Driving Through The Winter Wonderland

My daughter has been bugging me since Thanksgiving for a vacation to Lake Tahoe during winter months. She wanted to go sledding. I don't blame her. It's been a while since we went to Tahoe in winter. So I finally booked a cabin in Tahoe for the President's day week. We were planning to leave on Sunday, the 20th and be back on Tuesday, the 22nd (to beat the traffic). The week before our travel the weather in California was gorgeous, almost spring like weather.

However as the travel date was approaching, the weather took a dramatic turn (no surprise there!!! Murphy's law always holds good!) There was a severe winter storm on Friday night leading to Saturday morning at Tahoe. According to local news there was a major gridlock on the roads leading to Tahoe because of the severe weather conditions. We were constantly checking weather for Tahoe to see if the storm cleared.

Luckily for us on Sunday it was clear blue skies where we live as well as in Tahoe, which made driving a breeze. We could reach our destination in 3 and 1/2 hours. Not bad!!! Also because of the recent snow storm, there was fresh snow everywhere. All the pine trees were covered in snow. All the rooftops were covered with a thick layer of snow, with icicles dangling on the edges. The drive was so scenic, it felt like driving through a winter wonderland. I took pictures along the drive with my iPhone. The pictures are not with the greatest resolution, I don't think they did justice to the scenery. However they say, pictures say a thousand words. I think it holds good in this scenario.

Enjoy the ride!!

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Long Live Democracy!!

What a great day for democracy. After 18 days of protests by Egyptians, President Hosni Mubarak has finally stepped down. It is truly a momentous day for Egyptians to finally have true freedom after 30 years of dictatorship.

Let me be clear, I usually do not follow Middle East (or North African) politics very closely and am not too clear about their conflicts. But when it came to Egypt, it was different. For once it was ordinary people looking for freedom in every sense of the way from decades of dictatorship. Also being from India, a democratic country and living in USA which also is democratic it is hard to imagine living in a country without freedom. From day one I started following it closely, mostly on BBC news and NewsHour on PBS. Both did a great job of covering it in-depth. Just yesterday, President Mubarak refused to step down until September 2011 as he has been saying for the past 18 days. Finally this morning I hear about the News of him stepping down.

What a difference a day makes!!!! What a difference the power of people can make.

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