Los Angeles

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

San Gabriel Nursery in California

After our night in Artesia (Little India) and breakfast at a south Indian place called Annapurna, we drove out to San Gabriel for Sonal to visit Caroline’s favorite nursery here in L.A.

China Town - part of downtown Los Angeles, California

Sonal, Caroline, and I spent our brief weekend in Los Angeles on nothing but eating and shopping.

Hello Kitty keychains for sale in China Town - part of downtown Los Angeles, California

If you like bargain hunting, Chinatown and Little India are places made for dreams.

China Town - part of downtown Los Angeles, California

After spending a few hours here, we headed back over to Artesia so Sonal could do some shopping for essentials she’d drag back to Arizona for her small shop, Indo Euro Foods.

Little India in California

Ending the trip we had dinner at Rasraj.

Little India in California

Indo-Chinese food for the win!

Tucson, Arizona

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

The Barn Owl seen at the Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, Arizona

Today is my 41st Birthday, and to make a simple note of it, we took a day trip south towards Tucson, Arizona. There is no better time to visit the wild desert than now, in springtime, and so our first stop was the Saguaro National Park. Flowers and cactus were blooming white, hot pink, and yellow.

The Sonora Desert Museum was stop number two, where we were treated to the sight of this Barn Owl, a Harris Hawk, and some confined wildlife. The Tucson Botanical Garden was almost our last stop; a birthday cake awaited me at the Silva’s home, and then it was back into the car for the drive home.

Phoenix Mountain Hike

JWise Photo of the Day

Phoenix, Arizona

I probably had a nap to tend to or some other lame excuse, but for whatever reason, I did not opt to hike up Lookout Mountain with our gang.

Jay Patel, Caroline Wise, Rinku and Krupesh Shah in Phoenix, Arizona

Our gang is known as The Crazy Guju’s and Bad Ddhoriyo’s; you’ll find our tag “cGbD” all over north Phoenix. Lookout Mountain is our turf and so we have to send a patrol up here to make sure no Tamil’s or Telugu’s try to muscle in.

Jay Patel in Phoenix, Arizona

Jay will be standing guard here overnight.

Superstition Mountains in Mesa, Arizona

After the gang was done up at Lookout Mountain, I joined them for a trip out to the Superstition Mountains in Mesa for a look around.

Renaissance Festival

JWise Photo of the Day

One of the many players making the experience of the Renaissance Festival all the more real inviting passers by to try the chocolates here in Arizona

Year in and year out, we keep going to the Renaissance Festival east of Mesa in Arizona. Some faces even become familiar; vendors surely do as we have our favorites we never miss, such as the Bungled Jungle. A favorite of Caroline’s for wooden hair accessories is Morgan’s Mane, and both of us love the Broom Company for handmade unique brooms that, sadly for them, last forever.

For entertainment, you’ll find us either watching the Wylde Men, The Tortuga Twins, or the Ded Bob Show. So it’s the same old stuff year after year, but it’s still a great time for us.