Driving from Corvallis to Portland yesterday, I took a break at Salem for a Starbucks coffee. Got back into the car and asked Google Maps for directions. Following is what I got. Do you see something strange in this? In reality, there is no Interstate Highway 1 that goes to Portland! Actually, there is no such thing as Interstate Highway 1 at all in USA!!! Very strange!!

… when you breeze thru the security line only to be stumped by an unending line for Starbucks coffee. Amazing how we have trained ourselves to part with five dollars for some average coffee only because they give the coffee some French sounding names !!

It is like the mountains got real curious and started peeking thru the clouds wondering “What is that shiny aluminum tube waaaaay up there? 🙂

Beautiful view from 39,000 feet!

Our company is in the business of geospatial data analytics. We collect our own data. Which means we have quite a few airplanes to collect data from the sky. While reviewing our business here in Alaska, the team members took me out to the hangar and gave a preview of our data collection nitty gritties. In the end, they offered to take me up in the air and show how the sophisticated cameras and sensors work.

I even got to be the co-pilot! Although, in reality all that meant was I got to take a lot of pictures from my vantage point with my own less-than-sophisticated camera in my iPhone 🙂

Got a great view of the mountains, glaciers and water (Turnagain Arm). Great experience!!

I was driving down I-88 near Naperville, IL when I thought I saw an interesting license plate in a car on the leftmost lane. Maneuvered for the next few minutes to get as close to the minivan as I could safely get and took a snapshot. I realized whey the plate caught my attention. That almost looked like my name. Actually, it was RAJ 18. Close enough!!!

This is not a picture I missed posting from Italy. This happened to us this morning. I was peacefully driving Natasha to her summer camp in Northwestern University. We were driving from the O’Hare area and was making a few stops in local small towns and villages – you know, picking up some last minute stuff for her five week dorm stay, chatting with a few locals – when, Bam! We came across this.

Of course, we had to take a detour. We turned around, parked nearby and checked out this 80 year old half size replica of the original Leaning Tower. In a small place called the “Village of Niles”.

That was an unique surprise!!

This is in Las Vegas airport. A store called Las Vegas Fruits and Nuts except there is no store. Just in case you did not realize that in this desert, they do not grow any fruits. On the other hand, looking at the number of folks getting stone drunk and blowing away money in the casino, I am not so sure about the nuts part 🙂