miles of running (excluding the one that I couldn’t capture) and I was happy with my performance.

As I had finished my run in the morning, the rest of the day went in taking care of some chores, shopping, and other stuff. I enjoyed post-dinner soccer with kids. It was the perfect way to end this week.

But, before you go, please check out this highlight.

See you next week!

Book 08 – GRIT – Dr. Angela Duckworth

This was the 8th book I read in 2020.

When I talked about the 5 AM Club, I mentioned that it was a revolutionary book and certainly a life changer. After finishing that book, I had doubts whether any other book will be able to charm me as much as the 5 AM Club did. Boy, I was so wrong.
Reading GRIT followed by the 5 AM Club is the best thing I did so far. The book “GRIT” is so good, backed by scientific evidence that you get mesmerize all the time. I would definitely score this higher than the 5 AM Club, due to reasons that are hard to explain in words.

Talking about the author of the book – Dr. Angela Duckworth, a McArthur Fellow. Oh man, what a wonderful profile she has. Just looking at her credentials makes you wonder how smart, talented, and “genius” this woman is. But, as she has mentioned it in her book multiple times – she is not “genius”, it is her hard work that has paid off and she has backed that by numerous examples and scientific research.

Shall we dive in, then?

Motivation behind the book
Growing up, the author’s Dad used to tell her “You are no genius”, yet she was awarded a McArthur Fellow Grant, which is also known as the GENIUS GRANT. Even after receiving this coveted prize, that most of us can only dream about, she was certain that she was no genius, and that’s what led to her research about how truly is a measure of long-term life goals? That was the motivation behind the book.

Effort Counts Twice
In the book, the author has mentioned, to accomplish/achieve anything in life, you must have skill. If you don’t have the skill, then skill can be developed with efforts. But the path from skill to achievement is incomplete with efforts. In summary, if you don’t put effort, you won’t be able to build skills and once the skills are acquired, if you don’t put the effort into your skills, you won’t be able to achieve that coveted accomplishment.
That’s what “Effort Counts Twice” mean:
Talent X Effort = Skill
Skill X Effort = ACHIEVEMENT

The GRIT Scale
After determining that Effort is an important factor to achieve anything in life, her next question was how to measure this effort. Prior to her work, there was no scale that could measure efforts successfully.
As someone has said, “curiosity is the mother of all inventions”, she took matters into her own hands and designed what is known today as the “GRIT Scale”. Her research with National Spelling Bee, NFL Seahawks, other professional athletes, and teachers in the not-so-good neighborhoods showed that you can’t use IQ to measure someone’s success, it was “GRIT” which was a common factor between everyone you could imagine and was the correct predictor of a lifelong success of an individual.
The GRIT scale worked like a charm for her. The Scale is constructed by asking a participant with a set of questions. Each question is given a weighted point and at the end of the questionnaire, you are graded between 0 and 5. The higher the number, the grittier you are, the more chance of you succeeding in your long-term goals.

You can check out the grit scale in the third picture of my Instagram gallery below.

Goal Hierarchy
For me, personally, this has been the biggest learning from this book. It is such a simple concept, however, I missed it to implement in my life until I read this book. I have been an ardent follower of this when I was preparing for my MS and trying to come to the US, but, somehow, over the last three years, I got sidetracked and completely forgot about it, until now.
That’s why I love reading. It helps you learn new and important things to improve you and your surrounding.
To talk more about what the Goal Hierarchy means, simply put, to accomplish big goals, you must accomplish small goals first. This sounds logical and makes sense. But, still, I missed it. The author has given plenty of examples to buttress this and I immediately implemented for my running goal and some of the financial goals.
Let us talk about my running goal. If you read about my ultramarathon preparation posts, you would know that I have a goal of running 1,000 miles in the year 2020. So, that is my top-level goal. For achieving this top-level goal, the medium level goal would be at least 100 miles of running per month. And for achieving these medium level goals, I must accomplish my small-level goals which is running 20-25 miles per week. As you can see, my mind is focused on running 20-25 miles per week, without much thinking about running 1,000 miles for the year.
The only thing that I think is important here is to make sure you are on track. If you have a plan, that doesn’t mean you have achieved your goal. You must stop and check whether you actually achieved your goal or not. For me, personally, I like to keep my weekly and monthly check-in to see whether I am achieving my goals or not, and if I don’t what else I can do to fix that.
So far, I am well on track to beat this goal of mine. Hopefully, I will be able to do that.

Building skill is a testament of your patience
The next question while reading this book was whether I can build skills or not and if I can how much time I should spend on it?
The author very cleverly addresses this topic with relentless efforts and dedication, we can certainly build skills. The only thing that we should be very careful that we must know it takes time to build a skill. The fifth picture of my Instagram gallery below will show you the timeframe which is called THE DROPOUT ZONE, where less-gritty people try to quit while building skill. If you want to be successful, you have to stick through this dropout zone, because, if you stick with it for some more time, you will come back stronger and more successful.
As you can see in the picture, the world-class experts are made with more grit over time. One sentence answer – stick with it.

Growth Mindset – the way you build GRIT
This is one of the most important concepts that the author shared in this book. So far, we have seen how important it is to have the GRIT to be successful. But, the next logical question is how you build it. The author has a two-word answer for that – “GROWTH MINDSET“. The author has gone to extreme lengths with her examples to show the importance of the growth mindset and how to cultivate it.
I appreciated her efforts to make sure that the readers completely get how important it is. This goes on to show us how thoughtful this book is and the extreme care she took while writing it.
The sixth picture shows how to build a Growth Mindset. This picture was super helpful to draw the difference between what is and isn’t a growth mindset. I loved how the author used her own experience as a parent and a mother to show this differentiation.
After reading this chapter, it was clearer to me how to foster a growth mindset, for both myself and people surrounding me.

How to parent
& the last thing I wanna talk about in detail is the way it teaches you how to parent. If you know, I have been staying with my friends, who have two wonderful, beautiful, and awesome kids – Mr. Aryan & Mr. Arnav. Being their godparent, I knew I would need to know how to positively influence them to do the right thing and take care of each other. This book has been super helpful in teaching me different ways how to interact with kids and how to teach them life lessons in a positive way and how to make sure they are always smart, nice, and curious about their approach to life.
The things that the author talk about in this book are so so so helpful if you want to be an awesome parent. Over the past month, I have used some of the sentences from this book as-is to enhance the kids’ curiosity levels and to teach them to be respectful, curious, studious, and always keen to learn and improve upon things.

Some of the sections of this book are so well written especially to teach you how to parent as the author has taken her own example, being the mother of two daughters, and their stories of picking up a habit and giving up another, until they stick to the one that they love, have liking about it, and are ready to learn more about it. Simply put, this book is a must for new or expectant parents.

Conclusion
I will keep the conclusion short. If you wanna learn more about GRIT and are not an avid reader, I will highly recommend checking out the 6-minute clip below where the author talks about GRIT. It is a TED talk, so definitely worth checking out.

To put the entire book in a single sentence – “HARD & CONSISTENT EFFORT IS THE GUARANTEED WAY TO SUCCESS!”

See you at the next book review.

Quarantine – Month 5 (July 18 – August 17)

ARCHIVE
First month (March 17 – April 16)
Second month (April 17 – May 16)
Third month (May 17 – June 17)
Fourth month (June 18 – July 17)

Well! Well! Well!

Here we are! One more time! Reflecting back on the fifth month of being quarantined.

This month has been a real blessing for me for various reasons and the most important one being the kind and supporting people around me. I couldn’t be more proud of the relationships that I have built in my life and how important those relationships are especially during times like these.
I know I have mentioned this in my previous posts, but it is such an important lesson - NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED!

Let’s get started with this month, shall we?

MAJOR HAPPENINGS
Dikshu Tai’s birthday
My youngest sister, Dikshu Tai, celebrated her birthday on the first day of this quarantine month. This was the first, in a long time, that she was celebrating her birthday away from home. As she is in India and is working from home for more than 3 months now, it becomes harder to celebrate these major milestones, but I was glad that she still could pull it off and celebrated this with her roommates.

I have nothing but good wishes for her and hopefully she will be able to come to the US. 🤞🏽

H1B Visa Approval Notice
When I came to the US on a student visa, the last thing I was worried about was waiting for 3 years to get my work visa. When I started, I was confident (you can say overconfident too) to score H1B. That changes when I didn’t get picked up for lottery during the first two attempts. That’s when I started thinking about “other” ways to stay in North America and applied for Canada Permanent Resident Card.

Fortunately, my Canada PR was approved, which gave me some relief. That changed again, when, finally, my H1B application was picked up for lottery. I saw there was still a hope & went ahead with the premium processing. As the luck turned out, my application was approved on July 26th for 3 years which gave me a huge relief. The one thing that I wasn’t worried about, turned out to be a dreamsaver for me. And that’s why the learning of this quarantine – “NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED” fits so true for this.

Visit to the workplace
Ford was kind enough to let us go to our respective workplace to get our stuff before they redesign our workplace when we finally go back to work. It was a bag of mixed emotions to go to a place where you used to spend more than 10 hours of your day. I felt good to see my desk and the parking spot where I used to park my car. I felt bad that this might be the end of it, because, you never know, we might work from home indefinitely.

Anyway, I must commend Ford’s efforts to make sure all necessary precautions are taken. Temperature scans, gloves, and masks distributions and helping with building access is some of the ways Ford helped make this transition smoother than expected. I have high hopes that life will be normal, I am just not hopeful that it will be like that anytime soon.

Solving the Rubik’s Cube
Solving a Rubik’s Cube has been the highlight of this month. It all started by watching The Speed Cubers documentary on Netflix. I hardly watch TV, but whenever I do, I go for a documentary, so this definitely was one of the best ones I watched and was highly motivated to try it out, and so were the kids.

Unfortunately, the works and the fitness schedule didn’t allow me to spend that much time on actually solving the cube. That all changed when the kids came up to me and asked me for my help as they couldn’t figure out the next steps. I had to take matters in my hands, and that’s when I spent almost 2-3 hours on the below video to figure out a way to teach kids in simpler terms. I was the most focused during those 2-3 hours and told myself not to give up until I finish the cube and have the notes for kids.

Man, it was hard. I had to redo the cube every time I used to miss a step or a move. I remember starting from the “Daisy” at least 25 times. But, all that practice helped me figure out ways to teach kids how to solve the cube and I must say, they blew me away with their cube solving techniques. I haven’t seen anyone grasping a new concept with such clarity. It is all because they are ready to learn new things and I am an extremely proud godparent!
It has been a couple weeks now and they beat me every time we compete to solve the cube. Mr. Aryan’s best time so far is 1 minute 40 seconds. Mr. Arnav’s best time so far is 1 minute 23 seconds and yours truly is stuck at 2 minutes 4 seconds. Let’s see when I get a chance to crack the 2 minutes mark.

Till then, enjoy my first attempt ever at 3 minutes 23 seconds.

Visit to my most favorite place on Planet Earth – Upper Peninsula
Every visit to UP is special and this was truly a special one. UP is the best place for me and my favorite place in the whole wide world. It was just surreal, let’s leave it at that.

We enjoyed 6 hour drive to Pictured Rocks, followed by a 12 miles hike, and made it home after a 7 hour drive. Due to Covid19, we decided not to stay anywhere and were glad that we weren’t that much tired we thought we would be.

Now, let’s begin with the usual template that I have been using for these monthly quarantine updates.

COVID19 POSITIVE CASES IN MICHIGAN
The COVID19 Positive Cases were on the rise throughout the US and Michigan was no exception.

Though with the correct measures and restrictions, the number of positive cases is on the rise and I am not sure when it is going to come down if it does. On August 17th, we had 675 positive cases in Michigan which is less than 1000-1100 that we had seen during this month, but definitely bigger than 465 which was exactly a month ago. I am sure our Governor is doing everything that she can. Hopefully, Michiganders will listen and wear their masks.

Fingers crossed!

RUNNING
Talking about running, two things come to my mind.

The first thing is the number of miles that I ran during this time. I came 0.8 miles short of a perfect 100 mile distance. I could finish 99.2 miles during these 30 days and couldn’t be more proud. This just goes on to show that you can accomplish anything if you work on small goals (small runs) which contribute to the one big top-level goal (100 miles distance).

The second highlight was that I ran 3 Half Marathons in this month. It is a feat unimaginable just a few months ago, but, hey, I just did that, right? The more exciting thing was that I scored PR on my last run, finishing the 13.1 miles distance in 2 hours 8 minutes 15 seconds. The Tartan Track at NHS and the slightly cooler weather helped me achieve this milestone.

BIKING
Biking has taken a back seat a little bit, but I am okay with that.

I could manage to bike for like 60 miles and I am not that happy with that, but hey, its okay. I know I will bounce back stronger.

HIKING
As mentioned, hiking 12 miles at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was the highlight of the month for me, and loved every single step of that hike.

I would like to go there again to get some miles in before it gets too cold in Michigan to go out.

CORE EXERCISES
During this month, we started doing HIIT workouts at a home garage. I am pumped for that and love spending 30 minutes working out with friends, as we used to do it at our CrossFit Gyms.
If you are interested, this is the workout that we did yesterday.

THE CONCLUSION
WEAR A MASK!

& enjoy some pictures from this month.

Till then, take care & stay safe!

December 22, 2016 – Hartford, CT, USA

The moment I woke up this day, I still couldn’t believe that she was lying beside me. It was still kind of a dream for me and I was happy to live that dream.

I was worried that she would experience jetlag and might suffer from headaches, as she used to due to lack of sleep. Fortunately, arriving in the evening yesterday and having some delicious food was enough for her to go to bed and have a normal morning without any jetlag. If she was okay and happy, I was too and was glad to start the day that way.

As we had the coming days already planned, I told her that today would be a kind of relaxing day and we would just take some rest before hitting the road to explore different cities and have some fun! I took today to explore one of my favorite places in Hartford – Bushnell Park. Bushnell Park was and is still is a really special place for me. I met my cricket buddies here. I used to sit by the benches on the sidewalks of this park, especially after dinner, sipping on my late night tea. Plenty of memories made here and I would go to that place in a heartbeat.

Bushnell Park was the ideal place for her too as she was also fond of going to new places and had a keen eye for places surrounding natural beauty. One advantage of hanging out at Bushnell Park on a weekday was to check out the ice rink during the daylight and try ice skating as a couple for a change. If you have read my first time at the ice rink, you would know how much I loved it, and since then, the only thing I wanted to do was to ice skate with her and have a new experience.

The moment we reached the ice rink, which was a literally 5-minute walk from my apartment, I helped her put on her ice skates. Like every boyfriend does, I started clicking as many pictures as I could, all the while managing her belongings, keeping everything in one hand and shooting videos and pictures from the other.

It turned out, she was a natural in this. I didn’t even need to coach her a lot. I just instructed how to put on the ice skates and helped her take the first few steps and after that, it was all her. She, as always, stunned me with her smartness and how quickly she could figure things out. This was one of the best things about her – I didn’t have to be around all the time to make sure she was okay. I liked and still do independent girls who know how to take care of themselves and who don’t like to depend on others to survive.

Anyway, the new experience of ice skating at the ice rink lasted for more than an hour. Once she was tired and got bored of it, we headed back to our apartment, but on our way back, checked out the entirety of the Bushnell Park as I wanted to show her where I used to go on walks, where I used to sit while talking to her and different things that I liked about the park. If you wanna put it in one sentence – it would be I was boring her. She knew I liked doing that and I loved doing it, so she didn’t complain.

After reaching the apartment, the rest of the day was spent in packing and planning the next few days as I was traveling in the US for the first. I just wanted everything to go according to the plan and didn’t want anything to go wrong, especially when she was with me. The last thing I wanted was to piss her off if something went wrong, so I was very careful with all the planning and execution of our trip.

The next day, we were going to head to Boston, followed by New York City, and Washington D.C. before returning home. It was sure going to be the most exciting and awesome days for me as I would get to explore US with her and make some memories.

Before you go, check out the gallery from that day in Hartford. Take me back to that day!

Next stop – Boston, MA, USA.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started