Raspberry, Blueberry picking in New Jersey

We happened to be in New Jersey for the 4th July weekend. There we visited a local farm - Stults Farm - for pick-your-own Blueberry and Raspberry.

It was fun and we filled in two small baskets. The raspberries are very delicate and do not last long even when stored in a refrigerator. The blueberries were great too. Both taste fantastic if you get to eat them fresh.

Delta Airlines - Travelling with Infant & Kids

For those who may be travelling with infants on Delta Flights internationally, here is some information about the bassinet, including pictures.

Seats for the bassinet area are available only on first come first served basis. So be sure to reach early for check-in. Check for the age restriction, but a child beyond age 1 will most likely not be comfortable in the bassinet. Please post your experience regarding this below.

If your international flight out of USA contains a domestic leg, in that case the bassinet won't be available. Only when the international flight segment begins, the bassinet will be installed once the flight reaches the cruising altitude. Again, it will be removed before the flight begins to descend down for landing. It is a good idea to carry some small sheet which can help in 'padding' the bassinett, which is made up of netted and plastic type of material. Of course you can use the blanket provided on the flight.

For us, the availability of bassinet was a boon as our baby slept quite well in there.

For older kids like 3-8 years old, the on-screen personal entertainment can help a lot. There are a few cartoons films and also games they can play (for free when the international segment of the flight begins). Then there are full length movies too, many of which are for family or kids. So all this will hopefully keep the kids (and their parents) from getting bored for quite some time.

The only disadvantage for these bassinet access seats are that the food tray is stored into the armrest. So the middle armrests cannot be lifted or raised, they are fixed. Also the food trays are relatively less stable.

What have been your experience on Delta or other airlines? Please post your comments below.

Athrapalli Waterfall

We visited this waterfall on the last day of our Kerala vacation. The road to this area is lined with huge palm tree & vanilla plantations. The falls area is very beautiful and heavily wooded. There is a large parking area by the roadside.

The river and the falls is marked as 200 meters from the parking area. This place may give you a okay view of the falls. However to get a full view of the falls you need to trek down a small hill.

The walk to the falls, though a short one, is made difficult as the path is made of large sized stones or rocks which appear to be roughly setup. So instead of being able to enjoy the surrounding nature and huge bamboo growth (see picture), one has to watch every step to avoid stumbling and falling. So this short walk is very difficult for senior citizens or similar individuals. To add to this, there are a lot of monkeys around which can be a bit scary at times as they will attempt to grab at any food items and small belongings you may be carrying. There are toilets and a small beverage stall near the river. However, in general, I feel the concerned authorities should have done a better job in providing proper access to the falls area.

I took one of the photos near the bottom of the falls. The other one - a long shot - is taken from the approach road towards the parking area. The bamboo growths are found along the access path.

This is my last post on Kerala vacation. Subsequent posts would be assorted ones - about new and interesting things and findings & observations at the other places I visited.

Kovalam Beach

Kovalam beach is about 16KM from Trivendrum. The public beach we visited was nice, but also crowded. The beach slopes into the sea steeply. So we could not venture out further into the water.

There was a noticeable police presence and also lifeguards were on duty. We also happened to witness a person who got pulled into the sea and was helpless against the water current and waves. However the lifeguard and some other people rescued him out of the waters. There was also active monitoring done by security personnel who were warning those who used to venture further into the water.

The sunset was wonderful and you can see that in the above pictures.

In my next post I will put some pictures of the beautiful Athrapalli waterfalls and our experience there.

Munnar Photos...

We visited Munnar, a hill station, and stayed there for 2 nights. It's a very beautiful place and has a large tea plantation. We visited a tea museum and also went to the backwaters area near Echo Point.

The weather was excellent. The nights were cooler while day time temperatures were mild.

Munnar is a 'plastic bag' free zone. So the shops we visited did not provide any plastic bags for the purchases we made. Overall the town and surrounding area was noticeably free of any plastic garbage. As against this plastic bags, bottles were very much visible along most road stretches we traveled. This, I guess would be true in most parts of India.

In my next post I will put a couple of pictures of the sunset at Kovalam public beach.

A bit of a setback for the upcoming Blog Content

Yesterday I discovered that the file system on the flash memory card on my phone got corrupted. Which means that some of the photos taken on my phone are lost permanently.

Among those were some interesting photos like those of an elephant riding on the back of a flat bed truck. A truck overloaded with coconut tree leaves. A 'jeep' loaded entirely with bananas, etc. Also there were photos taken at Munnar hill station. I had also captured a couple of videos of street food vendors preparing Kerali Paratha and banana chips.

However all is not lost. Now, back at home for the time being, I have the means to pull out and post some photos taken on my regular Canon Powershot camera. I will do that in my next post.

Allepey Backwaters - More

This was my first time at the Allepey Backwaters. I did not know that people lived their daily life around the backwaters. Homes, schools, small access roads all appear to be part of the backwaters area.

There was a waterway tranportation system with stops at a number of locations for people to board and travel to nearby places. You can see the stop and waiting area in a couple of pictures above.

I also saw a small boat carrying school students back home. You can see this in one of the pictures. The school building is seen on the canal bank in the background. One of the school boy is sitting in the front of the boat and navigating it with an oar.

We had a great time there and I hope to visit it again.

In my next post