25 Balloons! Wow! That must have been a sight to see. And yes… CT is very scenic. How long will your drive be?
More later.....
As we crossed the street, I saw an unbelievable sight..... a food stall selling Falafels. I was like.... "Maaan, this is strange"
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We walk up and see another stall selling halal (guy insisted that the food was halal when I asked him if the meat was zabiha.... :) ):
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We cross the street towards the hole:
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I saw an stall selling those infamouse card decks. I had an urge to buy one for a second but decided not to:
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Buildings around the hold seem pretty resotred:
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Some pics of the hole:
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Saw this building on one side that was completely covered by cloth. This was an amazing sight. I heard a few days ago that this building is going to be demolished.
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The hole:
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We decided to leave after a short time. I think we were at the site for about 40 minutes.
Saw this … one of the well-known type of sites in Manhatten… I didn’t go in to eat… we had just eaten an hour ago… 
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I saw this and 
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We we were coming through Penn Station (a major station that connects lines to New Jersey) we saw some free shows… they ask for whatever you want to give… if any. This is public nuisance in some areas but there are people in the city who perform for donations as begging is unlawful.
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We went to a place in New Jersey on the road called "Oak Tree", if I remember correctly. Obviously, the desi population has expanded manyfold since I left the east coast many moons ago. There are shopping strips like this in many areas around town. This is very interesting to me since we don't have anything to this degree in Dallas-Ft.Worth metroplex. There are a few places where you can find a few shops huddled together.
We went to many shops but found prices to be much higher then in Dallas, for some reason.
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The relatives all decided to throw a big BBQ for us. It had rained on the only day when most families could get together and we made the best use for it. There was drizzle in the air during all this time.
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This was a really good BBQ. Everyone of the relatives came. Just the family with kids comprised something around 50 people.
We went to another relative in New York. I took this while going by the flying saucer picturized in the movie "Men In Black". If you've seen the movie then you'll recognize what you see in this picture.
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We went to Jackson Heights (area known for desi concentration). I never thought I'd see a scene like these:
Sidewalk stalls...
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desi shops with extentions into the sidewalk...
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This guy was selling gunney ka juice. I never thought keh I would ever find anything like that after leaving Pakistan. This guy had a press just like I remember in seeing in Pakistan. A medium glass was $2.00 but it was worth it for the memory it brought back. I sipped that juice very slowly. I almost felt I was back in Karachi.... in Nazimabad where I last drank gunney ka juice.
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Every street that I saw was like this in Jackson Heights... what is known as the desi aDDa.
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A surprise for me:
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Left for home... to New Jersey. Driving into Manhatten from Queens. I forgot the name of this bridge.... Queensboro? Here's a shot of the one of the scenes of the Manhatten skyline.
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Passed by a complex of huge apartment buildings. We were all like.... "Woooow! Look at these.... !". See, where we live, there are no buildings higher then about 3 stories. So, all the buildings we saw in New York were like giants to us.
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Here we are going through one of the two loooooong tunnels into New Jersey.
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I was talking to a few relatives at different times and the talks sometimes came around to Ramzaan. We would all tell what our preferences were for sehri and iftar. This is what I actually found in naashta the next morning when I told of my only type of sehri. ParaTha and eggs sunny side up. Maaan!
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Well, we are leaving now.... this is what the truck kinda looks like. That damn TV ran all the way over and all the way back.
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Here's the back seat packed to go... there are sacks of clothes and stuff down there on the right side and the blanket on the top. Makes for a bigger area to spread out (as in lying around) in.
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This is the third seat further back...
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Ready for action:
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On the way back… we saw a bunch of old cars go by or stopped where we did. They were all headed in the same directions but we took some pics.
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All of a sudden we were passing some very interesting places. Too bad I didn’t have more time off.
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I really wanted to stop here but we were short on time.
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Nightfall came and we stopped for the night. I didn't declare all the family members to save on the money. I couldn't believe the room number that the guy gave me.
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Next morning, we all went to for breakfast. As we were pulling out, I saw this place.... and I just froze. I went into a trance and somehow my truck just pulled into this place. .hehe.
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This is one half of the shop. Maaan!... kia paTaakhey they.... kia bombs they..... kia kia cheezeN thiN... I didn't have enough money in the bank to buy all that I wanted to buy. Still bought $65.00 worth of explosives. :) We had fun for three days over July 4th. Every night we went out to see the official fireworks and then we went out to set off our own for an hour. Actually, we also went on the 5th. The place designated was dark without any police and fire trucks but there was no one to stop the many people still out there celebrating one more night of independence.
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After leaving the shop with icing on the trip (for me, at least), we went thought mountainous region for over 6 hours.
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And look here what we came up to: 
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I believe we were passing through Kansas City when this came up… I went like … “Huh?”
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Nothing much other then flat lands after this. We got home at 3:00am and slept in the car in front of our apartment. The neighbor had our key. We woke up around 6:45, went to the neighbor, got the key, got in to the apartment…a nd dropped dead.
interesting pics .... thanks for sharing ... :-)
what a trip!
itni tasweerein banaayi.
really nice photos. :k:
You wanna go next time?
lol..jannu bahi you and me pretty close i work in plano..to be exact 15th and alma...building name is southwestern bell maybe i know you lol..
waoooooooooooooooh 
these pics r soo zabur10 :biggthumb
Root105: :)… Hello, neighbor. With being this close… we are close, nahiN?.. who knows… we might have seen each other. I don’t go shopping as much but my wife does. Or maybe seen you around town.
Anyway, I am on 14th and Los Rios.
Next time I have to call SWB I’ll ask for you, Root105.
Next time we go, you can come along. K?
lol..well, you won't be able to get hold of me..cuz i am in back office support..